WORCESTER—Sometimes newer doesn’t mean better. That may be the case for Worcester’s new city website, which went live last month.
During a lengthy agenda on Aug. 19, the city council discussed issues with the site after Councilor Jenny Pacillo said she and many residents have struggled to navigate it.
“I feel as though the functionality is challenging,” Pacillo said. “Residents have reached out to me, who are not able to find city council agendas. It’s challenging for them to find things in the [City] Clerk’s office, or pay their bills.”
Search and access issues
Pacillo noted inconsistent results depending on search terms. For example, searching “speed hump” brings up different results than “speed humps.” She also said documents such as the city’s budget and council agendas, previously available with a click, now require downloading files.
“I just feel like in this day and age, the website should be very user-friendly, transparent and accessible,” Pacillo said. She also pointed out that searching her name brings up old agenda items, but all are dated April 10 of this year.
System integration problems
City officials said the difficulties stem from incomplete data transfer from the old site and problems integrating related systems. The city now uses OneMeeting/PrimeGov, a Granicus platform that handles agendas, minutes, and videos.
City Manager Eric Batista explained the system has not been fully integrated with the site. City Clerk Niko Vangjeli added that the new platform hasn’t connected to apps used for records searches.
“We used to allow search capabilities right on the webpage,” Vangjeli said. “If you’re looking for a record – a birth, a death or a marriage, you could go back as far as 1975, sometimes even farther. That is no longer the case. There’s a loss of communication between the website and my Citrix apps.”
Vangjeli said the new site, which costs $55,000 annually, also isn’t compatible with the previous agenda system, and that OneMeeting’s vendor is still uploading data. “It’s still in the works. The vendor is still trying to put a lot of the data in,” he said.
Council concerns
Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson remarked that agenda numbering no longer separates city manager items from council business, while Councilor Morris Bergman added that the old system showed all properties affected by an issue, while the new one requires entering each address separately.
“It’s laborious, it’s inefficient, and I don’t know if we can fix the problems we have,” Bergman said. “Sometimes something new isn’t always something better. I like the older system. I’m surprised that this is a popular system across the country, knowing the difficulties we’ve been facing.”
Batista acknowledged the “hiccups and challenges” and said the city is pressing the vendor daily to make improvements. He noted the old site was built in-house years ago and was deteriorating. “We put all of our efforts into this system, but we know we’re going to have challenges a long ways out, based on the challenges we are having with this current system,” Batista said.
The council voted unanimously to request a report from the city’s Chief Information Officer, Michael Hamel, detailing the functions and services gained or lost in the website transition.
Steve Smith, a veteran reporter with 17 years at The Hartford Courant, now brings his passion for photojournalism to Worcester. An award-winning photographer, he has covered major events like U.S. soccer, pro football, and UConn basketball. He is also the official photographer for the Miss Massachusetts competition and works as a realtor. Contact him at steve@stevephotographysmith.com
