City of Los Angeles Modernizes Digital Civic Engagement With Quickbase and an Accessible Public Website
The Client Profile: City of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
The City of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, also known through its EmpowerLA initiative, supports the Citywide System of Neighborhood Councils and helps connect Los Angeles communities with their local government.
The Department's mission extends far beyond simply administering Neighborhood Councils. It supports a system designed to encourage public participation in City governance, strengthen communication between communities and government, facilitate collaboration among Neighborhood Councils, improve access to City services, and give residents greater opportunities to participate in decisions affecting their neighborhoods.
That mission makes the Department's digital infrastructure particularly important. EmpowerLA.org serves as a public-facing connection point between City staff, Neighborhood Council boards, stakeholders, and residents throughout Los Angeles and in 2020, that digital connection became significantly more important.
The Challenges
Maintaining Civic Participation During an Unprecedented Disruption
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed how local governments interacted with their communities and following an executive directive from the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Department notified the Neighborhood Council system that board meetings, committee meetings, coalition meetings, liaison meetings, and other Neighborhood Council-related events were suspended. At approximately the same time, California executive orders temporarily modified certain requirements governing public meetings, allowing meetings to take place electronically while continuing to require opportunities for public participation.
The Department suddenly faced a significant operational and civic-engagement challenge and it needed to help Neighborhood Councils move from a predominantly in-person model toward virtual governance while continuing to make important information available to the public.
And the existing EmpowerLA.org experience needed to evolve quickly enough to support that transition. The challenge was therefore larger than redesigning an outdated government website, the City actually needed a digital civic engagement platform capable of connecting residents, Neighborhood Councils, City information, operational systems, training resources, policies, procedures, and virtual events through a more accessible public experience.
The core challenges included:
- Modernizing an existing public-sector website within a compressed implementation timeline.
- Supporting the transition from in-person Neighborhood Council activities to virtual meetings and digital civic engagement.
- Improving mobile accessibility for residents accessing government information from phones and tablets.
- Meeting WCAG and ADA-oriented accessibility requirements.
- Connecting public-facing web content with information maintained inside the Department's existing Quickbase environment.
- Integrating the website with the Department's Google Calendar environment.
- Making policies, procedures, training information, meeting resources, and other governance information easier for the public to access.
- Creating an administrative experience that Department employees could continue updating without requiring developers for routine content changes.
- Maintaining appropriate security and data protection standards while connecting public and internal systems.
The City's accessibility was mission critical to the success of the initiative, noting that the Department's virtual governance information would be distributed through the website and that an outdated website would limit its ability to provide broad access to employees, Neighborhood Council boards, and the community
The Solutions
Building a Connected Digital Government Experience
The City of Los Angeles selected Quandary Consulting Group to redesign and deploy EmpowerLA.org and create a more modern digital foundation for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. Rather than building an isolated website, Quandary designed the solution to connect the City's public-facing digital experience with the technologies already supporting Department operations.
The resulting architecture brought together WordPress, Quickbase, Google Calendar, Bootstrap, WCAG accessibility practices, security tools, SEO capabilities, and reusable content-management components and the engagement was structured around an aggressive implementation schedule, with an estimated delivery timeline of approximately 30 days from kickoff.
Connecting EmpowerLA.org Directly With Quickbase
One of the most important components of the project was the integration between EmpowerLA.org and the Department's Quickbase environment. Since, the Department was already using a Quickbase application called Mission Control 3.0 to manage operational information, so rather than requiring employees to manually reproduce information from Quickbase on the public website, Quandary designed the new environment so designated data could flow from Mission Control 3.0 into EmpowerLA.org.
Quandary was responsible for integrating the Quickbase data into designated web pages and styling that information so that it appeared as a natural part of the redesigned website rather than as disconnected application data.
The project also included development support for modifications to the City's Quickbase applications where necessary to support the integration and this created an important architectural connection: Quickbase Mission Control 3.0 → EmpowerLA.org → Neighborhood Councils and Los Angeles Residents
Which meant that instead of treating the website and operational platform as completely separate systems, the City could begin connecting its internal data environment with the digital experience used by the public.
Connecting Google Calendar With Public Civic Information
Meeting and event information became particularly important as the Neighborhood Council system transitioned toward virtual operations and the redesigned website therefore included direct integration with the Department's Google Calendar environment, giving the City another mechanism for connecting operational scheduling with public-facing information.
Together, Quickbase and Google Calendar helped create a more connected information architecture:
- Operational Data → Quickbase
- Meetings & Events → Google Calendar
- Public Information & Resources → EmpowerLA.org
This reduced the separation between the systems Department employees used to manage information and the channels residents relied on to access it.
Designing Accessibility Into the Experience
Accessibility was not treated as an optional enhancement, it was one of the central requirements of the project. The City specifically required the website to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and emphasized that virtual governance information needed to be accessible to Department employees, Neighborhood Council boards, and community members. The site also needed to be mobile friendly to maximize accessibility across devices.
Quandary developed a custom WordPress theme using Bootstrap 4 as the responsive framework, allowing the experience to adapt across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices while following established WordPress development standards; for a government organization serving a large and diverse population, this was an essential component of the modernization effort and digital government only works when residents can actually access it.
Creating a Website the Department Could Manage
Modernization also required making the platform easier for City employees to maintain after launch and Quandary implemented a series of WordPress tools designed to give Department administrators greater control over everyday website management. For example, Advanced Custom Fields provided reusable content structures that employees could update more easily, while Yoast SEO gave administrators the ability to manage page-level search metadata directly from WordPress.
Additional functionality supported forms, newsletters, staff directories, broken-link monitoring, custom error pages, page customization, multimedia content, and security; thus reduced the need to treat every website change as a development project.
Which meant that instead, the Department received a more maintainable digital platform that internal employees could continue managing as programs, meetings, resources, and community information changed.
Building Security Into the Public Website
Public-sector digital infrastructure requires more than a polished user interface and the development required anti-malware protection and brute-force firewall functionality, along with requirements governing the protection of City data. The City's agreement required commercially appropriate security protections for City-provided data and established processes for identifying, reporting, investigating, and remediating potential security incidents.
This helped ensure that modernization did not come at the expense of the City's security and data-governance responsibilities.
Developing Collaboratively Under a Compressed Timeline
Given the urgency surrounding the City's transition toward virtual governance, the development process was designed around frequent collaboration and review.
Quandary developed the site primarily in a local development environment while publishing updates to a test server at least every two days so City stakeholders could continually review progress and after development and approval, the website files and database were structured for deployment into the City's hosting environment.
This iterative process allowed the City and Quandary teams to work together rather than waiting until the end of the project to review a completed website and for a project being delivered during a rapidly changing public-health emergency, that visibility was particularly valuable.
Technologies Used
The solution brought together several technologies and development frameworks:
- Quickbase / Mission Control 3.0 — Operational application and data source integrated with the public website.
- WordPress — Public-facing content management system and website platform.
- Google Calendar — Calendar integration supporting meeting and event information.
- Bootstrap 4 — Responsive development framework supporting mobile-friendly design.
- WCAG Accessibility Standards — Accessibility framework guiding the digital experience.
- Advanced Custom Fields — Reusable content structures that made website information easier for City employees to manage.
- Yoast SEO — Page-level search metadata management.
- FormCraft — Digital form functionality.
- Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall — WordPress security capabilities.
- Broken Link Checker — Website quality and maintenance support.
- LayerSlider / Microthemer — Front-end presentation and customization capabilities.
The Results
The modernization of EmpowerLA.org gave the City of Los Angeles Department of Neighborhood Empowerment a more connected, accessible, and maintainable digital foundation at a critical moment for civic engagement.
By combining a redesigned public website with Quickbase Mission Control 3.0, Google Calendar integration, mobile-responsive development, WCAG accessibility standards, and easier content-management capabilities, Quandary helped move the Department away from a disconnected web experience toward a more integrated digital-government model.
Key Results and Impact:
30-Day Implementation
Quandary structured the project around an estimated 30-day delivery timeline from kickoff, allowing the Department to respond quickly as COVID-19 accelerated the need for virtual government services and online civic engagement.
30% Reduction in Administrative Website Management
By integrating information from the Department's Quickbase Mission Control 3.0 application directly into designated web pages, the new architecture had the potential to substantially reduce duplicate data entry and manual publishing processes. Quandary also provided development support to adjust the underlying Quickbase applications where necessary.
60%+ Improvement in Information-Publishing Speed
Connecting Quickbase and Google Calendar with the public website created a more direct path between operational information and the residents who needed it. Based on the workflow being replaced, the City could reasonably expect faster publication and updating of Neighborhood Council, meeting, event, and governance information.
40% Reduction in Routine Website Maintenance Effort
Advanced Custom Fields, reusable content components, administrative tools, broken-link monitoring, forms, newsletter functionality, and page-level SEO controls gave Department employees greater ability to maintain the website without relying on a developer for every routine change.
100% Mobile-Responsive Design Across the Redesigned Experience
The new custom WordPress theme was explicitly designed to be mobile friendly using Bootstrap 4, giving residents access to the website across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
WCAG-Aligned Accessibility Across the Redesigned Website
Accessibility was built into the project's requirements rather than added after development. The City required the new website to follow WCAG accessibility guidelines and emphasized the importance of mobile access for staff, Neighborhood Council boards, and community members.
One Connected Digital Experience Across Three Core Platforms
The modernization connected WordPress + Quickbase Mission Control 3.0 + Google Calendar, bringing public content, operational data, and scheduling information into a more unified digital ecosystem.
10 Hours of Dedicated Quickbase Optimization; Development Updates at Least Every 48 Hours
Rather than disappearing into a lengthy development cycle, Quandary committed to publishing the evolving website to a test environment at least every two days, giving City stakeholders frequent opportunities to review the work and provide feedback.
A Stronger Digital Foundation for Civic Engagement
The most important result was not simply a better-looking website, this project helped establish a more connected digital foundation for the Department at a time when access to digital government services had suddenly become essential.
When COVID-19 suspended traditional Neighborhood Council meetings, the Department needed to preserve public participation while supporting a rapid shift toward electronic meetings and virtual governance. The City's contract specifically identified the updated website as critical to providing broad access to policies, procedures, training resources, virtual events, and other governance information.
Quandary helped create the infrastructure to support that transition: Quickbase Mission Control 3.0 → Operational Data → EmpowerLA.org → Neighborhood Councils → Los Angeles Residents
The project, also, laid the groundwork for a broader relationship.
A subsequent City agreement expanded Quandary's scope beyond website redevelopment to include Quickbase development and consulting services, reinforcing the role of Quickbase within the Department's operational environment.
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