By paNOW Staff

iPads proposed for city council

Nov 1, 2010 | 12:15 PM

By Andrew de Souza

paNOW Staff

City administration is considering purchasing iPads for councillors and city department heads who regularly attend council meetings—with a price tag of more than $12,000.

In June, city manager Robert Cotterill proposed that council move to the handheld computer tablet. He said it would increase efficiency and reduce costs, mainly from reducing the thousands of pages required to print council meeting packages for each of the approximately 20 people who attend council meetings.

Since then, city administration has been diligently investigating the pros and cons. A report will be presented to executive committee today.
The report heavily favours the adoption of the iPad. It cites ease of use, portability and a lower cost than then either purchasing laptops or even continuing to physically print agendas.

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For Cotterill, it’s the possibility of finally realizing that long-ago-promised idea of the paperless office.

“We’ve all been sitting back for years waiting for technology to catch up to what we envisioned it to be one day,” said Cotterill. “I have wanted to have a paperless council meeting for years.”

Cotterill admits that using laptops has been an option but their price, complexity, software reliability and eventual obsolescence always posed a problem.

“The iPad came out and it was like, hey, this is a heck of a lot easier than a notebook (computer),” said Cotterill. “The iPad system is a heck of lot more stable and I think it’s worth looking at.”

“And the neat thing about the iPad is that it’s not that expensive.”

Currently, all council and committee documents are available in electronic copies, but are provided in print form to councillors, heads of departments and various other attendees to council meetings.

iPads currently retail for approximately $550 in the most basic model.

The city’s executive committee will review Cotterill’s report and decide whether or not they want to recommend it to council.

adesouza@panow.com