Renton launches redesigned city website using Granicus platform; six‑month review planned

Renton City staff told the Committee of the Whole on April 28 that the city launched a redesigned website in late January and has been working since to migrate content, train staff and refine navigation.

Laura Pettit, communications and engagement director, said the site is intended to be “our digital lobby, really. It's our city hall online.” She told the committee the city contracted with Granicus for the website platform and related meeting software and launched a new public site about 90 days earlier.

The redesign emphasizes user‑focused navigation and accessibility, Pettit said, with a goal of letting users reach frequently requested information in “no more than 3 clicks.” Staff reported reducing the number of pages on the site from about 900 to roughly 400; Pettit described a content rationalization process and said Granicus migrated about 200 pages to start while staff continued reviewing remaining material.

Pettit said the city developed plain‑language guidance, trained 42 designated webmasters across departments (about 10 hours of training per webmaster), and added backend accessibility checks, language translation, and analytics to track page views and visitor behavior. The new site integrates with other systems, Pettit said, including the city’s engagement platform (Your Voice), GovDelivery email distribution, and a public‑records tool (GovQA). She also described a photo‑refresh project using Canto, with images updated on a two‑to‑three‑year cycle.

Jason Seth, a city staff member who presented the agenda software portion of the update, said Renton contracted with Granicus for a new agenda and minutes platform called OneMeeting (presented as “1Meeting” in the session). He told the committee the OneMeeting landing pages will visually match the new city site and ease versioning problems by integrating with Office 365; staff expect the agenda software rollout before the end of the year.

Council members and other attendees raised operational questions. Council member McCurbing asked whether Renton had evaluated vendor longevity and whether Granicus could be expected to remain a stable provider; Pettit said the city reviewed company history, clients and length of service and was “very confident” Granicus is a long‑term solution. Council member Prince asked whether the analytics include bot traffic or VPN distortions; staff said the international traffic numbers were small and they would review Google Analytics data for bot filtering.

Several council members gave user‑experience feedback. A council member identified as Valerie described difficulty finding telephone contact information for animal control and said some residents are forced to go to Facebook to locate a phone number. Pettit said contact formats and templates are part of the department responsibilities and that communications reviews new pages at launch; she encouraged residents with issues to contact communications directly at communications@rentonwa.gov.

Another council member who uses Parks and Recreation registration detailed a cumbersome registration flow in the recreation system (external software), noting users cannot search by class number and must open many pages to register for recurring classes. Pettit said Parks and Recreation has that improvement in its project queue and acknowledged registration is handled in a separate system from the website platform.

Pettit said staff will perform a planned six‑month assessment in July that will include surveys of city staff and end users to gather feedback on functionality. She described ongoing monthly webmaster meetings, continuous content reviews and a commitment to refine navigation, redirects and integrations to reduce “page not found” errors and improve search reliability.

The committee did not take any formal votes on the website report. The presentation concluded with staff offering continued support and follow‑up work to address the issues raised by council members.

Ending: Staff reiterated that the website is a “living, breathing” project and that refinements, analytics reporting and training will continue; a formal assessment is scheduled for July.