Orem unveils redesigned boards & commissions portal and plans unified citizen portal (MyOrem)

City technology staff demonstrated a redesigned boards and commissions website and previewed a broader citizen portal effort the city is calling “MyOrem.” The update separates the citizen‑facing application from the internal admin portal, streamlines applications and implements a single sign‑on and wallet system for payments.

Presenters said the boards and commissions citizen site will allow applicants to see descriptions of each board, upload a resume PDF and use a unified login so personal information does not need to be reentered. The internal admin view will give staff a consolidated list of members, applicants, term lengths, assignments and reports — data the city previously tracked in multiple spreadsheets.

Technology staff said the rewrite was completed quickly (they said the board site would go live the day after the work session) and that the team has implemented an Azure‑based authentication for citizens. Staff said they plan to launch “MyOrem” later this year with business licensing and utility billing as the first integrated applications, then add recreation, payments and additional services over time. The portal will use a third‑party payments processor (PayJunction) to store payment tokens and avoid holding card data directly.

Council members asked about accessibility (Spanish language support), required fields for applications (phone number and resume), and the ability to mark a board vacancy as “next open” on the citizen page; staff said those features can be adjusted quickly and that admin users will be able to make content changes without developer involvement.

Staff framed the digital changes as improvements in transparency and service delivery that will also help staff track appointment terms and board composition more reliably.