Council Approves $20,000 Web Portal Contract

by Linda Karn and Jay Thompson

(posted May 29)

Despite concerns by three council members and the town clerk about the cost and technology involved, the Speedway Town Council approved an estimated $20,000 eGov Portal Web Service Contract at its May 14th meeting. The council voted 4-1, with Councilman Gary Raikes casting the opposing vote. The approval was to have the contract reviewed for errors by the town's legal council prior to implementation. McCurtain said the funding could come from the town's cumulative capital development fund.

Councilman Dean Farmer pointed out that the contract's price was listed as $519,876 and that it appeared that every dollar amount listed in the contract was missing the dollar sign.

Raikes noted the annual maintenance costs were listed as $53,900, other council members assumed the number should have been $3,900.

Farmer inquired as to why the other vendors' information was not given to the council for review, but seemed anxious to invest in the technology. McCurtain did not provide the other two vendors' names or costs. He only said it was not like comparing apples to apples when reviewing the services of all three vendors. He noted that eGov specialized in software for municipalities. The document provided to the council had a number of websites of cities that eGov has contracted with. No mention was made as to examples of the other vendor's sites for the council to compare. eGov is not the only vendor that designs internet software for municipal governments. Civic Net serves Indianapolis/Marion County and the State of Indiana.

Raikes told McCurtain that at the last meeting he had requested the information from all three vendors' proposals, and that the original purpose was to redesign the town's website. "This went well beyond that," he said. He pointed out to McCurtain that there didn't appear to have been any input from other stakeholders since the last meeting and that "I thought that's what we had agreed on in our last meeting."

"Maybe my perception was bad then," McCurtain said to Raikes.

McCurtain involved the chamber of commerce, the library and other groups to join in sharing one unified website. The entities were to share in the cost. The library board rejected the idea, believing it was too costly for the benefits the library would receive. When McCurtain was asked about the other town departments' willingness to join, he said "The library doesn't have the money to participate."

Councilman Jeff Hartman questioned McCurtain as to what the biggest benefit would be over what the town has now.

McCurtain mentioned items that included giving citizens the ability to report broken signs, potholes and code violations. When he mentioned posting meeting minutes,
Clerk Treasurer Sharon Zishka pointed out that "We currently do that with our current webpage."

McCurtain said the format would be much more user friendly. Currently, each department maintains their own website. McCurtain pointed out that the town has four or five different websites and that they would all be combined to make the appearance more uniform. The Speedway Navigator's research shows seven websites related to the town spread among four or five web hosting companies. Typical web hosting fees run from $5 to $15 a month.

McCurtain highlighted some features of eGov software, saying it will provide a key word search to the internet. Departments will have access to an intranet, so email messages will avoid using the internet.
The professional services contract includes web hosting, but the town could opt to continue to use its own hosting company in its $600 per year contract. The company is also charging an estimated $3,900 annual maintenance agreement that starts in the second year.

Sharon Zishka did not see a reason to change her current hosting situation because of the proprietary software the town has invested in to allow her to maintain the current website. The town's current hosting contract does not end until November.
Zishka stated "I have no reason to host with them." She preferred to keep her current system, which effectively would undermine the intent of the contract to combine all the departmental sites into one. McCurtain had no objection having a separate host if her current system is incompatible with eGov. The clerk's website currently has over 250 documents posted and appears to be the largest site the town has.

The original price was not made available to the public because McCurtain said the company offered a discount that was not to be revealed.

"I am glad I didn't say it out loud," Councilor Lu Hillmer said while looking at the contract.

McCurtain said a start date was not included in the contract but he was anticipating starting in 60 to 90 days.

Police Chief Jeff Dine protested the council's action because he was not involved in the department meetings when discussing the vendors and their services. He was concerned that a breach of security could happen.

McCurtain assured him that it could not happen.

Approximately $10,000 of the contract will be used for planning meetings with department heads, training users on the new methods required to perform webpage updates, and documentation.

The Town of Fishers has been using eGov since 2003, according to Public Information Officer Mark Steczyk. One of the best features in Steczyk's opinion is the citizen action center. It allows citizens to email their complaints, and they are automatically routed to the appropriate department. He noted it was beneficial because it allows the email to be tracked to see if citizens' complaints are being addressed. Citizens can also sign up for email newsletters. The newsletters are created in house, not by eGov.

After the vote, Hillmer stated "I have no computer savvy."