ActaPack

Blog

Who fixes tickets — clerk vs website vendor

  • vendor
  • tickets
  • how-it-works
A clerk can own the
Title II The ADA rule that city and township public websites must work for people with disabilities. What Title II is
file for council — the dated packet, the agenda line, the forward to the right vendor. The clerk does not usually patch HTML, remediate PDFs, or deploy CMS changes. Split the jobs: clerk keeps the monthly record; the website vendor runs the ticket list on the public site.

Who this is for

Clerks who were told to “make the website ADA compliant” without a vendor line item — and website vendors who receive a forwarded email with no CMS access named.

Municipal how-to articles often say “make your city website accessible” without saying who clicks publish.

Split the jobs

Job Clerk / city admin Website vendor / IT partner
Council record Attach the dated file; explain what changed Optional: attend if scoped
Official file Keep PDFs month to month Do not replace with a vendor-only dashboard
Tickets Forward unedited Implement in CMS, templates, PDF sources
Policy statement City attorney + elected body Implement approved wording on the site
Title II scope Name the public hostname Crawl only what the city publishes publicly

ActaPack sits on the clerk record side: a dated monthly file independent of whoever maintains the site (What a Title II file is).

What a good handoff looks like

  1. Clerk receives one PDF and a ticket list — see The pack.
  2. Clerk forwards tickets to the vendor of record for the public website (same thread each month).
  3. Vendor replies with what shipped — template fix, form label, replaced PDF.
  4. Next month’s file shows what is still open or what regressed.

No meeting required to interpret ticket IDs. No clerk SSH. No “log into our portal for the real report.”

When quotes stack up

County and city news often show multiple vendor quotes — remediation, captioning, PDF shops, overlays. The clerk still needs one dated file that says what was looked at on the public site this month, not three incompatible dashboards.

Compare overlays and suites on their own citation pages. The handoff question is simpler: who runs the ticket list on the hostname residents use?

Vendor pushback (polite)

  • “We only sell hosting — accessibility is on the city.” → Hosting includes the templates and CMS residents use; tickets need an owner.
  • “Buy our widget and you are covered.” → See Overlay; widgets do not replace content fixes.
  • “Send us a WAVE export.” → Clerks need plain-language tickets, not error codes alone (Method).

$8,400/year — ActaPack produces the monthly file and tickets. We do not certify compliance and we do not replace the website vendor.

For implementers

Shape tickets for the city’s platform when you know it — CivicPlus, Granicus, WordPress, custom — or plain language when you do not. Separate “clerk record” from “deployable fix.” Do not ask the clerk to paste code or run a scanner dashboard as the official file.

This month

Clerk attaches the dated file and forwards tickets unchanged. Vendor works the list in the CMS or PDF source. Note what shipped before the next monthly look. We do not write city policy or certify WCAG.

Questions people ask

Can the clerk’s office fix accessibility without the website vendor?
Clerks can fix some content they control directly — a PDF they originate, a word in a news post. Most structural fixes — templates, forms, navigation, alt text in the CMS — belong to whoever maintains the public site.
Should tickets go to the city attorney?
The attorney advises on law and risk. Technical tickets go to the website vendor or IT partner. The clerk keeps the dated file as the operational record for council.