St. Michael Will Purchase Tablets for Council Members

With $2,500 of its $8,800 budget for technology improvements, staff will purchase five iPads, designating one for each council member.

“It’s really an effort to save wear and tear on our office equipment,” said Steve Bot, assistant city administrator. “And, it reduces the amount of paper we use each month. Things like the biweekly council packets and the minutes don’t have to be printed off. You can just pull them up.”

Other communities have purchased workstations or laptops for their councils or school boards. Hopkins, for example, has purchased laptops for their city council members that stay in city hall and are used at each meeting. Independent School District 622, which serves Oakdale, also uses laptops.

“This isn’t something we did to be frivolous,” said council member Kevin Kasel. “This is something we can pass on to future councils, and in the long term save a lot of money for the city. Especially the wear and tear on things like copiers and printers. Even toner.”

The iPads can be engraved, and will have the City of St. Michael logo on them. They will not be available to city staff, just to council members.

The city’s staff with technology expertise, including Bot and Community Development Director Marc Weigle, will help train the council members in on how to use the tablets, and how to access city information.

The move also corresponds with the city’s effort to put more records in an electronic format, such as zoning codes and city budgets.

“If you want to pull up something from the 2009 budget and compare it when we start planning 2013, you’ll be able to do that,” Kasel said.

Annual appointments made  

In other news, the city made its annual appointments to boards and committees, which is traditionally done at the first meeting of 2012.

Chris Schumm replaces Cindy Weston on Planning and Zoning Commission. Joe Marx will be alternate. Jerry Zachman and Nadine Schoen will serve on EDA. Kevin Kasel serves alternate. Schumm will also replace Zachman on hockey board, joining Kasel on as well. Nadine Schoen is the alternate. Marx and Zachman will represent St. Michael on the Joint Powers Water Board. Kasel will report to the St. Michael Fire Department and Schoen will handle any city matters with the FYCC.

In the absence of Zachman as acting mayor at meetings, Kasel will fill in.

City wraps up recycling transition

Collection carts were delivered to homes across St. Michael last week, as the city transitioned from bins to its single-sort system, contracted with Veolia.

Bot said the reaction, thus far, has been positive.

“There’s been the initial pushback, but most people understand the system and how it will work. We just keep hearing in a lot of communities that garbage tonnage has gone down, allowing people to get smaller garbage bins at a reduced cost to them,” Bot said. That, in turn, offsets the monthly recycling charge in many cases.

Schumm said he’s heard many who were once against the blue carts that are now in favor of the program.

“I got a couple of calls from guys who were giving pushback at first. They like them now, especially the single sort. One guy has it half full already,” Schumm said.

The only delivery mishap was full size, 65-gallon carts were delivered to some townhomes, where the request was for a smaller cart.

“Some of those people have even asked to keep the bigger cart, and the association has said they’re O.K. with it,” Bot said. “So it’s gone well.”

The city will get a quarterly report from Veolia on the tonnage recycled. Schumm said he’s interested to see how much that will grow year over year.