The city contracted CivicPlus, a national technology company focused on designing, building and implementing government websites, to complete the website upgrade, according to a news release.
"Since the first day of my administration, one of my top priorities has been building a 21st century communications system for our city to effectively serve our residents," Mayor Dean Esposito said in a statement.
According to the mayor's communications director, John Kleinhans, Danbury's website is built on the WordPress platform, a free and open source content management system, adding said the city will pay Civic Plus $63,920 to launch the new website and almost $24,200 in recurring annual service costs.
Compared to the limited functionality offered by the WordPress site, which Kleinhans is tasked with managing, the new website will make it easier for residents to access agendas and minutes while adding the ability for individual departments to post information themselves and manage their respective pages.
In his statement, the mayor pointed to the website work as one area where he has helped improve the local government's communications, including implementing a citywide alert system and opening a renovated Emergency Operations Center, as well as launching a weekly video series, "This Week in the City," as a way to explain "the work and purpose of city government."
The Aug. 25 episode of the web series touched on the launch of the new website, with Danbury Director of Information Technology Frank Gentile explaining upgrades to the city's cybersecurity framework.
"The new website design is going to be more transparent in the sense that departments will be better able to keep content fresh and residents will be able to access important information from the city much more quickly and it will be much more secure than the previous one," Gentile said in the video.
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