R2026-19 Resolution Authorizing Agreement with Pulse Marketing LLC for City Website Services

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Council Memo Information Technology Department No. 2026-055 DATE: 2/2/2026 TO: Honorable Mayor Julie Moore Wolfe and City Council Members FROM: Melissa Hon,Interim City Manager Travis Schanaman,Director of Information Technology Ryan Huffer, Communications Coordinator SUBJECT: Resolution Authorizing Agreement with Pulse Marketing LLC for City Website Services SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council approve the attached resolution, authorizing the City Manager or their designated alternate to pay for part-time webmaster services, with the contractor providing support in management,maintenance, and configuration to ensure regulatory compliance with applicable state and federal regulations. BACKGROUND: The City of Decatur has contracted with Pulse Marketing for part-time webmaster services since March 2024, just as the City began developing a new decaturil.gov website using CivicPlus. Their ongoing responsibilities include website maintenance and updates,technical support, content management, SEG(search engine optimization), website analytics, compliance, and training. Additionally, new federal regulations pertaining to accessibility for persons with disabilities have placed additional demands on the management of the website. This regulation is the ADA Title II Web Accessibility requirement and requires that all state and local government entities serving populations of 50,000 or greater meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 Level AA. The city does not have a full-time webmaster on staff and would be unable to meet this demand without the assistance of the vendor. Failure to meet this regulation represents a risk of fines of up to $75,000 and$150,000 for subsequent violations. This does not include legal fees and other costs associated with or mandated by federal oversight and monitoring that may be levied on the city for remediation purposes. Pulse Marketing's services are managed by the City Communications Coordinator,with oversight from the IT Department. Pulse meets with City staff on a weekly basis via video conference, and an in-person meeting is arranged once or twice per year, depending on demand. The Pulse team delivers a report of activities that is included in the IT Department's monthly report. LEGAL REVIEW: PRIOR COUNCIL ACTION: None. In FY2025 and FY2024,the City of Decatur entered into short-term and ad-hoc agreements with Pulse Marketing under the IT Department and in FY2025 Pulse Marketing was a by name budgeted item under its fka and below the policy threshold required for additional budget approval. As such those engagements did not require council action.