City of Pueblo is now helping residents find out what’s going on in City government and save a few trees at the same time.
The agendas for both the City Council Work Sessions and Regular meetings can now be accessed through the website at www.pueblo.us.
Although the agendas have been available online for some time, the documentation that details different resolutions and ordinances have not been. Now , anyone with Internet access can look over the agendas and the documents on their computers, laptops, IPads or other electronic devices.
The Pueblo City Council and City administration have long wanted to go to paperless agendas. Instead of bulky notebooks, each City Council member now utilizes an IPad and the administrative staff use their laptops which allow them to follow along the agendas.
The move to paperless agendas has been one of City Clerk Gina Dutcher’s goals for years.
“When you factor in the costs of binders, reams of paper, staff preparation time and other things, the old agendas were costing more than $15,000 a year,” she says. “And that figure does not include things like toner and ink to make the numerous amount of copies.”
Money was not the only consideration in going to the new form of agenda. There, of course, was the amount of paper involved—a lot of paper.
“We prepared 14 binders and packets every two weeks for council and some of the administrators,” says Daryl Payne, Municipal Records and Technical Coordinator for the Clerk’s office. “On the average, each binder could contain 300 separate sheets of paper for the agenda and accompanying documents. Over the course of the year, we could go through more than 100,000 sheets of paper. Now, we won’t be doing that.”
The work session agendas used a good amount of paper as well. They consist, on the average, of four to six pages, and were sent out every week.
With the agendas online, the public can see exactly what the City Council is seeing at the same time. The paperless agenda also speeds the government process as the public can now look at documents on the computer screen instead of thumbing through a paper packet.
The City Council agendas can be found by clicking on “Council Meeting Agenda” on the website front page. You can also find archives of meeting by going to the City Council page.