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Solano County Administration Going Paperless

5/26/2011

Solano County, CA - Encouraged by the latest new technology, Solano County's administration is streamlining work and saving money by going paperless.

Tuesday, the Solano County Board of Supervisors approved spending $83,015 to provide a countywide paperless agenda workflow management system with Granicus.

Supervisor Barbara Kondylis said the change is monumental.

She explained that after buying an iPad last year for the "fun of it," she stumbled across the county's website using the new toy.

"It was an accident, really, but I discovered it could be a solution for a lot of things," she said and added that she hasn't had an agenda packet on paper since August. "I don't have to carry the Brown Act with me or zoning codes, I have it here at my fingertips."

Kondylis noted that at one time, on average, 76 pages of paper were used every day by each county employee.

County Administrator Birgitta Corsello said that a couple of reams of paper are used weekly to print agenda packets.

The county has partnered with Granicus for the past six years in providing video streaming, minutes and online services -- a major component in implementing a seamless process from initiating an agenda submittal to archiving for the historical record.

Currently, in most county departments, the preparation, approval and submittal of agenda items is largely paper intensive. Most often, according to staff, the items are often hand carried or routed through a department for review and approval, then to the department head for signature, and typically hand carried to the clerk of the board.

An electronic agenda system would eliminate the back and forth, allow staff to post things simultaneously and could be operated on an iPad.

Supervisors will consider including the cost for purchasing iPads for the board, county administrator's staff and county counsel in the 2011-12 budget. The cost estimate, according to a staff report, is $800 per iPad.

Tuesday, Supervisor Jim Spering asked that research should be done to see how to make iPads available for public use to view the agenda.

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