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Killeen to consolidate digital services with CivicPlus renewal, add city-owned mass-notification capability
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Summary
Council staff recommended renewing a three-year master service agreement with Civic Plus to consolidate website hosting, social-archiving, accessibility tools and to add Connexus mass-notification capabilities so the city can directly reach residents and reduce reliance on regional Code Red services.
City staff asked the Killeen City Council to approve a renewal of a master services agreement with Civic Plus, which would consolidate the city’s website hosting, social-media archiving, accessibility tools and a mass-notification platform into a single contract.
Tory Bethany, identified by staff as executive director overseeing the platform, told the council the Civic Plus platform hosts the city website and provides integrated tools such as accessibility scanning (AudioEye), social-media archiving to meet FOIA requirements, and mass-notification functionality. “Without this contract, we wouldn’t have a website,” Bethany said, describing the platform as central to public communications.
Sarah Williams, the city’s emergency operations director, said the city currently used a notification service provided through the regional Council of Governments (Code Red) but experienced service incidents and limited control. She said integrating Connexus through Civic Plus would allow the city to own a primary notification capability while remaining able to use the COG’s system as a backup. Williams also noted advantages including integration with NOAA/IPAWS and geo-targeting features to reach residents without requiring registration.
Staff presented a not-to-exceed figure for the three-year renewal (roughly $424,404.82 as presented) and said the contract also brings social-media archiving under the master agreement. Staff said those costs were anticipated in the FY26 budget.
Council members and members of the public asked whether the Civic Plus solution duplicates services provided by the COG and whether keeping the COG system as a backup would add cost; staff said the COG service would remain available to the city at no direct cost through existing homeland-security funding, while Civic Plus would give the city ownership and greater control of emergency communications and required social-archiving features.
The Civic Plus renewal was included in the consent agenda approved by council.
