East Bethel staff outline website redesign, CivicPlus modules and follow-up pricing request

Carrie, a city staff member, told the East Bethel City Council that the city is eligible for a free CivicPlus website redesign and presented optional paid modules that could add permitting, records and communications tools to the city’s site.

The modules would let residents view property permits online, automate internal workflows, archive social media posts for retention, send mass notifications and check website accessibility for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. Carrie said the city must also move to a .gov domain for municipal websites and is aiming to time the change so e-mail addresses switch on Jan. 1, 2026.

Staff said they ranked the community development (permitting) module and a process-automation/digital-services module highest for East Bethel’s current needs. "Per our contract, every 3 years we get a free redesign," Carrie said. She also said the community development module could replace the city’s current PermitWorks product and let a resident "punch in their neighbor's address, and they would be able to find it out themselves" about current permits. Carrie estimated the agenda-management module alone would save her about 105 hours of staff time per year assembling packets.

Council members asked for examples and cost context. Carrie gave example price ranges discussed during vendor meetings (she cited illustrative numbers: a SeeClickFix-like complaint tool could be about $500 and a permitting product "might be $10,000") and said many modules have an initial implementation cost plus a subscription fee. She also said other communities such as Blaine use CivicPlus permitting tools.

Council members asked whether the agenda/meeting-management module could produce verbatim minutes; a councilmember asked, "Will that do verbatim minutes if we need them?" Carrie replied that in-house minutes would depend on how the city enters them and that using the module for minutes would require staff time and setup.

Carrie said CivicPlus’s accessibility tool checks website content for ADA compliance and that a federal baseline for accessibility will be required by June 25, 2026. She also described a "next request" data‑request tracking module that can publish fulfilled public requests online and automatically redact phone numbers, e‑mail addresses and Social Security numbers to reduce staff redaction time.

Council direction: staff were asked to compile pricing and comparisons for CivicPlus modules, to return at a future work session with implementation estimates and with current costs for PermitWorks so the council can weigh time savings against expense.

Why it matters: the modules touch record access, public transparency, legal retention obligations for social media and upcoming compliance deadlines for both a .gov domain and web accessibility rules, all of which affect residents, real estate professionals and city staff.