The current City of Lubbock website went online more than seven years ago. But according to wiremedia.net, the lifespan of a “well-designed website” is three to seven years.
Last week Lubbock launched a public survey and promised “a new, more accessible, and user-friendly [website]” for the public and for city employees. Among other things, the city would like a website with enough room for all its departments, which is not currently the case.
The city is spending more than $120,000 with Kansas-based CivicPlus, LLC. as part of a $260,000 three-year contract. Starting in the fourth year, the annual fee will be roughly $73,000.
The Lubbock City Council approved the contract in June as part of its consent agenda – comprised of items approved as a group with no debate or discussion. Money for the first year was approved in the 2024/25 budget. That’s when the council had a public discussion on the issue.
The explanation in 24/25 budget said, “The current website is outdated and is not user‐friendly. The redesigned website will be easier to access and navigate which will make it more efficient.”
The survey is due October 1. An exact timeline or “go live” date was not given in Lubbock’s public records. However, the company’s documentation to another city, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, indicated a project of this kind typically takes 18-32 weeks.
The current site
More than a year ago, during budget talks Councilwoman Christy Martinez-Garcia, District 1, asked the city manager to explain why something needed to be done on the website.
Jarrett Atkinson said, “We have limited abilities to control it. Our partner is good to help us, but the architecture … over which that website is built is capped out.”
“For example, we only have 41 departmental slots on the website. The architecture will not support more. You have 51 departments, so we’ve made some combinations,” Atkinson said.
The city also connected code enforcement information and building permits to the current website. People can see what action code enforcement took down to a single address. The same is true with new construction.
The website allows people to pay their city utility bills online, report potholes, file a complaint about code violations in their neighborhoods, file an open records request, see flood maps and zoning maps and file non-emergency police reports.
The city has “customer self-service” on its website reducing the need for construction companies to send someone in person and fill out paperwork with a city employee.
For example, contractors can request permits or inspections, pay online, check the status of occupancy certificates and track the status of issues in real time that might delay a construction project.
Behind the scenes, the website does other work for the city.
“The internal side, the intranet, was never updated. … But that’s where all the employees – now that we have an automated time-keeping system, automated payroll – that’s where they’re trying to access stuff as simple as, ‘What is my vacation?’” Atkinson said.
The internal version of the website – the intranet – is where the human-resource forms go, Atkinson said.
“We are building a much better, a much more valid library, that you can go in and look at videos for benefits explanation, for supervisor training, for all of that. The intranet is really the worst of the two. But we’ve outgrown the public facing one as well,” Atkinson said.
The survey
The survey asks for a name and preferred contact email. It then asks which department you visit most online.
Questions include:
- Overall, how has your experience been on the City of Lubbock’s desktop and mobile website?
- Are there specific pages that are better or worse than others?
- If the city website were redesigned, what top 3-5 capabilities do you think should be included to better serve residents?
- Please share any other pain points, ideas, experiences or successes related to the current City website.
Click here to take the public survey.
