Belleville aldermen go ‘paperless,’ save city thousands of dollars

The “packet” of information compiled for aldermen before a City Council meeting often totals more than 100 pages.

It includes contract details, finance reports and minutes from previous meetings. And this packet along with documents for other city committees were hand delivered, usually by police officers, to the homes of the 16 aldermen at least twice a month, sometimes more.

Now, all of the documents are sent to aldermen via new Apple iPad Air tablets. City Clerk Dallas Cook estimated the cost of the paper, printing the packets and delivering them was $10,000 to $15,000 per year.

The iPads cost a total of $12,800, so the city can recoup that expenditure in one year and then realize a savings of up to $15,000 a year as long as the iPads last, said Cook, who proposed the idea of buying the iPads to save money.

“Obviously when you have a police officer, who is out there to protect people, having to deliver to 16 homes throughout the whole city, I mean that is so ridiculous you wouldn’t even believe it to be true,” Cook said.

“And the amount of paper that we wasted would upset any environmentalist in a great manner. So obviously we’re saving a lot of paper now, which also saves a lot of money and it also saves time.”

Previously, the city clerk’s office would produce 30 packets before a City Council meeting. The packets were for the 16 aldermen, the mayor and other city officials, and the media. In 2014, each alderman received about 2,967 pages of information for a total of 44,505 pieces of paper, according to Cook.

Along with police officers, community service officers with the police department and sewer department employees also would on occasion deliver the packets. Cook said the city suffered a “double whammy” when the community service officers were delivering packets because that took away time when they could be writing parking tickets, which is a source of funding for the city.

Most of the aldermen began using the tablets in May but there’s a holdout: Ward 6 Alderman Paul Seibert, the city’s longest-serving alderman.

Seibert, who has been on the council for 37 years, cast the lone “no” vote this spring against the plan to buy the iPads.

“I just think it’s a waste of money,” Seibert said of the tablets. “And I’m really not interested in computers. I’ve got one, but I don’t use it very often.”

Seibert said his neighbors miss seeing the police officers who delivered the City Council packets.

“People around me are asking, ‘Why don’t the police cars come down the street anymore?’ They miss the police coming into our yard. They really miss them.”

So will Seibert try out the iPad?

“I might,” he said. But he added, “nothing is for sure.”

Cook said the aldermen have received training on how to use the iPads. He noted Treasurer Dean Hardt and Rich Peppers, the city’s information technology specialist, have been assisting the aldermen.

The public can view the City Council meeting packets on the city’s website, www.belleville.net. Click on “open government” and then “City Council packets.”

Cook keeps one printed copy of the packet at the front desk of the clerk’s office on the first floor of City Hall. Also, the office makes available a computer that the public can use to access these and other public documents.

City policy require aldermen use the tablets only for city business. Most of the aldermen have been using them during recent City Council meetings.

“Years down the road this is going to be a great benefit,” Cook said. “When somebody says, ‘Well two years ago we approved this and here’s what you said.’ Well, we can look at what you said, we can look at what was on the agenda, we see what was voted on, we can look at the minutes from whenever.”

In addition, city ordinances dating back to 1935 have been scanned and city officials can now use their computers to search for information.

Cook said city officials are discussing a way to put the ordinances on the city’s website.

Assistant City Clerk Jennifer Starnes scanned in the ordinances from 1978 to 2014, and the city paid $1,096 to Golden Images of House Springs, Mo., to scan in the ordinances dating back to 1935.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Belleville aldermen go ‘paperless,’ save city thousands of dollars."