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Maumee staff outline $29,000 website redesign, stress improved accessibility and agenda search
Summary
City staff presented options to replace the current Maumee website, citing poor back-end content management, limited searchability of meeting materials and potential first-year costs around $29,000 with ongoing annual fees.
Maumee public information staff presented draft vendor proposals and a timeline for replacing the city website, saying the current site is hard for staff to manage and for residents to search meeting materials.
Nancy, a city public information staff member, told the Maumee City Council public information committee that the current site was implemented in 2023 by an outside contractor and that "the navigation is not as user friendly as I think it could be, and that content management on the back end is a struggle." She said staff had evaluated vendors and prefers CivicPlus for municipal experience but also reviewed Granicus.
The presentation summarized costs and timelines. A CivicPlus-based option showed a first‑year estimate of about $29,008.06 that would include content transfer, build, software and an agenda/packet tool; year two maintenance was estimated at roughly $16,000. Nancy said implementation would take about four to six months and include training a six‑person city team to manage routine updates. Granicus returned higher variability: an initial estimate between $16,000 and $25,000 with annual fees of $11,000–$12,000 and an estimated nine‑month implementation, depending on added features.
Committee members stressed clarifying current vendor costs before deciding. Staff reported the city currently pays a monthly retainer of $5,012 for the present contractor (Travis Lattimore/ Social Green Thumb) plus about $2,300 annually for the domain; committee members asked staff to request an itemized list of the contractor's work to compare one‑off charges versus retainer services.
Staff identified several user‑experience priorities: reorganize and simplify information, make agendas/packets and videos easily accessible and searchable (staff said CivicPlus provides OCRed, searchable PDFs and an integrated agenda tool), ensure ADA compliance, provide web forms rather than PDFs where feasible, and integrate with OpenGov and the city's sewer inspection program. Nancy also noted live‑streaming from the chamber would add cost and might require an internet upgrade in the meeting room.
Committee next steps: staff will arrange product demos (including back‑end previews), request a detailed cost breakdown from CivicPlus and Granicus, ask the current vendor for an itemized log of services, and return with quotes and a recommended timeline. Committee members asked that staff also evaluate whether some parks and recreation information or a parks map could be better surfaced in any new site.
Costs and timelines cited by staff remain estimates; the committee did not vote on contracting or funding at the meeting.
