City staff told the commission on Dec. 1 that the city's website vendor, Revise, is offering a free redesign under the existing contract and proposed several usability improvements, including a new calendar module and an AI-powered search bar. "The AI feature would be $3,400," Marketing Lead Michelle Dewey said, and the one-time migration and updates were estimated at about $5,000.

Dewey described the AI feature as a retrainable system with backend analytics that the city can manually adjust. "We'll be able to see what people are searching for and what the answers are. So if we don't like the answer that the AI system is giving, then we can change it," she said.

Her recommendation was to pursue a five-year contract with a one-year opt-out for the AI portion so the city could test functionality without a long-term commitment. Commissioners raised calendar visibility and community-event policy questions; Dewey confirmed meeting dates can be prepopulated on the calendar and staff will scope community-event guidelines.

Mayor Pro Tem and the commission voiced support for a one-year trial of the AI search and directed staff to return contract language for approval. If approved, the initial annual increase for the AI feature would be about $3,400, bringing the city's total annual website spend (including current services) to roughly $8,900 under the proposed contract terms.