Galloway Councilman Concerned With Attaching Cost to Website Upgrade

Galloway Councilman Jim McElwee is happy to see the township is redesigning its website to meet state standards, but doesn’t agree with an RFP on the website setting a price limit at $10,000.

“We should just ask for blind quotes,” McElwee said.

“I don’t want to get responses for $40,000-$50,000,” Township Manager Arch Liston said. “ … We may get a bid from someone for $3,000 that’s much better than a bid from someone for $10,000. I don’t expect to spend $10,000.”

McElwee doesn’t expect to see too many bids below $9,000. He felt the township could’ve gone to someone in Galloway to redesign the website, rather than put out an RFP.

He pointed to Joanna Westcott, from the Galloway Township School Disrrict, as an example of someone from the community who could’ve been used.

“She’s on maternity leave, but I’m sure she could do that from her home,” McElwee said.

Westcott was unavailable for comment on Wednesday. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Annette Giaquinto indicated the school district has worked with the township on some technological issues in the past, but no one in the district would be available to help at this point in  time.

“They’re public funds,” Mayor Don Purdy said. “We need to have accountability. I agree with (McElwee) on the amount of money, but it will ultimately be up to the governing body to make that decision.”

For the past few years, the township has discussed updating its website to be in compliance with state standards. 

“I love the idea of going to an outside source,” Deputy Mayor Tony Coppola said. “Doing it from the inside wasn’t working, and we had to get the website up-to-date. Now we can post things directly to the website and we can cut down on OPRA requests and some of the other things. People can just go right on the site and find the information they’re looking for.”

Liston said the designer could also teach the people within the township how to maintain the site.

In addition to meeting state standards, Liston said an improved website could also go a long way in helping to attract economic development.

“You’re always looking to grab people’s eyes,” Liston said. “You want a website that’s modern and up-to-date. You want something that looks good. If you don’t have a modern website, people are going to take a look at it and think your community’s not up-to-date.”

Responses are due back to the township by March 15. The FRP appears on the township’s website as follows:

The Township of Galloway is requesting quotation for the redesign of www.gtnj.org, which is the Official Website of Galloway Township.

Amount not to exceed $10,000 for a full‐service website to provide information and documents to the public at large.

The criteria for choosing the vendor shall be:

1. Experience in website design in a government or business environment.

2. Ease of use of website.

3. Ability of trained employees to upload information as required to provide documents to the public.(pdf.)

4. Fully implement design and information on the web.

5. Ability to work with employees and elected officials on design.

6. Five(5) examples of designs presently in operation.

7. Time frame of completion.

Any question may be submitted to Arch Liston, Township Manager at Aliston@gtnj.org

Deadline for submittal will be March 15, 2013.