Picking a CMS: a checklist for city clerks
Choosing a website platform is a ten-year decision. Twenty questions to ask any vendor — about accessibility, ownership, emergencies, records and cost.
Websites for local government
City websites that stay accessible on every publish
Sentra CMS is the website platform for cities, counties, school districts and special districts. Your staff edit pages in minutes; WCAG 2.1 AA is checked before anything goes live; and alerts, meetings, forms and 311 are built in.
ADA Title II ready Two-factor sign-in for everyone Your own Git repository
Try the theme button at the top: the admin works in light and dark mode.
ADA Title II web rule: state and local governments, including school districts, must meet WCAG 2.1 AA — April 26, 2027 for 50,000+ people and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and all special districts, after the Justice Department’s April 2026 extension. Dates could change again; the standard did not.
What the rule requiresBuilt with the City of Fulton, Mississippi — our launch city, moving from a hand-built site and a Wix site to Sentra CMS.
Read the case studyWhy Sentra CMS
Built for small teams with big responsibilities
Most city web teams are one or two people with other jobs. Sentra CMS does the checking, so they can do the communicating.
Accessibility, enforced
Pages, PDFs, forms, widgets and themes are checked against WCAG 2.1 AA before they can be published.
Learn moreYour design, or ours
Import any HTML design — from an agency, a designer or Claude — and editors get simple fields. Or start from our city theme.
Learn moreYour repository
Every publish is a commit in a Git repository your city owns. Roll back any change; leave any time with everything.
Learn moreAI that drafts, never publishes
Ask for a change in plain English. The assistant drafts it with a before-and-after for a person to approve.
Learn moreEmergency mode
One switch turns the homepage into a fast emergency page and sends alerts by banner, email, text and app.
Learn moreConnected to your suite
CivicCA meetings, Sentra 311 requests, SentraCheck PDFs, SentraCaptions and more — built in.
Learn moreApprovals by department
Editors draft, department heads approve; staff sign in with MFA or Microsoft, Google or Clerk, and every change is logged.
Learn more44 languages
Machine translation to start, approved by a person, published as real pages search engines can find.
Learn moreReady for school districts
District and school sites with closures, menus, bell schedules, athletics, buses and teacher pages.
Learn moreAsk the documents
New: staff ask a question and get the answer from every city PDF and set of minutes, with page citations.
Learn moreAsk the city
Residents get answers only from your own site, with sources; anything else goes to the right department.
Learn moreYour own email and text accounts
Alerts and newsletters go out through your city’s own Resend and Twilio accounts, from your name and number.
Learn morePage builder
Edit right on the page
Click text and type. Add blocks for services, meetings, forms and maps. The design stays locked, so every page looks like your city.
- Desktop, tablet and phone preview
- Spanish versions side by side
- Drafts, versions, scheduling and approvals
Accessibility
Problems can’t reach residents
The AA gate checks every change — from editors, the API and the AI assistant — and explains each problem with a fix.
- Missing alt text, low contrast and unlabeled fields are blocked
- Inaccessible PDFs are held until fixed or converted
- Nightly scans and a compliance certificate for council
Emergencies
Ready before you need it
Reviewed templates in English and Spanish, one switch for the homepage, and alerts everywhere residents are.
- Banner, pop-up, email, text, web push and Sentra 311 app
- Weather warnings drafted for your Emergency team
- Drills that don’t notify residents
Residents
Answers by address and question
My City shows a resident’s ward, trash day, polling place and nearby alerts. Smart search answers from your pages, PDFs and minutes.
- Report a problem from any page (Sentra 311)
- Public records requests with legal deadlines
- Accessible online forms that replace fillable PDFs
In practice
What Sentra CMS does on a normal day
Real tasks, start to finish. Each one is built and working today.
- When
The clerk posts Tuesday’s agenda in CivicCA
ThenIt appears on the Meetings page and the master calendar within minutes — nobody touches the website.
Meetings & calendars (CivicCA) - When
A water main breaks on Main Street at 6 a.m.
ThenPick the boil-water template, target Ward 2, send: banner, text, voice call and email go out together, in English and Spanish.
Emergency mode, alerts & newsletters - When
“How much did we approve for paving Spring Street?”
Then$29,800, from the April 21, 2026 Board minutes — with a link to the exact page.
Ask the documents - When
An editor uploads a photo with no alt text
ThenPublish is blocked. The AI suggests a description from the photo; the editor confirms or marks it decorative.
Accessibility enforcement - When
The library clerk needs to change Saturday hours
ThenShe clicks the hours on the live page, types the new ones and presses Publish. No training manual.
Page builder - When
“Can I keep chickens in town?” isn’t on any page
ThenThe question goes to Planning; their reply reaches the resident by email — and suggests a new FAQ.
AI assistant & content advisor - When
The English Utilities page changes
ThenThe approved Spanish version is flagged as outdated, so a reviewer updates it — it’s never silently overwritten.
Translations - When
Snow overnight: the district delays two hours
ThenOne closure post updates the district and every school homepage and texts, emails and pushes families.
K-12 schools pack
How it works
From your current site to Sentra CMS, without broken links
- Day 1
Free scan
We scan your current site’s pages and PDFs against WCAG 2.1 AA.
Plain-English report - You + us
Migration plan
Every page and document is mapped to its new home. You review the plan.
- Automatic
Import & fix
Pages import as drafts; PDFs are checked; images get alt text suggestions.
- Your team
Review & train
Your staff review drafts and learn the editor on their own pages.
- Launch
Go live
Switch the domain. Every old address redirects to its new page.
No broken links
The suite
Part of a family of public-sector software
Sentra CMS is made by Computer Systems Plus, Inc., a family-owned Fresno software company serving public agencies since 1990.
CivicCA
Agendas, meetings, minutes and votes for councils and boards
Learn moreSentra 311
Service requests from residents, with crews and status updates
Learn moreSentraCheck
Accessibility scanning and PDF remediation
Learn moreSentraScheduler
Online scheduling and booking
Learn moreSentraCaptions
Live captions for public meetings
Learn moreSentraDeed
SB 255 recorder notices for California counties
Learn moreGOVvpat
Accessibility conformance report (VPAT/ACR) review
Learn moreAlready use CivicCA, Sentra 311, SentraCheck, SentraScheduler, SentraCaptions, SentraDeed or GOVvpat? You get a discount on Sentra CMS.
Get a quoteFrom the blog
Guides for city web teams
Meeting-to-website: turning minutes into updates residents read
Council decisions change fees, hours and rules — but websites often lag weeks behind. A simple process for publishing what was decided, in plain language.
Using AI safely on a government website
AI can draft pages, suggest alt text and answer resident questions. Five guardrails that keep a person in charge and residents’ trust intact.
Common questions
How much does Sentra CMS cost?
Pricing is by quote, based on your population, departments and needs. Agencies that already use any of our products get a discount. Get a quote.
Can we keep our current design?
Yes. Import it as an HTML template and Sentra CMS makes the content editable, or start from our accessible city theme.
Does Sentra CMS make our site ADA compliant?
Sentra CMS enforces WCAG 2.1 AA on everything published through it and helps you fix what’s already there — at the source, with no overlay widget. No tool catches every barrier, so we also recommend a manual review, which is part of every migration.
Who hosts the site?
Your choice: your own host deploying from your Git repository, cloud storage, or our hosting in the United States.
Do residents need an app?
No. Everything works in a browser, including alerts by web push. Sentra 311 offers apps for residents who want them.
See Sentra CMS with your own website
We’ll scan your current site for free, then show you what it looks like on Sentra CMS, accessible from day one.