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Council previews redesigned city website, staff says launch planned for July 22
Summary
City staff previewed a redesigned, mobile-first City of Beaumont website that emphasizes quick access to top services, a new mega menu, image tiles and an optional chatbot; staff said the vendor expects a July 22 deployment if schedule allows.
City staff presented a preview of a redesigned City of Beaumont website at the May 6 meeting, demonstrating a mobile-first homepage, a retooled navigation structure and new content tiles intended to put frequently used services—trash, public safety and permits—closer to residents.
Julie Van Hovey led the demonstration and said the redesign grew from multi-department staff work with the CivicPlus vendor and a website committee that reviewed analytics for the city’s top pages. "We focused on creating an intuitive mobile first experience that works well across departments and reflects how residents actually use the site," she said.
Staff described several user-facing changes: a five-category mega menu organized as Community, Government, Programs & Services, Events & Attractions and Departments; image tiles that spotlight high-use topics (parks, police, permits, projects); a redesigned news carousel (branded "News Flash") that will show more items and allow flexible display; and a planning effort to declutter outdated content, fix broken links and restructure pages based on real-time page view data. Management analyst Leslie Palayo reviewed new graphic icons and picture tiles aimed at quick access to frequent tasks such as bill payment and bus schedules.
Council members asked technical questions about specific site features. Staff said a calculator and CFD (Mello-Roos) search will be included in an obvious place on the site and in the planned chatbot’s answers. The chatbot is being explored as an optional tool to surface frequently asked items and provide a fast path to services; staff said it would be populated with common queries such as "What is my CFD/Mello-Roos tax?" The vendor demonstrated a sample carousel, and staff said a current display artifact (cropped images in the preview) will be corrected before launch.
Staff said the target deployment date is July 22 but that CivicPlus had indicated they could deploy earlier if scheduling permits. Council members offered editorial suggestions—rename internal links whose titles are not intuitive to the public (an example cited was the "Stacks property finder"), consider integrating public safety quick links into chat features, and ensure council contact pages and transparency resources are prominent.
Staff asked council for feedback and said the new design will continue to evolve after launch as content is refined. The redesign will not affect the separate city mobile app; the app and website are maintained by different vendors.
