By Jane Smith

    Visitors who went on the Delray Beach website during the third weekend in May saw a photo of a beach with a pier.
    But the photo wasn’t of the city beach.
    The image was a stock photo holding a place until city staff could post suitable pictures, said Gwen Spencer, chief innovation and technology officer who inherited the website redesign project when she arrived in July.
    City employees received an email at 5:30 p.m. May 20, a Friday, about the redesign going live.
    The redesign dominated the talk on the Delray Raw Facebook page the following week.
    “People were making fun of the city on Facebook, my natural reaction was to defend Delray,” said Cindi Freeburn, who runs a golf cart rental business and has a passion for all things Delray Beach. She frequently visits the city website, serves on a city board and attends or watches each commission meeting. Even so, she was not aware of the redesign. She wondered why the redesign went live with obvious errors and broken links.  
    City Manager Don Cooper said the website exists for residents and businesses to use and allows them to report any problems with the redesigned site.
    “I’m against using the citizens of Delray to proof the website. Staff should report the bugs,” Freeburn said. “The website reflects poorly on the city.”
    A former marketing executive from the North, she thinks Delray Beach needs its own marketing department so that the city speaks with a single, consistent message.
    Cooper agreed that a unified message was needed. A marketing department is not a commission priority and the budget does not contain any money for it, he said. The city relies on two taxpayer-supported agencies, the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative and the Downtown Development Authority, for its marketing efforts.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein said the redesign was an improvement, “but it’s a work in progress and has a long way to go…. I know our staff is seeking constructive criticism and ideas, which really can’t occur until you roll it out as they did.”
    Revize Software Systems of Troy, Mich., did the redesign for $17,150, below the $25,000 threshold for contracts needing commission approval. Other bidders were: 561Media.com from Boca Raton for $22,000 and Vision Internet of Santa Monica, Calif., for $42,755.

    Spencer’s department is now working to integrate software to allow users to pull down permit forms, pay fees for classes, submit comments and questions, and do anything that requires a special trip to City Hall.
    What’s the target date? Sometime in July.

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