Finance and Administration Report: Electronic Agendas and Devices Policy
A recommendation from the Deputy Corporate Officer to adopt a new policy governing the use of electronic agenda systems and iPads for Council members.
TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION REPORT
TO: Committee of the Whole FROM: Elena Bolster, Deputy Corporate Officer DATE: November 2, 2016 MEETING DATE: November 8, 2016
ELECTRONIC AGENDAS AND DEVICES POLICY
RECOMMENDATION:
THAT Electronic Agendas and Devices Policy No. 0100-044 be adopted.
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE'S COMMENTS: I concur with the recommendation.
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER'S COMMENTS: I concur with the recommendation.
PURPOSE OF REPORT:
To obtain approval of a policy regarding the use of an electronic agenda system and devices for Council members and staff.
BACKGROUND:
Council approved funding in the 2016 budget for the implementation of an electronic agenda system and electronic devices to be used by Council and some members of senior staff in conjunction with this system.
As recommended in the Town’s IT Strategic Plan, the relevant iCompass system has been procured. Since that time, Administration and Finance/IT staff have been undergoing training and the electronic agenda system will soon be “live”.
DISCUSSION:
The purpose of the attached proposed policy (see Attachment “A”) is to govern the terms of use of the electronic agenda system and related electronic devices (iPads) for both Council members and staff. This policy is based on examples from the Capital Regional District, City of Colwood, Township of Esquimalt and District of Sooke.
As an overview, the iCompass system will allow staff to upload agendas “to the cloud” and, through the iPad, Council members will then be able to log onto the device and then log into iCompass’ “Agenda Note”™ program to download and view the agenda package and make notes for themselves on the device for use at the meeting. After the meeting, Council members will be able to delete the downloaded and potentially annotated agenda, freeing up space for the next agenda package to be downloaded and used.
Training for the iCompass system on the devices will be provided to Council in the next couple of weeks. The training will also touch on Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act legislation as it pertains to the use of the device.
It should be noted that as the Policy is to be a long-standing document, it states that the iPads are to be distributed once the Oath of Office has been administered – the current Council did this already in December 2014 and so iPads are able to be distributed at the upcoming training session.
As the new iCompass electronic agenda system is scheduled to go live in November, the proposed Policy No. 0100-044 should be adopted prior to that date.
RECOMMENDATION:
THAT Electronic Agendas and Devices Policy No. 0100-044 be adopted.
SUBMITTED BY: E. Bolster, Deputy Corporate Officer
REVIEWED BY: S. Jones, Director of Corporate Administration
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