Board to Debate Going Paperless Tonight

In the past, village leaders would spend time and money before every meeting printing out 22 agenda packets, each dozens of pages, for trustees, staff and the media. In total, this practice cost the village $863 a year, according to Jamie Belongia, assistant to the village manager.

Tonight, that all stops. Instead of 22 packets for the June 27 meeting—each one 85 pages long—village leaders will only print out eight, for the elected officials. And the Village Board will discuss whether to drop that number to zero.

It’s all part of a green initiative sparked by Trustee Matt Brolley, who suggested going paperless at a board meeting last month. With computers in (nearly) every home, and email quickly overtaking old-fashioned pen and ink as the preferred form of communication, taking this step just makes sense—both economic and environmental, he said.

“On many levels, if we’re going to embrace green technology for our future, we have to fundamentally change how we do things,” Brolley said.

This isn’t a new idea, as Belongia found out when she decided to research how other neighboring municipalities have gone about it. She looked at eight cities and villages—Yorkville, Oswego, Sugar Grove, Geneva, St. Charles, North Aurora, Warrenville and South Elgin—and found that five of them have gone paperless for meetings, and two of the others offer board members the option of printed or e-mailed agenda packets. (See chart below.)

In Montgomery, however, the relative comfort of village trustees with computers and email will have to be taken into account. The board ranges from those who run their own websites, like Stan Bond, to those who do not even own a computer, like Pete Heinz.

Village staff has already gone paperless, but the board must decide whether to do the same. In a memo written to trustees, Belongia outlined several options. The board can decide to go paperless entirely, using their own portable devices to read the packets, or finding money in the village budget to buy those devices for trustees.

They can also decide to leave it up to each trustee whether to go paperless. This is the option village staff recommends, Belongia said. Under this system, trustees could also use their own portable devices, or the village could purchase them.

But Belongia said the cost of laptops (or iPads or other devices) should be taken into account, and wouldn’t be affordable until the next budget cycle, for fiscal year 2013.

Brolley, however, has a different idea. He suggested that trustees could give back the $1,200-a-year pay increase that went into effect this year, and that money could be used to buy laptops or other devices to read electronic agenda packets.

The raise was voted on years ago, since sitting trustees can’t vote to lower or raise their own pay, and several board members have asked about giving that money back, to show support for village staffers tightening their belts in the down economy.

The digital devices bought with this money, Brolley explained, would remain with the seats, not the trustees in them. Should board members lose an election or decide not to run, they would not get to keep the laptops purchased under this plan.

Brolley said he has not received any feedback from his colleagues on this idea. Trustee Denny Lee said that even though he is “old-fashioned,” he sees the merit in going paperless, and would support it.

“I’m not real good on computers, but I think it’s a good idea, and I’ll just have to learn,” he said.

Bond said he has requested that staff remove him from the printed agendas list, and will go paperless tonight with an iPad.

The Village Board will meet tonight at 7 p.m. at , for their only June meeting. They will also decide whether to spend $16,076 replacing 16 village computers, $11,684 on annual water testing required by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and $60,000 extending a lime sludge removal contract.

Additionally, trustees will debate spending $386,500 to resurface roads—with $100,000 of that coming from a state grant—and $160,000 buying salt for the winter.

Results of the village's study: