Seminole County communications staff on Jan. 13 demonstrated a redesigned county website intended to improve mobile access, accessibility and the county’s ability to publish emergency information.

Chris Patton, communications director, said the county awarded a contract to SGS Technologies and completed a migration to a Sitefinity content management system that the county now licenses and controls. Patton said the new site is mobile‑first—important because two‑thirds of county website traffic comes from mobile devices—and includes an accessibility toolbar, bilingual tools, standardized page templates and API integrations for calendars, YouTube and other third‑party systems.

Patton highlighted a feature the county calls "site sync," which can push updates to users’ browsers automatically every two seconds to avoid reliance on manual page refreshes during fast‑moving emergencies such as evacuations or boil‑water advisories. He also described new search indexing, a streamlined form widget, improved templates for department pages and a smaller centralized maintenance team (two dedicated staff) to improve security and content consistency.

Commissioners thanked the team and suggested additional features. One commissioner recommended a citizen reporting portal—preferably routed automatically to departments for potholes, broken sidewalks and similar items—and staff noted an existing COVID‑period reporting app remains active but underused. Patton said next steps include adding a media/partner toolkit for Scout, developing a new boil‑water advisory workflow with utilities and pursuing further API integrations with the citizen engagement center and alert systems.

The presentation concluded with praise from commissioners who said the redesign ends decades of difficult maintenance and improves the county’s ability to publish timely information to residents. No board action was required at the meeting.