City Council Goes Green
Approval of E-Agenda technology will improve access
to city meeting information

Residents will soon have greater access to city meeting agendas, minutes, video and audio thanks to the approval of an electronic agenda management system by the Naperville City Council at its Tuesday, March 18th meeting.

"I'm excited with the passing and hope we can do more to be environmentally friendly and make government more transparent," Councilman Grant Wehrli said.

The e-agenda system has already been in practice in other U.S. cities such as Fort Collins, Colo., and Olathe, Kan. It will include several components meant to provide more and faster services to residents, City Councilmembers, commission and board members and city staff. The system will allow
for the electronic development and production of City Council, Plan Commission, Zoning Board of Appeals and Transportation Advisory Board meeting agendas as well as provide the capability of electronic notation, processing and posting of meeting minutes.

In addition, the e-agenda system will provide online, on-demand access to City Council and Plan Commission meeting agendas, documentation, video and audio. This component enables residents and staff to view meetings online in real-time or view past meetings on-demand. Meeting documentation would be displayed side-by-side with video of the meetings and other content.

The decision to move forward with this system will also save considerable city staff time and environmental resources when it comes to the production of this type of documentation. It is anticipated that this system will reduce the time required to produce City Council meeting minutes to within a day or two after the meeting. Also, with a City Council agenda packet averaging 455 pages, the city expects to realize savings of at least $3,000 a year due to the need for less agenda packets being printed. The new system will eliminate the need for an additional full-time administrative assistant position in the City Manager's Office.

"This was an opening that is now just null and void. No one was fired because of this new system," Assistant to City Manager Daniel DiSanto said. According to the city clerk, searching for archived agenda information can be time-intensive, and residents are typically interested in specific items.

"This can delay responses to both staff and residents when we receive requests. This new system will streamline the process and also allow residents to access a searchable audio/video archive by agenda item using a keyword search," City Clerk Pam LaFeber said.

It is estimated the electronic agenda management system could be in place by the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009.