Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Digital Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee hears CivicPlus app demo; town shown a customized mobile front door with about $6,000 annual maintenance
Summary
CivicPlus demoed a native mobile app for Los Altos Hills that would mirror the town website, offer customizable banners and in‑app access to agendas and documents; CivicPlus estimated about $6,000 yearly maintenance and a roughly 6–8 week launch timeline after developer accounts are established.
The Los Altos Hills Technology Committee heard a demonstration of a CivicPlus mobile application aimed at giving residents a native app front end to the town website and services.
Joe Lyon, a solutions engineer with CivicPlus, walked the committee through a working model of a Los Altos Hills app, showing a customizable splash screen and home tiles that link to events, agendas, document access and public‑records tools. “This is gonna be a native browsing experience within the app,” Lyon said as he showed how agendas and the accessibility‑friendly document viewer would open inside the app.
Committee members probed navigation and user experience. One member asked why the bottom menu disappears when navigating deep into content and recommended a persistent home/menu control; Lyon said he would pass the feedback to product engineering. CivicPlus and staff discussed options for banner graphics, push notifications and in‑app links that can open either in the app’s internal browser or the phone’s native browser.
On costs and account ownership, CivicPlus account manager Cameron told the group the vendor’s annual maintenance for the app is roughly $6,000 and that the town must own the Apple and Google developer accounts (Apple’s developer program fee is about $99). “You guys will need to obtain the developer accounts … and then invite CivicPlus into that account; we’ll maintain and update the app from there,” Cameron said.
Committee members asked whether CivicPlus would handle the app‑store submission process; CivicPlus representatives said they provide templated materials and will handle submissions and maintenance once the town creates and invites them into the developer accounts. When asked about a go‑live timetable, Joe Lyon estimated about 6–8 weeks to get an app into residents’ hands after requirements, accounts and assets are prepared.
The committee did not take a formal vote but agreed to gather requirements and return with a focused set of questions for CivicPlus and staff. The vendor offered to return for a follow‑up session after the town compiles requirements and a small working group is formed.
