The Secaucus Town Council now uses electronic tablets for its agenda packets, saving paper and money in the process.
The council first appeared with the tablets at its April 26 meeting. First Ward Councilman Robert Costantino explained the reason behind the move.
“We have these tablets in front of us now,” Costantino “We’re not Googling. We’re not not paying attention.”
The agendas are now sent to the council online and are viewable during the meetings on the tablets. It was a environmentally-conscious maneuver, according to Costantino.
“The agendas are now scanned in and sent to us online,” Costantino said. “It should save us thousands and thousands of pieces of paper, a few trees a year hopefully… It’s pretty cool.”
After the meeting, Jeffas told the Hudson Reporter it was somewhat of a modernization of the council, essentially bringing them up to speed with the other modern systems and technology present in Town Hall.
“We were always using paper packets,” Jeffas said. “So I’ve been try to migrate over to something digital so we’re not wasting so much paper.”
Another aspect of introducing the tablets means easy corrections or changes to any items to the agenda, which also in turn also saves more paper.
“If there are corrections, it’s much easier to transfer those changes and get them over to the council members. So we upgraded and everybody got a tablet,” Jeffas said. “The council can work off of their tablets now on all the council agendas, all the updates. Everything can now kind of flow at a moment’s notice. If I’m making changes to agenda items and stuff like that, I can just input the changes in my computer in a common drive and then everybody would sync up.”
Jeffas said that the shift was not only an environmentally friendly decision that would save thousands of sheets of paper, but also one that will save the town money in the long run.
“It’s much more environmentally friendly,” Jeffas said. “In terms of overall costs, we are saving there. And it’s also good for a more efficient running of the meeting.”
And the council did not have any issues with the new tech, despite some of their ages.
“We brought all our council members’ technology up to the 20th Century,” Jeffas said. “I was afraid some would be a little reluctant because they’re used to that paper. But everybody was good with the tablets.”
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