Woodbury City Council becomes iPad-friendly

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Woodbury City Council Members will soon use iPads to conduct city business.

The council adopted a resolution Wednesday to reimburse members for personally owned tablets.

A few staff members will also get to use iPads to distribute agendas and documents to the council, according to the resolution.

The city will spend a total of $7,445 on the iPads, but projections show the technology will save the city nearly $24,000 over a four-year period.

The city is migrating from traditional hard copy agenda packets to the new electronic process in an effort to save time and money, according to staff.

City staff first proposed different options where the council would either purchase their own iPads and be reimbursed, or the city would purchase the iPads for city business only.

The issue with devoting the tablets for city business only was that everything was subject to data practice requests.

“By reimbursing council members for their personal purchase of an iPad tablet computer and the necessary software and accessories, the iPad would stay a private tool for the council members to use in their performance as members of the Woodbury City Council,” a council letter stated.

All information shared on the iPads will be public, just like the current agendas.

The new policy will allow council and staff to purchase the tools necessary to review their meeting agendas electronically.

—Riham Feshir

Tags: news, woodbury, government