YORK – A month ago, the mayor and council had a discussion about the condition of the city’s website, noting it hadn’t been updated and sections hadn’t been finished after a very long time. Some suggested reaching out to website design companies regarding a new site with better service.
Ideas were thrown about regarding companies in Lincoln, Omaha and out of state.
The council and city administration were reminded that there is a company in York that custom builds websites which is located only two blocks from city hall – the York News-Times. With 47 companies having websites created by and constantly maintained by a specific department at the newspaper, Mayor Orval Stahr said he would contact the YNT site developers about bringing forward a new website.
He also noted to the council that the cost of the new site would be under the legal threshold of bidding, so bids would not have to be taken.
The next day, Mayor Stahr met with Eric Eckert and Melanie Leitz from the digital division at the newspaper. He asked for a formal proposal and website prototype to be brought to the council.
Over the course of the next month, a prototype for a new city website was developed by YNT staff and the matter was put on the agenda for last week’s council meeting.
Prior to the meeting, Terri Carlson, the director of the Holthus Convention Center, asked an outside company, located in Lincoln, to make a written proposal for also building a new website. Although the agenda item stated that only Eckert and Leitz from the York company would be making a presentation, the Lincoln company’s proposal was made available to council members prior to the meeting.
During the regular meeting, Eckert presented the requested proposal from the News-Times, explaining that once the website was fully created – per the specifications by department heads and city officials – Leitz would be the constant webmaster of the site, making consistent and ongoing updates and additions.
“We manage 47 websites for businesses in the York area, ranging from Cornerstone Insurance to Sun Theatre,” Eckert said. “We have a goal to not only build a functional site for our clients, but then to maintain a relationship and make sure that the ever-changing needs are met as they evolve. Our dedication is to take the skills we have of running the highest trafficked website in a 50-mile radius and apply that to your site.”
He explained that the YNT’s high website usage promotes client-companies’ websites’ search engine optimization, as Google sees the YNT as a reliable, legitimate source which in turn increases the clout for clients’ sites and boosts their sites to higher search rankings.
He said the design would be responsive on all devices and would be customized to the city’s needs.
By Leitz and Eckert doing all of the updating, to include contacts, information, photographs, videos, etc., no substantial city staff hours would have to be utilized. And by their focus consistently being on making sure the site was current and fresh, it would not grow stale or outdated as it has in the past.
Eckert also added that they would provide city staff with reviews of data related to social media, and training for those department heads who would like to update their own pages.
“We want to build this site with the users in mind,” Eckert said, noting that ease of use is key so the site can be fully utilized by residents, staff and visitors.
“And we can provide you with monthly reports, as we will have statistical data about what people are looking at,” Eckert said.
The York News-Times proposal included no initial creation fee – just a standard monthly fee that would never change. In an effort to protect that information, should the YNT ever decide to bid this project, the amounts will not be disclosed in this article. (Nor will the figures from the proposal Carlson solicited from the Lincoln company, should they someday decide to bid the project). The proposals, however, are now public and can be viewed by interested persons at the city offices.
It should be noted, however, that the cost to the city, as presented, would save the city money as the municipality spent approximately four times that much with the outside company that currently hosts.
“I asked them to come in,” Mayor Stahr said. “Number one, they are local. To me, part of the value is that they do it all, they are here, they will update it, they will keep it current and it needs it. As far as it being under the bidding threshold, I remember us already having that conversation.”
Council members Barry Redfern and Sheila Hubbard said they felt the proposal was a good one and was quite reasonable. Other council members said they also liked the idea that it would be done by a local company and the city would have easy access to YNT staff members when changes and additions needed to be made.
While the council seemed to be favorable toward the requested proposal, that couldn’t be said for the York Chamber of Commerce Director Madonna Mogul.
While the chamber is not a part of the city government, Mogul said she had to speak in opposition to the York News-Times taking on the project. She said it should either remain with the outside company that currently hosts or outside companies should also be considered.
She said the city’s website is “beautiful and new,” although it was first created a number of years ago.
Mogul was adamant that she believed instead of signing a contract with the York News-Times, the city should “call to get passwords” from the current company “or go out for competitive bids” from outside companies.
She said the YNT’s monthly fee was “a lot, I don’t pay anything near that for my site,” but it was not acknowledged that there would be no development fee from the YNT – which many other companies charge, sometimes costing tens of thousands of dollars.
Carlson then spoke about the Lincoln company that she uses for the convention center’s individual site. She also said there are qualified people that work for the city that could do updating on the current site.
“Our current site is an embarrassment,” said Councilman Redfern. “It’s terrible. The last time the city’s website was updated, I had hair. And I don’t want to pile this on the staff and then the site doesn’t even work completely.”
Stahr said his intention was to find one website from one company that “doesn’t have fees over here and over there, which is what they (the YNT) are offering.”
“I think if we could just talk with the company that originally did (the current city website) and we could see if they could update it. We could update it. We just need more training. They trained us for a day and moved on,” said Cheree Folts, director of the city’s park and recreation department.
“The one thing I was concerned about was the time spent by staff to get items up onto the website,” Stahr said, “and that was part of the reason I inquired about going with them for a new site.”
“I still want access to update (my department),” Folts said.
Eckert responded to the conversation, noting that the city’s site is one of many pages, for many departments, which makes it different than typical business websites (and the amount of effort required for its creation).
“If you find anyone with the same or better value, then you should take it,” Eckert said. “We don’t have a design charge as we feel it is better to have one single charge, one monthly fee.”
“They are two blocks away, they’d be right here to take care of it, and I know what outside companies charge and this is not bad at all,” Hubbard said, referring to the York News-Times proposal.
“Well, I guess we could ask other providers for proposals,” Stahr said.
“We might need a committee to see what other communities have and how they do it,” said York City Administrator Joe Frei.
“What if we create a description of what we are looking for and take bids?” asked Stahr.
The council agreed to continue the matter and ask for bids.
It was later noted that the bid process is now likely tainted, as the requested proposal from the YNT has already been presented and the proposal from the Lincoln company was also made public.