Exhibit 1 - Agenda Information Sheet
City of Denton
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AGENDA INFORMATION SHEET
DEPARTMENT: Procurement & Compliance
ACM: David Gaines
DATE: April 13, 2021
SUBJECT
Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, a Texas home-rule municipal corporation,
authorizing the City Manager, or their designee, to execute a contract with CivicPlus, LLC, for website
design, hosting, and maintenance for the www.cityofdenton.com website for the Public Affairs and
Customer Service Department; providing for the expenditure of funds therefor; and providing an effective
date (RFP 7456 – awarded to CivicPlus, LLC, for three (3) years, with the option for two (2) additional one
(1) year extensions, in the total five (5) year not-to-exceed amount of $150,000.00).
INFORMATION/BACKGROUND
The current City of Denton website is nearing the end of its lifecycle. Because the foundation of the site,
its content management system (CMS), is approaching obsolescence in September of 2022. To keep the
website stable and secure, the CMS must be rebuilt or replaced before the manufacturer stops supporting
the version of the system we are using. Due to the age of the current CMS system, an upgrade to a supported
version is not a possible option. Staff has determined a rebuilding of the CMS, and thus the website would
be at a significant cost to the City and is recommending the purchase of a new website with a new, more
evergreen CMS.
From January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019, the City of Denton’s website, www.cityofdenton.com,
was visited 3,530,133 times. This indicates that the City’s website is a major source of information for
residents and it is our main digital communication tool; all other avenues, including print pieces and social
media posts, ultimately lead back to the website as a source of information. Residents visit the website to
pay their utility bills, find information, and reach City staff.
Because Denton is a full-service city, there are many departments with information that should be shared
with the public for transparency and excellent customer service. This causes our website to have a large
number of pages, which presents the challenge of providing intuitive navigation and a search function to
help residents find the information they need as easily as possible. Another challenge is providing a website
that is accessible to everyone in the community, including residents who visit the website on mobile devices,
desktop computers, speak languages other than English, and those who have disabilities that require text
readers or other accessibility tools.
Our current website suffers from a series of deficiencies:
• Security vulnerabilities.
City Hall
215 E. McKinney Street
Denton, Texas
www.cityofdenton.com
• Lack of ADA compliance.
• The search function is not reliable, making website navigation difficult for residents.
• Lack of standard features available on most other municipal websites.
• Design limitations that impair the user experience.
• The content management system our website is built on is approaching obsolescence in Sept. 2022.
Staff developed an RFP for a new website seeking a vendor that could provide better navigation and search
tools, improve ADA compliance, offer more dynamic content design options, increase the availability of
usage analytics, and provide better security. We also had a preference for a vendor with experience working
with municipal governments due to the unique challenges presented by government websites that have
hundreds of pages and require robust solutions to help residents find what they need. After interviewing the
top four website vendors who submitted bids for the website RFP, staff recommends entering into a contract
with CivicPlus.
CivicPlus specializes in websites for municipalities with more than 20 years of experience in the industry.
They have provided technology solutions to over 4,000 local government clients. Compared to other
vendors, CivicPlus offered the best solutions to meet our needs and to correct usability problems that exist
with our current website. Compared to our current website, CivicPlus is offering a website with improved
search function capability that will greatly assist residents in finding the content they need, improved ADA
compliance options, a more sophisticated content management system (CMS) that will improve efficiencies
and workflow for staff making changes to the website, and more dynamic content organization tools that
will improve the user experience for residents visiting the website.
Additionally, staff spoke to other municipal clients of CivicPlus, who reported satisfaction with the vendor’s
ongoing maintenance and responsiveness.
CivicPlus was not the lowest bidder for the RFP, but their bid was competitive and significantly lower than
the bid submitted by our current website vendor and some other competitors. Staff determined that the
quality of the solutions presented by CivicPlus will provide the best value for the money spent on the
website.
Project Description Estimated 5-Year Expenditure
Website Design & Training $ 75,950
Years 2 to 5 support and maintenance $ 47,972
20% contingency $ 26,078
Total: $150,000
Requests for Proposals was sent to 103 prospective suppliers of this item. In addition, specifications were
placed on the Materials Management website for prospective suppliers to download and advertised in the
local newspaper. Thirteen (13) proposals were received and evaluated based upon published criteria
including project schedule, compliance with specifications, probable performance, and price. Based upon
this evaluation, CivicPlus, LLC was ranked the highest and determined to be the best value for the City.
NIGP Code Used for Solicitation: 915-(Service Only)-Communications
and Media Related Services
Notifications sent for Solicitation sent in IonWave: 103
Number of Suppliers that viewed Solicitation in IonWave: 64
HUB-Historically Underutilized Business Invitations sent out: 6
SBE-Small Business Enterprise Invitations sent out: 34
Responses from Solicitation: 13
PRIOR ACTION/REVIEW (COUNCIL, BOARDS, COMMISSIONS)
On Sept. 1, 2020, the Committee on Community Engagement received a report on staff’s analysis and
documented shortcomings of the current website, including staff’s next steps for procurement of a new
website.
On February 2, 2021, the Committee on Community Engagement received an update on the website
procurement.
RECOMMENDATION
Award a contract with CivicPlus, LLC, for website design, hosting, and maintenance for the
www.cityofdenton.com website for the Public Affairs and Customer Service Department, in the not-to-
exceed amount of $150,000.
PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS
CivicPlus, LLC
Manhattan, KS
ESTIMATED SCHEDULE OF PROJECT
This is an initial three (3) year contract with options to extend the contract for two (2) additional one (1)
year periods, with all terms and conditions remaining the same.
FISCAL INFORMATION
These services will be funded from General Government Project Funds.
EXHIBITS
Exhibit 1: Agenda Information Sheet
Exhibit 2: Pricing Evaluation
Exhibit 3: LLC Members
Exhibit 4: Ordinance and Contract
Respectfully submitted:
Lori Hewell, 940-349-7100
Purchasing Manager
For information concerning this acquisition, contact: Sarah Fullwood, 940-349-8110.
Legal point of contact: Marcella Lunn at 940-349-8333.