Agenda Packets - 2018/10/01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Nyle, Paperless packets are tricky. Many cities have tried and failed. Other cities continue to try. A few have found success. And there are still many that find paper the most efficient medium for packets and this includes Roseville. One would thin that Roseville would have led the way on paperless packets but our Council (current and past) feel that the potential cost saving of electronic packets (eliminate staff time delivering packets and paper reduction) does not offset the efficiencies of paper. There are just a few components to paperless packets; Creation Distribution Review Annotation Retrieval (at meetings) Creation is the easy part. All current packets are distilled into a PDF document (at least thee should be) to be stored as an electronic record. Roseville's packets are PDF documents going back almost 18 years. Once the packet is finished, it is distributed by posting to the City website and then printed and delivered to each Council member by a CSO. The challenge for Mounds View in going paperless, as you pointed out, is the ability of every Council member to have access to the Internet to receive the packet. The cities that are "paperless" will still deliver a paper version to any Council member that is unable to access the Internet. Review and annotation is the tricky part. The benefit with paper is that many packets will contain detailed maps and diagrams. Some of these maps are printed 11X17 and folded in the packet. Viewing this electronically on a 9" tablet can be difficult for many. Making notations to an electronic document on a tablet requires software that would allow the Council member to add notes, highlight text and bookmark selected pages. These annotations must be saved to allow the Council member to be able to access this during the meeting. Adobe Acrobat (the subscription version) provides this functionality but from my experience, many Council members struggle with this part. It might require that Mounds View enlist a trainer to provide d solid working knowledge of any program you might select to provide the ability to annotate a PDF document. And finally, retrieval at meetings. This is another benefit of paper. It does not require power (obviously). But more importantly, it is the ease of thumbing through pages tagged by the Council member, reading the side notes and highlights. I have watched meetings where the Council member is busy swiping their finger across the tablet, pinching to zoom in and out of a document, trying to find their notes. And rarely looking up at the presenter or public. Roseville Council likes to stay engaged in the discussion and are hesitant about getting bogged down by a technology that requires hand and eye involvement with a tablet. At least this is what I have been told.