Agenda - 09-11-2012 - 3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date:September 11, 2012 Action Agenda Item No.3 SUBJECT:Report on Paperless Agendas DEPARTMENT:Information TechnologiesPUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N)No ATTACHMENT(S):INFORMATION CONTACT: Todd Jones, 919-245-2280 PURPOSE: To update the Board on additional progress on providing a paperless agenda process for Board of Commissioners’ meetings. BACKGROUND: During the 2010 retreat, the Board of County Commissioners expressed interest in pursuing paperless agendas for itsmeetings. In discussions with the Board, the following goals were advanced for such a process: Reduce the amount of paper consumed in conducting BOCC meetings Provide Board members, staff and the public a convenient electronic option for viewing meeting materials Realize efficiencies in the agenda preparation process Based on this input, staff researched various third party options for agenda automation. Research included site visits to peer governments using third party solutions, consulting with vendors and peers on solutions, and evaluating their strengths and shortcomings. Of the third party solutions, two vendors, Sire Technologies and Granicus, Inc., were identified as having the most complete products for agenda automation. These two vendors provided demonstrations to the BOCC attheMay 3,2012work session. After these demonstrations, there was a discussion between Board membersand staff on the merits of these products and their suitability within the organization. It became clear that the full benefits of these two vendor systems could be realized only by applying firm deadline rigor to agenda submissions, and that requests to add items after those deadlines would cause the Countyto lose any efficiency gains otherwise achieved through automation. Further, it was clear that holding parties to strict deadlines could compromise the ability to includeitems on agendas in a timely manner.