WEBSITE RFP ISSUED BY CITY OF PHILOMATH, OREGON
Proposal Submission Deadline:
Thursday, August 29, 2024 – 11:59 PM PST
Contact
Chelsea Starner, Assistant City Manager
Email: chelsea.starner@philomathoregon.gov
Phone: 541-929-9706
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
The City of Philomath, a vibrant community known as the “City of Volunteers,” is inviting proposals from website development firms that understand the unique needs of municipalities like ours. As a small city with deep roots in learning, hard work, and community spirit, we are looking for a partner who can help us create a website that reflects our values while serving our residents effectively. We are specifically seeking a company that:
Has a Focus on Municipal Websites: Your platform should be purpose-built for local government, with all the necessary features to support the wide range of services we provide to our community.
Understands the Needs of Small Cities: With a population of just over 5,600 and a dedicated team of around 30 staff members, we need a partner who appreciates the scale at which we operate and has experience delivering tailored solutions to cities of our size.
Offers Customizable Design: While we prioritize a user-friendly experience, it’s important that our website can be customized to capture the unique character of Philomath—nestled at the base of Marys Peak in the heart of the Mid-Willamette Valley.
Delivers User-Friendly Functionality: Our goal is to ensure that both the public and our city staff
can easily navigate and manage the website. Residents should be able to quickly find the
information they need, and our staff should find it simple to update and maintain content.
We are looking for a long-term partner who will not only help us launch a new website but will also
provide ongoing support as our needs grow and change. If your company is dedicated to creating
websites that serve and reflect communities like ours, we’d love to hear from you.
1.2 SOLE POINT OF CONTACT
Members of the evaluation committee or the City Council may not be contacted or solicited by any
firm intending to submit a proposal. The sole point of contact for the City for all process and
contract questions is:
Chelsea Starner, Assistant City Manager
980 Applegate Street
P.O. Box 400
Philomath, OR 97370
Email: chelsea.starner@philomathoregon.gov
Phone: 541-929-9706
3 STATEMENT OF PROJECT 3.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND The City of Philomath is redesigning its existing public-facing website to offer an accessible, easy-tonavigate, community-centered experience. The awarded contractor should have documented experience with local government operations and should be equipped with the skills to create a dynamic city website. The awarded contractor will engage in scoping the project comprehensively, handling content management/migration, offering insights, and facilitating informed decisionmaking. Work is expected to be done remotely. The chosen Proposer must create an ADA-compliant website, prioritizing easy navigation. The platform should incorporate a user-friendly content management system utilizing page templates, enabling City staff to generate and publish content effortlessly while adhering to high design standards and branding guidelines. The new website must have a responsive design adaptable across devices, ensuring easy maintenance without necessitating HTML expertise.
The City does not have an in-house developer and proposers should craft their proposals with this consideration in mind. The City has designated a project manager to oversee project coordination, supported by a multidisciplinary team from various departments, to ensure comprehensive project assistance throughout the duration of the project. Additionally, the City requires secure, cloud-based hosting services and ongoing Proposer support. Chosen Proposer will be expected to work with the City’s contracted IT Proposers as needed to complete the project and provide ongoing hosting and support. Because data must reside on US-based Tier 3 data centers only accessible to US citizens, the City will only accept proposals from vendors located inside the United States. 3.2 SCOPE OF SERVICES The following will serve as a guide as the City has the right to include or not include any of these services to develop the project:
.2.1 Project Management
• Develop a project schedule that indicates the manner and frequency of project team meetings and the timeline for deliverables
• Designate a single point-of-contact who will work directly with City staff, ensuring clear and consistent communication throughout the project
• Designate a dedicated customer success manager for the City’s ongoing needs
3.2.2 Initial Analysis of the Existing City Website
• Collect relevant website data, documents, and other needed information
• Conduct an assessment of the current website, identifying areas for enhancement in the upcoming website
• Develop a plan for cleanup, migration, and archiving of data
• Proposal should include migration of all current pages though some will likely be eliminated during migration
3.2.3 Develop Initial Website Concept
• Propose a design consistent with the City of Philomath’s brand identity
Note: The City is currently working on rebranding with the intention of completion for the website implementation project
• Modern look and functionality
• Ability to design website with some custom features and looks
• Intuitive navigation to access most content from the home page within 3 clicks
• Sitemap & Breadcrumbs to be automatically generated and updated
• Responsive web design ensuring full mobile responsiveness, with the site adjusting to the screen size of all viewing devices, including forms, calendars, etc. The new website will work in and support the latest versions of browsers that have been released within the last five years including mobile and desktop versions of Apple Safari, Google Chrome,
Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge, and Mozilla Firefox
3.2.4 Searching
• Equipped with a robust functionality akin to a ‘Google search bar’
• Searchable staff directories
3.2.5 Test page
• Provide wireframe of homepage and interior page in desktop, tablet mobile sizes (ex:
1920px, 1024px and 768px)
• Provide a prototype layout home page and interior page for review and approval of design concept in desktop, tablet mobile sizes (ex: 1920px, 1024px and 768px)
• Solicit and review feedback from City staff at key stages in the process
• May include presentation of information to City Council, which may be done remotely
3.2.6 Hosting
• Data shall reside on US-based Tier 3 data centers only accessible to US citizens, and isn owned by the City
City of Philomath – Website Redesign & Hosting RFP
• Recommend potential hosting services
• Uptime and disaster recovery process guarantee
• Ongoing training resources available
• Separate testing, staging, and production environments
• No performance issues due to regular web traffic
• Website metrics – number of clicks and reporting, click throughs, what platforms users are accessing from, mobile versus computer, etc.
3.2.7 Content Management System
• Document Storage – upload/download capability for files up to 1GB, back-end ability to search within published and unpublished documents
• Content review process
• Ongoing and automatic Content Management System updates
• Bulk management tools
• Filtering unused media and finding specific media
o Audits to find dead links, typos, and other errors
o Bulk un-publish
o Quality Assurance
• Tools to organize page
• Ability to locate duplicate information
• Live Editing – Add, edit, and move content directly on the front end of the site without the need to utilize or be trained in writing HTML or CSS code
• Advanced Editor feature, providing users with the option to create custom HTML pages
• Ability to add images and video in a variety of file types
• Browser Based Administration – Update, delete and create content from any device with
internet access
• Implement the brand and common design elements with existing brand materials
• Training and support documentation
• Archive center with complete audit history of each page update, with the ability to revert toany previous version of a page.
• Provide guidelines to allow for consistent flow, tone, look, and feel for all areas of the website
3.2.8 Security
• Use data encryption and secure web connections
• Define security by individual user or role-based attributes and limit access based on a rolebased access control model
• API integrations support rotating keys and only grant necessary privileges
• No multi-user accounts
• Automated software updates and security patches and high-performance SAN with N+2 reliability
• DDoS mitigation with DDoS advanced security coverage options
City of Philomath – Website Redesign & Hosting RFP
• Ensure data security and no City data is shared with parties or entities without prior City agreement
• Ensure city is notified of any compromise of city data by cloud service providers or third parties
3.2.9 Connectivity
• Accela e-Permitting
• ApplicantPro
• Cogran Reservation Systems
• General Code
• GIS Mapping
• Laserfiche Web Portal – current website not fully configured
• Tyler Technologies Online Payments
• MailChimp (if needed)
• Xpress Bill Pay
3.2.10 Features
• E-Notifications – Electronic subscription to manual and automatic email updates; prefer through a website CMS
• SMS Subscriptions & Notifications; ; prefer through a website CMS
• News & Announcements – Post news releases or updates dynamically to relevant pages based on category
• Calendar for meetings, events, and programs which can be filtered by department and category
• Sharing capability for social media accounts, including social feed
• Frequently Asked Questions – Ability to categorize by department or page
• Social Media Integrations for auto post
• Ability to integrate AI powered search bar
• Fillable forms
o Handle fillable forms completely through the site
o Display, submission, and backend routing of fillable forms to the correct user group, department, email, or other end user
23.2.11 Bid Posting
• Allow for easy posting of procurement solicitations and for potential bidders to register and
receive notifications when solicitations are updated. We wish to make this more user
friendly within the new website.
3.2.12 Custom Projects Pages
The City would like to have project pages for both Planning and City projects. Currently the City has
this page https://www.ci.philomath.or.us/planningapplications for Planning application projects
and would like a more user-friendly setup. We would also like similar functionality for City projects
https://www.ci.philomath.or.us/projects. Staff will consider a shared projects page depending on
sorting capabilities.
