For villages, towns, districts and associations
No new system to learn. Just your site, done right.
We rebuild the website you already have, page for page, on a .gov address that works on a phone and meets the accessibility rules. Nothing changes for your office on day one. Then we take the clerk’s busiest work off the desk, one process at a time.
Priced to what you use · priced under your bid threshold · no setup fee · thirty days’ notice to leave
Replace, then build
We start with what you have. Not with a template.
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01
We rebuild what you have
Every page, every PDF, your menu and your page names, moved to a .gov address. Old links forward to the new ones. We do the moving; nobody in your office copies anything.
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02
Nothing to learn on day one
Your pages and your menu are the ones you know. Posting is one screen with one box: if you can write an e-mail, you can post a notice. For a big change, tell us and we make it.
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03
Then we build around your office
When you are ready, we take the part of the clerk’s week that eats the most hours, minutes or permits or records requests, and build it the way your office already does it.
See the difference
Same pages. Same menu. A site residents can use.
Your notices, your documents and your page names come across as they are. What changes is everything a resident notices: the phone, the clock, the search, the next meeting on the front page.
Not another platform
Most municipal software sells you a system. We hand you back your website.
The platform way
- Setup that runs for months, and a new menu for everything
- Training courses before anyone can post a notice
- Bundles priced for the biggest customer, with yearly increases
- Your pages refitted into their template
- A ticket, a window or a fee to get your records out
The Public Desk way
- Your pages, your menu and your documents, carried over
- Nothing to learn on day one, and one screen when you want it
- Start with the site, add pieces when you are ready, no increase written in
- Each new piece built around how your office already works
- Every record exports as plain files, any day, free
What stays, what gets better
Residents notice the difference. Your office barely does.
Stays exactly the same
- Your page names and your menu
- Every PDF, form and link. Old addresses forward to the new ones.
- Your e-mail addresses and phone numbers
- How you send things: e-mail, Word, a scan, a call
- Your agenda format and your minutes format
Gets better the day you switch
- A .gov address, the one residents trust and more states now require
- Readable on a phone, and built to WCAG 2.1 AA ahead of the April 2028 deadline
- Notices, agendas and minutes posted on the legal clock
- News that dates itself, alerts that expire, a directory that stays right
- A person who answers when you call
The clerk’s side
The whole back end is one screen.
This week’s deadlines, worked out from the Open Meetings Law and FOIL, and one box to post anything. That is all of it.
- Deadlines counted for you: notices, agendas, minutes, records requests
- Write it once, pick where it goes: a department, the home page, the e-mail list
- Or e-mail it from your own address, and it posts itself
- No settings pages, no training course
What you get
Everything the statute lists, and the things residents actually call about.
A village today pays two or three vendors for a website, an agenda tool and code hosting. None of them draft the minutes, and none of them watch the clock.
Your site, carried over
Every page and document moved and tidied, on your .gov, with old links forwarded. Photographs of the village where you have them.
Notices and agendas on the clock
Notice 72 hours out, agenda and packet 24 hours out, to the site and the e-mail list, with the newspaper copy ready.
Minutes from the recording
A phone on the table is enough. A transcript within hours and a draft in your format, marked draft, for the clerk to edit.
News, alerts and who to call
Dated news tagged to the right department, emergency alerts that take themselves down, and one directory that feeds every page.
A page for every department
Court, police, public works, the pool: the same clear layout for each, with hours, people, forms and its own news.
Applications and permits online
Your own forms, filled in the browser, plans attached, fee paid, delivered to the right inbox with a receipt.
Records requests on the clock
One log for every FOIL request however it arrived, with the five- and twenty-business-day deadlines worked out.
Payments, code and the financials
A hosted payment page with the GML 5-b receipt, your code linked or hosted, and the budget, annual report and audit where the law wants them.
After launch
You pick what’s next.
Every office runs its week differently. We start where your clerk loses the most hours, and build that piece the way you already do it. Nothing to enroll in and nothing to study: before a piece starts, you see it working on your own demo site.
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Today
Minutes take a week to type up.
Record the meeting on a phone. A draft in your format is waiting the next morning. The board still adopts the minutes; the software never does.
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Today
Permit applications are printed PDFs.
The same forms online, plans attached and fee paid, delivered to the Building Department’s inbox with a receipt number the applicant can check.
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Today
FOIL requests arrive by e-mail, letter and at the counter.
One log, whichever way they came, with the acknowledgment and production deadlines counted in business days.
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Today
A notice goes to the paper, the board and the site separately.
Write it once. The newspaper copy, the signboard copy, the website and the e-mail list all come from the same screen.
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Today
Residents call to ask when the pool opens.
Each department page carries its hours, seasons included, set once and shown everywhere, so the phone rings less.
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Today
Fees are paid by check at the counter.
A hosted payment page for the fees you choose, paid by the payer, with the receipt the law requires. The counter still works too.
The clerk’s week
A Tuesday board meeting, on the statutory clock.
Shown here with New York’s deadlines, where we started. The desk follows your state’s.
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Friday, 6 pm
Notice posted
72 hours before the meeting: time, place and any videoconference location go to the site, the media list and the subscribers. Public Officers Law 104.
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Monday, 6 pm
Agenda and packet posted
24 hours before: the agenda with every proposed resolution, local law and record to be discussed. Public Officers Law 103(e).
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Tuesday, 7 pm
The meeting
Recorded from the room or the stream. Nothing for the clerk to press.
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Wednesday, 9 am
Transcript and draft minutes
The transcript and a draft of the minutes in the village’s format are waiting, marked draft. The clerk edits.
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Within two weeks
Minutes posted
Draft minutes posted marked unapproved, as the Committee on Open Government reads Public Officers Law 106. Adopted minutes replace them after the next meeting.
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Within five business days
Recording posted
Where the board has adopted videoconferencing procedures, the recording is posted and kept five years. Public Officers Law 103-a.
Where newspaper publication of legal notices is still required, as in New York, the notice feature produces the newspaper copy, the signboard copy and the website posting from one screen. It does not replace the paper.
Why now
Every local government website now has a federal deadline.
The Department of Justice’s ADA rule requires state and local government websites, and the documents on them, to meet WCAG 2.1 AA. States are adding rules of their own: in New York, General Municipal Law 300 has required a .gov website with meeting notices, agendas, minutes, code, budget and audit since February 28, 2026.
New York’s law, section by section- Apr 2027
- WCAG 2.1 AA due for governments of 50,000 or more
- Apr 2028
- Due for smaller governments and every special district
- .gov
- Free to register for any US local government, through CISA
- Feb 2026
- New York’s website law in force, for 1,500 residents or more
Pricing
Pay for what you use. No bid required.
Start with your site. Add the rest when your office is ready. We quote after we build your site, so the price fits your office instead of a tier chart.
How pricing worksStart with
Your site
Your site rebuilt on your .gov, every page and document carried over, with news, alerts, department pages, one directory and the one-screen desk.
Add when you’re ready
- Meetings and notices
- Minutes from the recording
- Records requests
- Applications and permits
- Payments
- The code
- Alerts, e-mail and text
- New pages as you need them
Do we have to learn a new system?
No. Your site keeps the pages and the menu you know. Posting is one screen with one box, and a short call covers it. You can also post by e-mail from your own address. For a big change, tell us and we make it.
What happens to our current website and vendors?
We rebuild the site from what you publish now, so nothing is lost, and forward the old addresses. If you are under contract with another vendor, we can run alongside until it ends. Your e-mail is not affected.
Does this need to go out to bid?
No. Every Public Desk quote stays under the $20,000 twelve-month aggregate that triggers competitive bidding under General Municipal Law 103. Your own procurement policy applies, usually written quotes, and we supply the comparison.
Who owns the site and the records?
The village. The .gov domain is registered to the village, and every agenda, minute, recording, request and payment record exports as plain files at any time, without a fee.
See your site first
Tell us who you are. We build your site and send you the link.
Built from the records you already publish, marked as a demo, carrying no seal, taking no payments or requests, and taken down the day you ask. Judge it the way a resident would, then decide.
- No cost, no obligation, no sales sequence
- Nothing needed from you: we build it from what you already publish
- A private link for the mayor, the board and the clerk