« City Council Meeting Prep: There’s an App for That [VIDEO] »
LaTricia Woods | Posted on Feb 1, 2012 at 9:11 AM LaTricia Woods serves as Public Information Officer for the City of Maricopa, Ariz. Previously, she served as Assistant to the City Manager in the City of Scottsdale and Public Information Officer for the City of Wichita. Her career expertise includes public relations, strategic and crisis communications and marketing for government, nonprofit and media organizations.
An Introduction to Maricopa
The City of Maricopa is a community with a “Proud History and a Prosperous Future.” Strategically located between the metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson, Maricopa is a city poised for success.
Maricopa became Arizona’s 88th municipality when it was incorporated in October 2003. Over the next few years, the community experienced an extreme amount of growth that catapulted it from a community of less than 5,000 residents to a bustling city of more than 43,000 almost overnight. Census 2010 numbers showed that Maricopa saw an increase of 4081 percent over the previous census numbers. To keep up with this rapid growth and provide the quality services that its residents demand, Maricopa has had to operate efficiently and in a forward thinking manner since its inception.
Historically an agricultural community, Maricopa’s business base has translated those ties into the AgriTech, renewable energy and research and development fields. The United States Department of Agriculture Arid Land Research Facility, one of only five federal biomass research facilities in the country and the University of Arizona Agriculture Center are located here as well as private industries such as Yulex Corporation, a company that applies intelligent crop science and proprietary clean technology to create medical and biobased industrial products from guayule plant. Maricopa is also home to the state’s first ethanol plant, the only Amtrak station in Arizona and the North American proving grounds for both Volkswagen and Nissan.
Embracing New Technology
The Maricopa City Council has always looked to technology as a way to enhance the way it meets the needs of the community. With the growing success of the iPad, many Council members wanted to turn in the laptop and try the new device. In a relatively short amount of time, the entire City Council had asked to switch. Once that happened, they began exploring different apps that would help them carry out their responsibilities.
You’ve seen it, City Council members arriving at a meeting with large briefcases full of agendas and supporting documents. When you see it, you’re either thinking, “glad I’m not responsible for organizing all those notes,” or “how many trees did we just kill printing out all that stuff,” or “has my attachment been lost in that sea of paper?”
For the City of Maricopa, producing the City Council meeting agendas meant a large consumption of staff time and City resources. For staff, that meant hours of printing, compiling and copying packets for seven Council members as well as the City Manager, Assistant City Manager, City Attorney and City Clerk. We used a lot of paper, a lot of ink and a lot of time.
Introducing iLegislate
In the spring of 2011, the City Council had an outstanding opportunity to participate in a beta program for Granicus’ new iLegislate iPad application. This was great for a City Council who had recently made the switch from laptops to iPads to improve efficiency and mobility.With iLegislate all of those concerns are in the past.
iLegislate has made preparing for City Council meetings quick, easy and extremely efficient. Within weeks of implementing the iLegislate application, we were able to completely eliminate the paper Council packets. That, in turn, freed up staff time to focus on other activities. The City Council likes the ease of having all of the information that they need for the meetings literally at their fingertips. And if they need to refer to a previous meeting’s packet, it’s there too with all of the supporting documentation.
The application also supports the City’s Think Green initiative. This initiative signifies our organization’s commitment to environmental sustainability as we continue to seek out ways to preserve our vital natural resources.
Our Success Story
iLegislate has been so well received, many of our department directors are using it as well. Some have installed it on their personally purchased iPads (including myself). As a public information officer, it has become vitally important during my work at the City Council meetings. Utilizing iLegislate helps me respond quicker to media inquiries and helps me distribute meeting information through our social media channels. It has become so useful that I regularly have citizens ask where they can get the app.
Financially, the City estimates that by using iLegislate, we have saved more than $5,000 a year. This is money that can be returned to the General Fund to provide other vital services to the community.
Click to read Maricopa’s Success Story
The Granicus Triad
The iLegislate app is the second Granicus product that the City of Maricopa utilizes. The City began using Granicus several years ago to enhance citizen engagement for City Council meetings. They can find and search Council agendas online, search the archive of past agendas and minutes and watch City Council meetings live through streaming video or access the video archive.
In late 2011, the City added the Legistar platform, which is part of Granicus’ Legislative Management Suite. With Legistar, the City can now produce the City Council agenda through a completely automated process. Not only does it reduce staff time but it tracks each agenda item’s path through the approval process. We look forward to continued success with these Granicus solutions.
Our Takeways
Are you wondering if iLegislate is right for you? Do you have a City Council that likes to be on the cutting edge of technology? Are you looking for ways to save money, staff time and resources? Are you looking for a method to more effectively manage your Council meeting packets while enhancing creativity and efficiency?
If you answered yes to these questions, then iLegislate is the tool for you.
Reader Comments (2)