Planning Commission Going Paperless at Monthly Meetings

If you've been to an MPC meeting in the last couple of months, you might have noticed that planning commissioners are spending less time thumbing through pages and more time swiping touch screens.

That's because the agency has taken the first steps toward running paperless meetings. Each commissioner has been issued a tablet to view case-related materials, though they haven't completely given up their four-inch binders yet.

The MPC agenda package averages more than 450 pages every month. With 15 planning commissioners, the number of copies?as well as staff hours spent producing and delivering the packages to points across the county?added up quickly and prompted staff to seek a more efficient process.

The effort to go paperless was led by GIS Manager, Tim Kuhn, who researched the hardware and software needed to make it happen. "When we evaluated the current workflow, we saw an opportunity to both reduce costs and provide better service to the planning commission," Kuhn said.

With electronic distribution, planning commissioners can receive new or updated agenda information more quickly. Software automatically pushes content to the devices, allowing commissioners to read and evaluate new information several hours before the meeting. In the paper-based system, commissioners received updates only minutes before the call to order.

"Meeting information was usually available to the public on our website several hours before the commissioners received their paper copies. We needed to change that, so they could review the information and be prepared to field citizen questions," Kuhn said.

Staff members who have integral roles in assembling the paper agenda packages worked through June and July to develop a process for electronic distribution.

In August, commissioners Mac Goodwin and Janice Tocher volunteered to serve as test subjects and provided feedback on what worked well and what needed improvement. In September and October the entire commission took their tablets for a test drive but also had their three-ring binders on hand so the meeting wouldn't be affected if something went wrong. As the November meeting approaches, staff has asked for volunteers to go entirely paperless and report on the new process.

MPC Chair, Rebecca Longmire, says that planning commissioners are excited about moving to tablet-based information and saving reams of paper each month. "Using the devices has been easier than many of us thought," she said. "And thanks to the patient help of staff, we've had far fewer utterances of slightly profane language than we feared."