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City to relaunch website: CivicPlus redesign aims for .gov domain, improved accessibility and smart‑city features
Summary
Vendor CivicsPlus presented the new West Covina website design, accessibility tools and rollout timeline; council heard how the site will support notifications, payments, forms and future AI/chatbot features.
CivicPlus representatives presented a near‑final design and implementation timeline for West Covina’s redesigned municipal website, which the vendor and city staff said will move the city’s primary address from .org to .gov and add accessibility, subscription and smart‑city features.
Joel Griffiths, CivicPlus implementation consultant, walked the City Council and staff through the scope: migration of up to 500 pages and 100 meetings’ worth of agendas/minutes, integration of AudioEye accessibility tools, and modules for news, alerts and subscription (“notify me”) services. Griffiths said the site will support online payments and customizable form workflows, and the vendor already offers an internal chatbot and the option to add an external AI chatbot in future phases. CivicPlus noted that maintaining ADA compliance will be a shared responsibility between the vendor and city content editors.
The vendor showed a homepage mockup with quick‑link tiles, an alert bar for emergency notices and a mobile‑responsive layout. Staff and the vendor confirmed the plan to redirect westcovina.org visitors to the new westcovina.gov domain at launch. Key rollout dates presented: an internal website reveal on Aug. 26, staff training in late August/early September, and a target public launch in early October. The vendor offered to record training sessions if the city wishes and to present follow‑up demonstrations at the state‑of‑the‑city event.
Councilmembers asked about accessibility, emergency notification capability, integration with department sites (police), GIS layers, and automating workflows (email autoresponders) for business and event applicants. Griffiths and city staff confirmed those functions are available, that PD content may be redirected but still integrated, and that workflows and FAQs can be built during the implementation and training period. No council action was required at the meeting; staff will continue with the scheduled migration and training milestones.
