COLCHESTER – At a recent committee of the whole meeting, city officials discussed the possibility of leasing automated documentation software called Laserfische as part of Mayor Mark Clark’s initiative towards improving the town’s internal communications system.
Clark is seeking to improve the manual data entry process when he expressed “this is our document management system that I am proposing we get. This will allow us to scan in all of our files into an online system so that you can go search for words, date or whatever to find documents. You won’t have to go hunting through a file cabinet anymore. It will allow us to have forms online for things like the food vendors. Macomb already posts agendas online so that people can pull that (information) up from the past, and that is mainly what this is for.”
This would include the software licensing for one year, it would include one scanner for the desktop for $6,000 for the first year, and the second year would be approximately $3,400, Clark said, “The first year is a little higher just because of the initial hardware purchases.”
Alderman Donna Wetzel said that pricing for the new software has already been figured into the new budget where the costs would be spread out drawing on funds from street and alley, water and sewer, and police and administration because the new automated documentation software would affect everything in the town.
A recommendation was made by Alderman Catherine Louderman to put it on the agenda for Monday where a vote would be taken. No Vote was taken at this time during the committee of the whole meeting.
Improving internal communication between city officials and the public by making the city more current with technology, Mayor Clark proposed purchasing a subscription to e-mail, Microsoft Office Online and scheduling to both improve and enhance credibility with communications between the city and the public by having a standardized official email address.
Clark also said that he has been working with Alderman Kim Limkeman to get an official “.gov” domain where each city official will have their own e-mail address. Clark continued, that the government gives the domain for free without any charge, but then someone has to be paid to host the domain and take care of it. Pricing for the domain might cost the city about $100 annually, but alternatives are still being looked at in terms of who is going to host the domain for the city.
Along with improving internal communications through a standardized e-mail address system, city officials will also be able to improve interaction with employees and departments through the use of a convenient app on their smart phones and digital devices, and have calendars and scheduling, and work on documents for the city by using the Microsoft Office Online software suite.
“So, this package we’re looking at is the Microsoft Office 365 Government G3 which allows people who have an e-mail account to actually have all the office applications. People will be able to install those on their phones or on their computer and use them,” Clark said, and this package would be for up to 16 licenses for “all the council, clerk, mayor, street and alley, water and sewer, police. The attorney would not be a part of this” because he would not need a Colchester address, “he would have his own.”
The annual price for this package is about $4,000 annually, and all four departments would contribute from their funds towards the annual fees because the entire city would be affected, but the “.gov” domain would be about $100 or less each year.
Alderman Limkeman made a motion to recommend this for the agenda at the City Council next Monday.
Looking to streamline the city government, Clark presented an outline of his plan to change and amend the committee structure by folding some committees together.
“So, instead of a water and sewer committee and street and alley committee, we would have a public works committee, and we would rename the police/alcohol/code enforcement committee to the public safety committee, the labor day committee will be the labor day/festival/events committee, those are the major changes,” Clark said.
Clark continued saying that if a citizen came into City Hall looking for this information, it would be available with the names, responsibilities and the board members for each respective committee.
Changes to the committee structure would require the presentment and reading of an ordinance because the committees are actually listed in the ordinance book, and the reading of an appropriate ordinance is required to facilitate the changes. Mayor Clark would have to read it at the next City Council meeting on Monday.
The City Council meets on the first Monday of each month at 6pm the City Hall building located at 500 E. Roberts St.
