Ouray County staff weigh Granicus vs. CivicPlus; commissioners press for redundancy and clearer workflow

At a Jan. 29 Ouray County Board of County Commissioners (work session), staff demonstrated Granicus — an agenda and meeting management portal being piloted for packet publishing, minutes and website embedding — and discussed a parallel CivicPlus demo scheduled for county staff.

The demonstration, led by county administration staff, showed how Granicus displays published packets, draft agendas and attachments. Staff said full integration would follow a four-step plan: packet publishing, minutes/media, website embedding and training of department staff who will submit agenda items through Granicus’s workflow.

Commissioners raised two recurring concerns: public access to all backup materials and long-term data redundancy. Commissioner Lynn argued for keeping the county Google Drive updated as a mirror copy and said redundancy would protect the county if a vendor outage occurs. County administration confirmed that, while both systems are currently in use, Granicus data is the county’s data and can be exported if the county terminates service. Staff also said the county can request prorated refunds for vendor termination if needed.

Staff and several commissioners said they remain open to alternatives. San Miguel County’s recent switch from Granicus to CivicPlus prompted the county to schedule a CivicPlus demonstration; administration said it would complete the Granicus implementation steps described above before recommending add-on features such as public comment intake through Granicus. The county is also evaluating whether CivicPlus better integrates agenda management, website and accessibility tools already in use by the county (the county is working with an accessibility subcontractor, Monsido).

Staff said they have requested weekly project-planning meetings with the Granicus representative to produce an implementation timeline and that department heads will be trained before the portal is opened for broader use. Commissioners asked staff to return with a recommendation comparing options (Granicus vs. CivicPlus vs. Google-Drive-centered workflow) and a project timeline; staff agreed to do so and to schedule a focused work session.

Administration announced a new public-comments inbox (comments@ourayco.gov) that will be used to collect emailed comments and to route them to the clerk’s office; staff said the address will be added to agendas and public notices. Staff also emphasized that some existing file access problems are caused by permissioned Google Drive folders and that published PDFs on the public website are unaffected by internal folder restrictions.

What’s next: staff will complete demos (CivicPlus), compare options, and present a recommendation and project timeline at a subsequent work session. In the meantime staff will maintain dual systems (Granicus and the Google Drive mirror) to preserve redundancy and public access.