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f <br /> � <br /> Paperless Council Packets <br /> October 9, 2009 <br /> Page 2 <br /> o Cost Analysis (very rough estimates): <br /> ■ 23 meetings per year x $200 = $4600 cost of paper packets <br /> ■ Initial cost of 10 computers/software= �15,000 <br /> • What are the advantages and disadvantages of paperless/electronic agenda packets? <br /> o Environmental impact <br /> o Innovative/creative progress <br /> o Convenience <br /> o Financial impacts <br /> What Other Cities are Doing <br /> Council may find it helpful to review how other cities are implementing paperless/electronic <br /> agendas. Following is a brief summary of experiences of some area cities. <br /> • St. Louis Park—Council Members who are interested are using electronic agenda <br /> packets. Only the Mayor and 2 Council Members actively bring laptops. City provided <br /> laptop for Mayor, others prefer to bring their own. Adobe Acrobat Professional is used to <br /> both view the agendas and make notes/comments. <br /> • Fridley—City bought laptops for all Council Members at push from Mayor in 1999. <br /> After about 9 months, not a single Council Member was bringing their laptop to the <br /> meetings. They all used paper even though the electronic version contained the same <br /> information. The convenience of being able to take notes, as well as flip back and forth <br /> easily made the paper version preferable to this Council. An electronic agenda is still <br /> prepared and posted to their website. <br /> • Chanhassen—Has been paperless for about 5 years. Council Members are issued a <br /> standard laptop with MS Office and Adobe Acrobat. They download a pdf version of the <br /> agenda packet and use the editing tools within Acrobat to mark up the documents for <br /> their purposes during the meeting. Originally started because some Council Members <br /> traveled and wanted to receive packets while out of town. Considered putting files on a <br /> CD, but the problem was that some members didn't carry computers with them. <br /> • Big Lake— 7 laptops were purchased with very limited software ($600/computer in <br /> 2009). Packets are scanned and made available on the City intranet site as well as the <br /> city website for public access. 2 paper copies are generated—one for the recarder and <br /> one for the public at the meeting. The original packet is the permanent record. <br /> • Burnsville— Started in July 2009 to address budget cuts. All of the Council members are <br /> provided a small city laptop with wi-fi card. Most Council/staff that receive only an <br /> electronic packet bring their laptops to the meeting. One Council member likes to print <br /> off a few pages of things he has questions on and only brings that to meetings. Any <br />