Farmington council approves Civic Plus website contract for $61,690.98

The Town of Farmington council voted July 28 to accept the ad hoc technology committee's recommendation and authorize the town manager to sign an agreement with Civic Plus for website design and enhanced technology services at an initial cost of $61,690.98. Council member S12 moved the contract authorization and the motion passed following discussion of features, costs and implementation timelines.

The committee told the council the town budgeted $75,000 in the capital improvement program for website modernization and that the vendor negotiated an $18,000‑plus first‑year discount. Committee members said the platform bundles a modern content management system, a resident portal, SeeClickFix‑style 311 requests, an AI chatbot and built‑in accessibility tools; annual operating costs were estimated to rise from roughly $12,000 to about $48,902.68 beginning in year two. S12 moved to authorize the agreement "to accept the ad hoc technology committee's recommendation and authorize town manager to sign an agreement with Civic Plus for website design and enhanced technology services in the amount of $61,690.98 for the initial term," and the council approved the motion.

Council and vendor speakers also discussed implementation and data ownership. Civic Plus representatives said content migration and consulting are included in the project and estimated implementation would take about 16–28 weeks, with roughly 10 hours of staff time required for the buildout. The vendor stated the town retains ownership of its content and can export data if it later changes providers.