When Gainesville’s Becky Rountree received an iPad for her birthday, she didn’t think it would lead to saving the city thousands of dollars. She just thought it was a great present from her husband.
But since Rountree, the city administrative services director, got her gift, the iPads are multiplying in city hall. Last month, Mayor Craig Lowe was the first of the city commission to use an iPad as an initiative to go paperless.
“I’m getting used to looking at the agenda in a different way,” he said.
The mayor said he was eager to give it a try and described the transition from paper agendas to digital as smooth.
“I don’t think that it will replace paper,” he said. “But it will reduce it.”
It’s almost been a month since he started using the iPad, and today, all seven members of the commission will have their own, saving the city an estimated $1,715 this year and more than $5,000 each year after.
“I’ve never seen anything happen so fast,” Rountree said.
In a memo she sent out Oct. 20, she estimated that, on average, the cost of paper agendas is $785 annually for each commissioner. Purchasing a 16GB iPad with a protective case and extra chargers would cost $540 — that’s $245 less than the paper agendas.
The idea to use the new technology started when Rountree brought her birthday present into work.
Lila Stewart, a strategic planner for the city, had been working to make the transition from paper to digital since she started working for the city three years ago. When she saw Rountree showing off her iPad, she thought the new technology might be an interesting way to accomplish her paperless goal.
Stewart said that she later read a case study in the Alliance for Innovation Newsletter showing that the introduction of iPads into local governments allowed for convenience, environmental friendliness and cost efficiency.
She forwarded the article to Rountree and the idea took off.
But the city commission isn’t the first board in Gainesville to implement this type of paperless system.
The UF Board of Trustees started a similar system nearly five years ago, but with laptops instead of iPads.
Steve Orlando, UF spokesman, said that for the 13 members of the board, printing agendas just didn’t make sense.
Rountree said that the city tried laptops but had issues with the costs and size, and the laptops would have obstructed the commissioners microphones at meetings.
“The convenience of the iPad is what sold it — convenience and portability,” Rountree said.
When her husband found out that the city was paying for the commissioners’ iPads, Rountree said he wanted to know if that meant she would get a new one and he could have hers.
“I said, ‘No,’” she said with a laugh.
