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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCLD-010-12 Clarington REPORT MUNICIPAL CLERK'S DEPARTMENT Meeting: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Date: March 19, 2012 Resolution#: 61019 ,908'-12 By-law#: Report#: CLD-010-12 File#: Subject: COUNCIL ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS INCLUDING ELECTRONIC AGENDAS RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT Report CLD-010-12 be received; 2. THAT staff be directed to prepare a "Technology Devices for Council" policy which includes a provision for tablets funded through the 2013 budget; 3. THAT direction be provided to staff on the provision of the use of tablets/laptops in the Council Chambers while limiting the ability to send/receive emails as per the Procedural By-law; and 4. THAT implementation of a meeting management software solution to provide for improved efficiencies, transparency and environmental responsibility be referred to the 2013 budget. Submitted by: Reviewed by: 4pt B e, CMO aranklinu, Municipal Clerk Chief Administrative Officer PLB/CAG CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T 905-623-3379 REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 2 1. BACKGROUND At the February 13, 2012 Council Meeting, Council approved the following Resolution GPA-108-12: THAT staff be directed to report back on allowing Members of Council electronic access to their desk in the Council chambers including: access to network drives; stored email; how other municipalities are using laptops in their meetings; and electronic agendas. Staff has contacted several municipalities to ascertain the status of the use of technology by their members of council and electronic meeting management solutions. Attachment 1 to this Report is a summary of staff's findings. Staff have contacted several vendors to gain a solid understanding of the concept of electronic agendas, it's benefits to Council members, staff and the public; associated costs and integration capabilities with existing software/data systems. 2. ACCESS TO NETWORK DRIVES AND STORED E-MAIL 2.1 Clarington's current Procedural By-law restricts the use of "communication devices". Therefore, access to files and stored emails through the use of laptops, tablets, etc. is permitted under the current Procedures. Challenges we face in moving forward with using technology in the Chambers include the installation of power outlets and IT work related to internet and email permissions, as well as potential after-hours IT support of portable devices. To consider allowing electronic access at their desks, staff has considered the following requirements: hardware, software, and power source. Staff research indicates that some or all members of council in several municipalities including Ajax, Pickering, Uxbridge, Oshawa, Port Hope, Kawartha Lakes and Cobourg, are using laptops or tablets during their meetings. In those municipalities cited above who have not moved corporately to an electronic agenda (as described in section 3. of this Report), only some of their members of council are using the laptop or tablet; and in most cases, they are using it primarily during their standing committee meetings. As for affecting the flow of the meeting, the municipalities advised that there were no issues other than the need to restrict emails. 2.2 Hardware Requirements Traditionally, Members of Council have been supplied a Blackberry and a PC in their Municipal Administrative Centre Office at the beginning of each term of REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 3 council, for their exclusive use to assist them in fulfilling their duties as a Clarington Councillor. A desktop PC does not provide for portability. Other municipalities such as Whitby, Uxbridge, Oshawa, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Port Hope, Cobourg, Kawartha Lakes, London, and Oakville provide laptops to their members of council to facilitate flexibility and electronic agenda access. In fact, the Towns of Ajax and Whitby do not provide members of council office space but rather provide for a common office area to which members have access and can book should they wish to meet on site. With the recent shift to electronic agendas some municipalities are providing tablets to their members of council. In 2012, the Town of Ajax approved the cost for the tablets and they are expected to be rolled out later this year. The Region of Durham is also contemplating the issuing of tablets as part of a pilot test in 2012. The estimated cost to issue a tablet or laptop to each member of Council in Clarington ranges between $700 and $2500 depending on the model, features and supporting equipment. These prices are based on the equipment planned for the Town of Ajax and the pilot at the Region of Durham. Please note that the $2500 laptop and supporting equipment would be expected to replace an office desktop computer which costs approximately $500. Research findings indicate that where council members are using electronic devices such as laptops or tablets they often rely on IT support when they encounter difficulties. To ensure that IT staff are prepared and trained to support the equipment, to clearly define IT's role in support for these devices, and to prevent network and system catastrophes, it is recommended that council members be supplied with standardized devices. In support of this approach it is further recommended that the current practice of providing PCs to members of council be reconsidered and that staff prepare a "Technology Devices for Council" policy for Council's consideration. 2.3 Power Requirements There is no power currently supplied to the Council seating area within the Council Chambers. We have received a price quote of$10,000 (plus any floor/wall repair costs) to have power supply outlets installed for the desks in the Council Chambers. This work has not been budgeted for in the 1012 budget. If Council should decide to proceed with this project, the Repair and Maintenance account for the Council Chambers will be over budget. REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 4 2.4 Network / Internet Permissions The Council Chambers currently has a password protected wireless access point which enables wireless access to our corporate network as well as the internet. IT staff confirm that Council email can be restricted from send/receive for a period of time as deemed necessary with the caveat that the blocked emails will not be queued and will need to be resent after the email blackout has been disabled. There will be overtime costs associated with the resumption of email delivery. 3. ELECTRONIC AGENDAS 3.1 Electronic Agenda / Meeting Management Solution For the purposes of this report, an electronic agenda is understood to be an "agenda image"; an electronic version of an agenda, most likely in .pdf file format. This type of file is typically created either by converting an MSWord document or through scanning the agenda and saving it as an electronic .pdf file and can be considered to be more or less a standalone file generated once the agenda is finalized. It is what is currently offered on our Clarington website. A "meeting management solution" is understood to be a specialized software system used to automate an electronic flow of: documents forming part of the agenda, recording of decisions during the meeting, tracking of action items following the meetings; and publishing the agendas and minutes for public access. An electronic version of an agenda is created as part of this automated meeting management solution process. Additionally, these systems provide for "easy to use" access to the agendas for Members of Council. This access not only provides for viewing of the agenda but also the opportunity for each meeting participant to easily access all related reports and supporting information, record personal comments and follow-up notes and search through previous reports and agenda items. 3.2 Research Objectives With the increase in quantity and complexity of Council matters, length of meetings, demands on staff, and openness and transparency expectations from the public, combined with the advances in technology, staff undertook to research options for improving our report, agenda, minute and publication processes. Over the past year, the Municipal Clerk's Department staff has done considerable research on the issue of electronic agendas and an automated approach to council meeting support. Information was gathered from the internet, periodicals, through responses to a questionnaire issued to other municipalities, and from a full analysis of our current processes. Staff has REPORT NO.: CL®-010-12 PAGE 5 attended several software demonstrations offered by vendors and staff from other municipalities who have implemented an electronic agenda system. While the resolution of council did not specifically state the objectives for reporting on the use of technology in the Chambers and electronic agendas, based on the comments shared during the meeting by members, staff believes the objectives include convenience and improved access to documents while reducing or even eliminating the need for hardcopies. The research undertaken by staff in 2011 was initiated to not only meet those objectives mentioned above, but also to meet the following objectives relative to all components of the meeting process: • Remain current in terms of use of emerging technologies • Increase readability for staff, Council and the public while supporting the Municipality's strategic priorities of"connecting Clarington" and "promoting green initiatives" • Improve efficiency prior to, during and after meetings, including reducing duplication of effort • Reduce formatting issues (caused by each department generating reports using a separate template) • Reduce resource (paper and staff) use 3.3 Current Process — Issues and Challenges Agenda preparation is labour intensive and subject to duplication of effort. Reports represent the bulk of the GPA agenda content and correspondence items represent the bulk of the Council Agenda. The drafting of a report can be a complex manual process wherein the document is handled several times by several staff, often within the same department, prior to being approved. The summarizing of correspondence for the council agenda is also a very time- consuming manual process. The GPA agenda is compiled, reviewed and manually photocopied, scanned and distributed. Staff then scans the complete agenda package and posts it to the website for public access. Minutes are prepared by copying and pasting recommendations from the reports. The GPA Committee report to Council and GPA correspondence are prepared by copying and pasting recommendations from the minutes. Following each meeting, staff saves the electronic documents in our Laserfiche electronic document management software system which pushes the documents into the public access portal on our municipal website. In addition to the untold hours in preparing and reviewing reports, and assembling the skeleton of the agenda, the photocopying, assembling and distributing the current paper agenda for GPA averages five hours per meeting; Council averages three hours per meeting. Staff time for scanning individual reports and full agendas, including handouts and update memo is approximately two hours per meeting. This results in a total of 214 (identifiable) hours annually REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 6 spent just photocopying and distributing the agenda. Attachment 2 is a workflow diagram of the current meeting management process. The agenda preparation is also paper intensive. Currently 38-40 copies of agendas are printed, heat-sealed bound and distributed for every Council and GPA meeting for approximately 36-40 meetings per year. These agendas are distributed to Council, Department Heads, other staff, media, other levels of government, and subscribers. A Council agenda averages 100 pages and a GPA agenda averages 235 pages. The visual below on the left represents one year's worth (2010) of Council and GPA agendas, for one person. This is a vast amount of material to be reviewed, compiled, bound, read and referenced later. If this amount was multiplied by the number of people who receive the agenda (40), the result would be approximately 232,000 sheets of paper per year. If this paper was stacked it would reach the height of a six storey building=visual below on the right). The good news is that the white copy paper currently used is 100% recycled paper so no "new" trees are used to produce the agendas (except for covers and coloured paper). Amount of Paper for 1 Person Per Year Amount of Paper for All Agendas Per Year zS 5 ti �„rz w� Consultation with the Purchasing Division found that the annual cost for publishing the agendas, conservatively speaking and assuming all copying is done on black and white, is approximately $8900. The actual costs are higher if staff time, colour copies, binding and distribution costs are factored in. 3.4 Research Findings Early on in the research undertaking it became very apparent that implementing an electronic meeting management software solution would provide a resolution to the increased demands noted above. Municipalities and other government agencies who have implemented an electronic meeting management solution, or who are in the process of implementing such a system, report that savings in staff time and ease of implementation were their primary reasons for implementing an electronic solution for meeting management. Further, studies have cited the following benefits: REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 7 • Citizens, Council, Staff, and the media all have access to the same information at their convenience • No copies, no packages and no mailing in preparation for meetings • Updates at any time before the meeting • More efficient meetings and better prepared for meetings • Media and citizens are better informed • Archives are available for reference • Other boards and commissions have the option of using the technology for their meetings Municipalities who have implemented a meeting management solution report that their objectives for automating their processes have been met; they have received positive feedback from the public because of the improved and simplified access to the public records; and they have reduced their operating costs. The success of implementation reportedly relies heavily on ease of use and reliability of the software system as well as training and system support. No major issues have been identified by any municipalities who were contacted during this research. Currently the Municipal Clerk's office posts several public records, including Council and Committee Agendas and Minutes and Reports, on the Municipality's website. The Agendas include all materials which are also published in hardcopy and supplied to each Member of Council, with the exception of confidential materials. At any time anyone may log onto the website and download any of the published public documents. Our frequent users of these records have requested that we improve our access service by enabling links between the various related documents. This is a service that we currently cannot provide, but could be easily offered through a meeting management software solution. 3.5 Anticipated Barriers 3.5.1 Budget The primary challenge to implement a complete meeting management solution for our council and committee meeting support is budget constraints. The estimated cost for implementing such a solution is detailed below. Item Details C©st Estimate Software . Full software solution including report $30,000 management, electronic agenda, minute recording and action items tracking and implementation and training Hardware Laptop or tablet for each member of Council $17,750 each Department Head $25,300 REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 8 Overtime Research findings indicate that the key to Up to the success of providing an automated approximately solution is on-site technical support for $3000/yr. the Council members on how to use the system. To ensure success, an IT support technician would be required to be on-site/on-call for each of the meetings should an issue arise. Currently, IT would only be on site during the day, and therefore overtime hours would be incurred for Council meetings. In addition to on call or overtime, there may be additional IT support time for equipment regularly in use after hours; the impact of this on the IT staff resource requirements will be assessed as the program is implemented. Power supply Install power supply at desks in $10,000 chambers. (Estimate does not include any necessary floor/wall repair work) 3.5.2 System Compatibility Laserfiche is the Municipality's electronic data management system (EDMS) for agendas, minutes, reports and by-laws (including providing web access to the public). Any electronic solution would need to integrate Laserfiche. As stated earlier in this report, the Region of Durham is also investigating the benefits of implementing a meeting management software solution. Should Clarington move forward in isolation the outcome could result in Clarington's regional councillors having to learn and master two different systems. Despite this challenge, users of systems report the systems are very easy for the council members to master. 3.6 Who is Using Electronic Agendas? The following municipalities have successfully implemented an electronic meeting management software solution: Kawartha Lakes, Port Hope, Peterborough County. The City of Pickering has recently purchased a new system and implementation is well underway. The Town of Whitby has also purchased a system and implementation will be completed this year. The Region of Durham advises that they are moving ahead with a pilot test for one Standing Committee this year. REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 9 The Township of Uxbridge and the Town of Cobourg have both moved to a paperless agenda environment using .pdf images of the agenda, similar to what is currently offered through our municipal website. 4. CONCURRENCE This report has been reviewed by Marie Marano, Director of Corporate Services/Human Resources, and Lori Gordon, Deputy Treasurer, who concur with the recommendations. 5. CONCLUSION Council's resolution for staff to report on the issue of using technology in the chambers including electronic agendas is appropriate and timely. Technology advances are more or less pushing every aspect of our lives to wanting and needing more information at our finger tips. The question really, is how to best achieve this for Clarington. The Procedural By-law does not prohibit a member of Council from using a laptop, tablet or other similar technical device to access their documents electronically during a Committee or Council Meeting. Wi-Fi is currently available. IT would need to create additional accounts which would allow members of Council to access their network drives and email repository while restricting send/receive functions. Power supply to the council desks in the Chambers would have to be installed at an estimated cost of $10,000 plus repairs. Electronic images of the Council and Committee agendas are currently available through the Municipal website. Although the current process works, there are areas which could be greatly improved by automating the meeting management process. While the Municipality of Clarington already provides agendas, minutes and reports on the Municial website (albeit in .pdf), thereby providing a great deal of accountability and transparency, the following aspects of the current process could be reduced: • Staff time in preparation, formatting, duplication of efforts, reviewing of reports, all of which forms the bulk of the GPA meeting. • Staff time in summarizing council correspondence, which can take several hours per council meeting. • Photocopying costs, including staff time, courier, paper, and toner. • Staff time in preparing, distributing and scanning the agenda update memos for changes to the agendas. • Reprinting reports/items which have been deferred from one meeting to another. REPORT NO.: CLD-010-12 PAGE 10 And these areas which could be improved: • More timely approval process. • Public access to information. Currently there are only three full public copies of the agenda package available to the public (and 60 of the front pages only). This makes it difficult for the public to follow discussions when points are made regarding details of the agenda package. The results of our research indicate it is in Clarington's best interest to proceed with implementing an automated meeting management solution. Staff estimates a 3-year return on the capital investment with the benefits to Members of Council, staff and the public being immediate upon implementation. The use of technology to automate government provides benefits in terms of staff savings, cost savings, and moves government and the public closer together. That said, however, staff did not proceed with this project during the 2012 budget because of concurrent priorities. The Municipal Clerk's Department identified two major system projects and for cost containment reasons concluded that deferring the automation of council meeting management to 2013 was the fiscally responsible thing to do. Based on the foregoing, staff respectfully recommends that the implementation of a meeting management software solution be referred to the 2013 budget and, in the interim, staff be directed to prepare a Technology Devices for Council Policy and take the necessary steps to provide the use of tables/laptops in the Council Chambers. CONFORMITY WITH STRATEGIC PLAN — The recommendations contained in this report conform to the general intent of the following priorities of the Strategic Plan: Promoting economic development X Maintaining financial stability X Connecting Clarington X Promoting green initiatives Investing in infrastructure Showcasing our community Not in conformity with Strategic Plan Staff Contact: Anne Greentree, Deputy Clerk Attachments: Attachment 1 - Summary of Findings — Other Municipalities Attachment 2 - Current Meeting Management Support Process List of interested parties to be advised of Council's decision: None N C C N (3) (1) N 4. +' O b-0 Q N v W ate-+ C O aJ m e m f:1. CL -a m +J > .' p N -Q N W bD — O m o p 3 v E _v N O in O O aJ E c E � +� U t E Q- C t O SO m 0 a- p p 'Q U C O V Q O N m C) E > 'a X +, o L �, +, >. 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ATTACHMENT#_ REPORT# C40-010-111 START NOT APPROVED,Report returned to Department Head NO YES YES Approved Approved? � Report Author Department NO CAO Municipal Clerk's Department Reviews Reviews report Creates/Revises Head Reviews Report Report For formatting/typo errors Report NOT APPROVED,Report returned And decision on Inclusion to Author to make Revisions In Agenda L fiche YES NO pprove Reports Scanned to Web Forward to Agenda Las ache Mail/Print Room Package for copying i; %I Agenda Package GPA Agenda Package Scanned to Web --•- •-----^ Distributed ase e Update Memo Prepare Minutes Update Memo Scanned to Web Shell Distributed ase e Minute Scanned to Web Attend Meeting, Finalize Record Minutes GPA GPA Corresponde ce Drafted& Minutes Printed,Awaiting Council Approval ase e LL \J/ \ Reports Report#1 Scanned to Web .o Appro ed Inco in Report#1 Created c Scanned to Web g Using Minutes Reports to CouncilCorresp ndence fq ase e � v °' a o Municipal Clerk's Department U Reviews Council Agenda Items and Agenda Items Agenda Package c Lase he Compiles Agenda Forwarded to Scanned to Web o, Mail/Print Room for Finalize Copying and Distribution ase e c ouncil 01 Minutes Scanned es \ o To Web �� Update Memo H ase END 9 Scanned to Web o U Update Memo (D By-laws Scanned By-laws Attend Meeting, Distributed To Web Executed Record Minutes Prepare Minutes Q Shell Approved GPA Correspondence Signed,Copied,Distributed and Filed Council Correspondence Created&Distributed