HomeMy WebLinkAboutCLD-018-13 Clarington REPORT
CLERK'S
Meeting: General Purpose and Administration Committee
Date: May 27, 2013 Resolution#: By-law#:
Report#: CLD-018-13 File#:
Subject: PUBLIC WEB ACCESS TO COUNCIL/COMMITTEE AGENDAS, MINUTES,
AND REPORTS
RECOMMENDATIONS:
It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee
recommend to Council the following:
1. THAT Report CLD-018-13 be received for information.
; ;
Submitted by: Reviewed I: ('_') (
arty . B ie CMO Franklin Wu,
Munjclpal 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-018-13 PAGE 2
1. BACKGROUND
1.1 At its meeting held on April 29, 2013 Council passed Resolution GPA-242-13:
THAT Staff report back on updating the municipal server to allow
more than the current maximum of 10 users to access the
agendas, minutes and reports on the municipal website.
1.2 The Municipality of Clarington has invested in Laserfiche which is a software
system used to manage our electronic document repository. This powerful
system is currently used to manage our records of historical value including
council and committee agendas and minutes, reports to committee and council,
Advisory Committee minutes, and our by-laws. Our repository for minutes and
by-laws includes records dating back to the 1800's. Since January of this year,
we have also added our council and Committee audio recording files (which can
be quite large files) to our Laserfiche repository.
1.3 Public access to these records is provided through a web portal called Weblink.
Until recently, our 10 concurrent licences proved to be sufficient.
1.4 Although it is difficult to predict access activity, staff believes that some of the
access traffic congestion is due to the file size of our meeting audio files. These
audio files are very large and given that they are not indexed by agenda item, our
listeners are required to listen to the whole of the file rather than simply jumping
to their desired agenda item discussion. Thus our listeners are tying up an
access licence for a longer period of time than would be if the audio files were
indexed.
1.5 As mentioned earlier, Laserfiche is a powerful system which we will continue to
expand to improve our internal processes as they pertain to records and
information management. We are on a path of continual improvement which
includes an annual review of our Laserfiche System needs. Our 2013 Budget
included funds to be allocated to expanding our number of licences both for
internal and public access to our records.
1.6 In determining the appropriate number of licences staff considered the types of
records currently available to the public, the types of records planned to be
released to the public over the next year, and the number of staff accessing the
records through the web portal. As well, staff considered the vendor's input
based on best practices with similar sized organizations.
1.7 The 15 new licences (for a total of 25) were implemented during the week of May
6t" within budget. At the time of writing this report, staff has confirmed that there
have been no reported incidents of difficulty accessing our public records either
by members of the public or our staff.
REPORT NO.: CLD-013-13 PAGE 3
1.8 Going forward, staff will continue to monitor access rates and should it be
concluded that our users are still experiencing on-going high levels of access
congestion, staff will consider alternatives for access to our meeting audio files.
2. CONCURRENCE:
2.1 This report has been reviewed by Rob Van Dyk, Manager of IT Services, who
concurs with the recommendation.
3. CONCLUSION:
Our public web access for Council/Committee meeting agendas, minutes and reports
was expanded to more than double the access licences. Staff will continue to monitor
our access traffic. Should on-going high levels of congestion prove to be an issue, staff
will take the necessary steps to address the matter.
CONFORMITY WITH STRATEGIC PLAN
Promoting economic development
Maintaining financial stability
X Connecting Clarington
X Promoting green initiatives
X Investing in infrastructure
Showcasing our community
Not in conformity with Strategic PIS
Staff Contact: Anne Greentree, Deputy Clerk
Attachments:
None