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Home My WebLink About05(G) - Resolution Approving Contract with CivicPlus for Redesign of City Website Report ITEM: 5G CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT MEETING DATE: February 10, 2026 PREPARED BY: Lori Olson, Assistant City Manager PRESENTED BY: Jason Wedel, City Manager AGENDA ITEM: Resolution Approving Contract with CivicPlus for Redesign of City Website RECOMMENDED ACTION: Approval of a contract with CivicPlus in the amount of $32,545.10 to redesign and update the City of Prior Lake’s website (priorlakemn.gov) to ensure compliance with federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements. BACKGROUND: On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a final rule revising Title II of the ADA. This rule requires state and local governments to ensure that their websites and mobile applications are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Cities with populations under 50,000 (Prior Lake) must comply by April 24, 2027. The DOJ adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for compliance. These guidelines include approximately 50 success criteria designed to ensure accessibility for individuals with visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor disabilities. Compliance includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that images and documents are compatible with assistive technologies such as screen readers, and that live and prerecorded videos include appropriate captioning. The city’s current website does not meet these guidelines. Federal civil penalties for non-compliance could reach $75,000 for first violations and $150,000 for subsequent violations. To achieve compliance by the mandated date, city staff solicited proposals from four website vendors: - Granicus ($12,000 – ADA compliance only, no site redesign) - Revize ($23,900) - GHD Digital – GovStack ($25,711). - CivicPlus ($32,545) After a thorough evaluation of the proposals and specific city needs, staff recommends CivicPlus as the city’s website vendor for the following reasons: 1. While all vendors offered modern website designs and initial ADA compliance at launch, they varied significantly in their ability to support ongoing compliance. Maintaining compliance over time is complex and requires continuous monitoring, testing, and remediation. Only CivicPlus included ongoing compliance tools as part of their proposal which is reflected in the higher quote amount. The City has one full-time communications employee. It is more cost-effective to automate ongoing compliance than to hire an City of Prior Lake | 4646 Dakota Street SE | Prior Lake MN 55372 Item 5G Page | 2 additional employee to continually monitor and update City web content for ADA compliance. 2. CivicPlus provides the most automated solution for maintaining ADA compliance both at launch and on an ongoing basis, significantly reducing administrative burden and legal risk. CivicPlus integrates AudioEye, an industry-leading digital accessibility platform, which guarantees compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA standards. AudioEye provides continuous monitoring and remediation and offers compliance guarantees in the event of an accessibility complaint or legal challenge which mitigates potential litigation risks. The cost of adding AudioEye to the proposal was $5,875. 3. CivicPlus is used by more than 5,000 local governments nationwide, including Scott County, Lakeville, Burnsville, Edina, Apple Valley and Chaska in Minnesota to name a few. Staff in other cities cited the design capability, backend support and customer service as positive aspects of using CivicPlus when asked about their experience with this vendor. 4. In 2025, the City’s Recreation Department transitioned to “CivicRec,” a product offered by CivicPlus to manage online program registration, facility rentals and point-of-sale. Recreation staff report a good experience with CivicPlus training and ongoing support. 5. CivicPlus recently purchased DocAccess. DocAccess is a PDF-to-HTML accessibility tool that automatically converts current and future PDFs into WCAG 2.1 AA-aligned HTML transcripts. The screen reader–friendly transcripts are searchable, translatable into over 150 languages, and qualify as an alternative format under federal guidelines. The City has hundreds of PDFs linked to the website. By choosing CivicPlus as the website vendor, the City receives a reduced rate to add this function to the website under a separate agreement. In conclusion, CivicPlus’ automated accessibility tools will allow staff to spend less time managing technical compliance issues and more time focusing on core city services and communications. By approving this agreement, the city will meet federally mandated ADA compliance deadlines, reduce legal and operational risk, improve accessibility for residents, and reduce staff hours spent maintaining ADA compliance into the future. City staff plan to start the redesign process in March 2026 with completion of the new website, including meeting all ADA compliance requirements, by the deadline if not sooner. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Funding for this project was included as part of the 2026 budget and is allocated in the Communications Department budget. ALTERNATIVES: 1. Motion and second, as part of the consent agenda, approve the resolution to engage in a contract with CivicPlus for the redesign of the City's website to be in compliance with ADA requirements. 2. Remove from the consent agenda for discussion. ATTACHMENTS: 1. Civic Plus Resolution_2.10.2026 4646 Dakota Street SE Prior Lake, MN 55372 RESOLUTION 26- RESOLUTION APPROVING CONTRACT WITH CIVICPLUS FOR REDESIGN OF CITY WEBSITE Motion By: Second By: WHEREAS, local government (populations under 50,000) websites must comply with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) by meeting Web Content Accessibility Guideline 2.1 standards by April 24, 2027; and WHEREAS, to achieve compliance by the mandated date, city staff solicited proposals from four website vendors; and WHEREAS, maintaining compliance over time is complex and requires continuous monitoring, testing, and remediation; and WHEREAS, CivicPlus offered the most robust automated compliance tools to ensure ongoing compliance with ADA requirements; and WHEREAS, staff recommends CivicPlus as the vendor to redesign and host the city’s website; and WHEREAS, by approving this agreement, the city will meet federally mandated ADA compliance deadlines, reduce legal and operational risk, improve accessibility for residents, and reduce staff hours spent maintaining ADA compliance into the future. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA as follows: 1. The recitals set forth above are incorporated herein. 2. The City Council authorizes a contract with CivicPlus in the amount of $32,545.10 for the redesign of the City’s website to meet federal Americans with Disabilites Act accessiblity requirements. th Passed and adopted by the Prior Lake City Council this 10 day of February 2026. VOTE Briggs Braid Churchill Lake Hellier Aye ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Nay ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Abstain ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Absent ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ______________________________ Jason Wedel, City Manager