Who Controls Your Municipal Website Domain?

A website login answers only part of the question

Imagine your township is changing website providers. The clerk can publish agendas, but nobody in the office knows which account manages the domain name. The old vendor handled it years ago, and the person who approved the work has retired. A website project now depends on finding access before anyone can plan the change.

You can check that arrangement while everything is working. Choose the municipality’s main public domain and document who manages its registration, DNS, and website. For Michigan townships, villages, and cities, this is a practical continuity task: the office should know who can approve a change and how an authorized person can carry it out.

Map the services behind the address

Start by separating four jobs. The registrar manages the domain registration. The DNS hosting service holds records that direct traffic to websites, email, and other services. The website host runs the site, while the content management system gives editors a place to update pages and documents. One company may perform several jobs, or different providers may handle each one.

Get.gov’s setup guidance distinguishes domain registration from DNS hosting. Make the same distinction in your municipal documentation. Record the provider, account identifier, authorized administrator, and support contact for each service. Ask your IT team to confirm the DNS host actually in use. An invoice for website hosting does not, by itself, show who can manage the domain.

Name authorized administrators and a backup

Assign a municipal contact who approves domain decisions and identify who performs the technical work. Where the provider supports delegated access, use named accounts with appropriate permissions. An editor who uploads meeting minutes may not need authority to change DNS or transfer registration. Keep the permissions tied to each person’s responsibility.

For a .gov domain, get.gov recommends adding additional domain managers so the organization retains access. Confirm that an authorized backup has accepted the invitation and can sign in. Protect administrative accounts with strong, unique passwords and supported multifactor authentication. ICANN’s domain protection guidance recommends unique credentials and additional authentication where available. Store access instructions through the municipality’s approved secure process.

Know the recovery route before someone leaves

Ask what happens if the usual administrator is unavailable or loses an authentication device. Record the provider’s approved recovery procedure, the person authorized to request help, and where required account information is kept. Keep passwords and recovery codes out of ordinary meeting notes or an unrestricted handoff document.

Also ask how staff would contact the provider if email on the municipal domain stopped working. Agree on an approved alternate contact route that fits the provider’s process. During a planned staff departure, verify the successor’s access before retiring the outgoing person’s administrative role. A name in a spreadsheet is useful only when that person has working, authorized access.

Give renewal and contact notices an owner

Record the domain’s expiration date and the renewal process that applies to its registrar. Confirm who receives notices and who follows up when a vendor handles the renewal. For paid registrations, keep the billing contact and payment arrangements current through the normal purchasing process. Verify a renewal request through the provider’s known portal or contact rather than relying on an unexpected email link.

Do not assume every domain renews automatically. The .gov registrar currently states that it does not offer automatic renewal. Assign a person to complete its renewal process and confirm completion. Other registrars have different arrangements; check the actual account. Keep contact details current when officials, staff, or providers change.

Plan provider changes around every connected service

A website move needs coordination with the people responsible for email and other domain services. Microsoft’s setup documentation explains that changing an MX record changes where incoming email is delivered. Replacing DNS settings for a website project can therefore affect more than the pages residents see.

Before an approved change, have IT capture the existing DNS configuration, identify the records involved, and document a recovery plan. Confirm which provider changes what, when it happens, and who checks the result. Include the main website, important subdomains, and incoming and outgoing email in that review. Keep the outgoing provider available until the agreed checks are complete, and handle its remaining access through the approved transition process.

Use this checklist for one municipal domain

At your next Michigan IT services review, bring the main domain name and ask your provider to walk through the account map with the responsible municipal staff. Resolve missing access through the provider’s authorized process, then keep the completed record somewhere the approved backup can reach.

• Identify the registrar, DNS host, website host, and editing platform separately.
• Record the municipal decision maker, technical administrator, and approved backup.
• Confirm authorized sign-in, account protection, and the provider’s recovery procedure.
• Assign ownership for contact notices, expiration tracking, and renewal confirmation.
• Review email and other dependencies before changing DNS or moving providers.
• Update access records and remove obsolete permissions through an approved handoff.