BENTONVILLE — The days of rifling through half a ream of paper to find an agenda item are a thing of the past for the Bentonville City Council. Aldermen can now scan through hundreds of pages with the swipe of a finger on their new iPads.
Six of the eight council members picked up their electronic tablet devices Thursday and underwent a crash course on how to use them. Two members, Shane Perry and Ryan Parks, will continue to use their personal iPads instead of the city-issued devices.
At A Glance
Council Agendas
Bentonville City Council agendas are available for anyone to download on the city website at bentonvillear.com/cc_agendas.html. They are generally available by the Friday before the council’s Tuesday meeting.
Source: Staff Report
Tablets are available for their positions, however, in case aldermen in those seats choose to use city iPads in the future, said Jonathan Rogers, manager of information technology for the city.
The council voted to purchase the iPads in April for 10 elected officials and 24 staff members. The cost for the 34 iPad 2 devices, along with a monthly data plan, came to $34,850. Mayor Bob McCaslin told the City Council the devices will help the city meet its goal of reducing paper.
The Bentonville city clerk and city attorney also received iPads as did 10 detectives with the Police Department and several employees with the Electric Department. Training for staff members is planned for sometime in the future, Rogers said.
Jim Grider, Ward 4 alderman, was among four council members who took a one-hour lunch express iPad training course with city information technology staff Thursday. The aldermen set up their passwords, learned how to download agendas and tried out an application for making notes.
Grider was pleased with the new devices.
“This will give me the opportunity to be able to access information more quickly,” Grider said. “I have the ability to carry it around with me and make notes while I’m traveling in the city. It gives me a third eye in a way.”
Electronic delivery of city agendas will free up a police officer on Fridays who would otherwise be hand-delivering agenda packets to council members’ homes. Grider said he would like to see agendas become available earlier in the week prior to Tuesday meetings since changes can be electronically updated.
Chris Sooter, Ward 1 alderman, has been downloading the agendas from the city’s website for years instead of opting for a paper copy. He said he thinks the iPads will help aldermen be better informed during meetings.
“It’s going to be a very good tool for all the council members and staff,” Sooter said. “It will allow us to have more information at our fingertips.”
Along with the iPads, aldermen were issued city email accounts. Council members have used personal email accounts in the past. Sooter said he feels the new accounts will appear more professional.
Several organizations in Northwest Arkansas have ditched paper agendas in favor of tablet devices or laptops in recent years. The Springdale City Council and Fayetteville Planning Commission use the devices, and other groups are looking into adopting a tablet format.