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IPads saving cities paper costs - USATODAY.com <br />Page 1 of 2 <br />IPads saving cities <br />paper costs <br />Updated 8/10/2010 1:40 PM <br />By Katharine Lackey, USA TODAY <br />By Sangjib Min, AP <br />Council member Douglas Pons hands over an iPad to <br />Judith Knudson as they check out the device during a <br />council meeting in Williamsburg, Va. <br />Soon after Hampton, Va., Mayor Molly Ward bought <br />an iPad for her personal use last spring, she started <br />thinking of an application of her own — one that <br />might save her town both paper and money. <br />Ward decided it would make both environmental and <br />fiscal sense for the Hampton City Council to switch <br />from paper to iPads for conducting official <br />business. <br />The council agreed and last month made the move <br />that Ward says will save $18,000 annually in paper <br />costs. The devices for the six other council <br />members totaled $4,200, she says. <br />Hampton joins a growing number of municipalities <br />— from Williamsburg, Va., to Albertville, Ala., to <br />Redwood City, Calif. — that are turning to iPads to <br />conduct government business. <br />Megan Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open <br />Government says iPads make it easier for council <br />members to e-mail, text or chat during a meeting <br />without those conversations becoming part of the <br />public record. <br />"Records generated are subject to disclosure, but we <br />don't have a mechanism for getting those records <br />from an iPad," Rhyne says. <br />"Citizens are going to want to be able to see that the <br />iPads are being used as they are touted — as a cost - <br />efficient way to keep track of the documents being d <br />iscussed during the meetings and not being used <br />to subvert the open meetings and open records <br />requirements," she says. <br />Ken Bunting of the National Freedom of Information <br />Coalition says data from the council members' iPads <br />should be public record, although the law varies by <br />state. <br />They shouldn't be conducting public business out <br />of public view," he says, and if those are <br />government devices they're using, that ought to be <br />public record." <br />Advertisement <br />AutoPilot?( <br />--)The new travel <br />app for i %oone2 <br />and iPod touch; <br />SEE HOW IT <br />WORKS» <br />Print Powered By <br />tDynaiiiicS_ <br />http: / /www.usatoday.com/ news / nation /2010 -08 -09 -ipad- government N.htm <br />11/14/2011 <br />