IPads Might Replace Village Board Packets

The Shorewood Village Board has been talking about possibly trading in their thick paper meeting packets for iPads.

The village's Technology Committee is recommending the Village Board make a transition to digital packets, which it says would save money, reduce paper usage and make staff more efficient. Saukville, Wauwatosa and Brown Deer are among the municipalities that have made the transition to iPads in recent years. 

Right now, Shorewood clerks prepare 12 Village Board meeting packets twice a month for seven trustees, two village attorneys, the village manager, clerk and a newspaper reporter. The packets average 130 pages, totaling 37,440 pieces of paper per year. A year's worth of packets are estimated to cost the village $870, not including manpower costs.

The village clerk spends three to five hours preparing the trustee packets, and it takes about an hour for a police officer to deliver the packets to trustees' homes before the board meetings.

If trustees determine digital packets are worth exploring, they would start a pilot program with one or two board members testing it out in the fall season. If proven successful, the iPads would be purchased for all seven of the trustees, and possibly the village manager and village attorney.

The benefit of an iPad over other digital tablets is the I-Annotate app, which includes the ability to handwrite notes using a stylus pen. 

Although the trustee packets are already available online, Shorewood Village Attorney Raymond Pollen said trustees need a separate village-owned device to make notes or highlight the documents. Any electronic notes made on a personal computer, for example, would make that computer subject to the state's public records law, Pollen said.

Having a separate device would "create an electronic wall" that separates village business from personal business, Pollen said.

The Shorewood Village Board has discussed the proposal at the last two meetings, but trustees still have some clarifying questions. The village's Technology Committee will revisit the plan in September.