After receiving 26 bids for a new city website, Butler City Council managed to narrow the field down to five finalists at its forum meeting Thursday, May 15.

The five remaining vendors were selected from a list after Councilman Don Shearer reviewed each proposal. He presented each, along with the cost for creation, support and maintenance, to the rest of council through an overview document.

“All of them met the (request for proposal) requirements, but these were the ones that just kind of stuck out to me,” Shearer said.

A final decision is expected to be made at council’s May 29 meeting.

The five finalists — Premier Marketing, Exemplifi, Neumeric, QLogic and Team Dash — each offer their own distinct advantages, Shearer said. However, some of the vendors require additional costs related to hosting or plug-ins.

“At the end of the website (design), they’re going to do training with the city staff,” Shearer said. “Hopefully, we’ll have a representative from every department because the idea would be that every department has access to their specific page.”

The five finalists’ proposals range in cost from just over $30,000 to just under $60,000. However, some of the proposals were in the six-figure range.

“I actually, trickily, put in a ‘poison pill,’” Shearer said. “There was a request in (the RFP) that if they did not ask what we meant by it, it would balloon the cost very drastically because it was an unreasonable request for a municipal website.”

According to the overview, each of the finalists were recommended for their own reasons, and each had varied additional costs attached:

• Premier Marketing was recommended for its focus on visual design and accessibility, alongside offering regular check-ins with the city. There are no known plug-in fees or changes to hosting needed for its proposal.

• Exemplifi was recommended for its experience with designing government websites, accessibility and security. Additional plug-in fees are yet to be confirmed.

• Neumeric was recommended for its experience with designing government websites and offering unlimited staff training during the launch process. There would be no additional plug-in or hosting fees.

• QLogic was recommended for its extensive experience with designing government websites and its long-term reliability. It would use plug-ins and hosting would not be bundled in.

• Team Dash was recommended for offering a technically advanced proposal and offering a scaling platform. Its proposal recommends the purchase of WordPress VIP, which is currently an unknown cost to the city.

Before the decision goes to a vote, Shearer said he will ask follow-up questions to each of the finalists. He also asked the other council members to direct feedback or additional questions through him.