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Council weighs text-alert platforms, asks staff for more vendor details
Summary
Staff compared TextMyGov, CivicPlus and other resident-notification services, citing a 73-response survey favoring texting, differences in features, pricing and contract lengths; council asked staff to collect additional vendor details before deciding.
Council members reviewed competing resident-notification platforms, with staff summarizing a survey of 73 respondents and a feature comparison between TextMyGov, CivicPlus and other providers.
Speaker 2 said the survey showed many residents prefer texting over an app. She described TextMyGov’s features (two‑way resident issue reporting, automated replies, translation support and a USPS-derived phone-number database option for initial outreach) and gave pricing: an initial setup fee of $1,000 and an annual recurring fee of about $4,000. Speaker 2 said CivicPlus offers similar functionality but does not charge a setup fee and also lists roughly $4,000 in recurring costs. Contract-length concerns were discussed: Speaker 1 noted CivicPlus could lock the city into a three‑year agreement while some other providers would allow a one‑year option.
Speaker 2 emphasized translation and two‑way messaging as important features for the city’s Spanish-speaking population: "I think it's really important that we get that... translation just because how we know we have a large, you know, Spanish speaking population." She also described IPAWS registration as a way to send emergency-area alerts to all residents, even those not opted in.
Council members asked staff to gather more information about vendor contracts, training schedules and whether vendors would be present at upcoming outreach events to inform the decision. Speaker 1 summarized the near-term plan: "What I'm hearing, we're talking about tabling this, getting some questions answered, maybe we'll find out what vendors might be at the big cities, and we can bring this back." The transcript does not record a final procurement decision.
Next steps in the transcript: staff will seek clarifications on contract length, vendor training timelines, database composition, and participation at local events before the council takes a final vote.
