The Zephyrhills City Council has approved a considerable upgrade to the city’s website.
Council members unanimously approved a $22,848 contract with CivicPlus — a
government website design company— to revamp the city’s website. Ongoing maintenance costs for the new website will be $10,000 per year.
The contract also includes a 3 percent maximum increase to the annual maintenance cost over 10 years.
(Courtesy of CivicPlus)
“In today’s society, it’s just more and more demanding with technology at the forefront,” said Kenneth Compton, the council’s president.
“A website is a gateway for the city,” he said, during the council’s Sept. 26 meeting. “If someone wants to see what’s going on…they’re going to look at the website first.”
CivicPlus works with over 2,000 local governments nationwide, including Pasco County and the City of Safety Harbor in Pinellas County.
The refurbished website is expected to be easier to use and more technologically current.
Key features will include greater storage capacity, faster upload times and enhanced security.
“It’ll be much more reliable,” said Mike Panak, IT director for the City of Zephyrhills.
The CivicPlus-hosted site, Panak added, should also be easier for city employees to use.
“Each department will be able to update their portion of the website. If they have an issue, they can call CivicPlus,” explained Panak. “They will help us with the content, whereas right now we’re on our own to do it.”
Panak acknowledged in his 10-plus years working for Zephyrhills, the city’s website hasn’t received much attention.
“What I’m (currently) using is an off-the-shelf program that’s basically free,” Panak said. The CivicPlus website will allow the city to integrate with social media and expand the city’s capabilities of interacting with citizens.
City staff including Panak, Gail Hamilton and Sandra Amerson reviewed several website designs and interviewed other cities, before determining that CivicPlus had the best designers and training program for Zephyrhills.
Published October 12, 2016
