Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Local government goes digital to transform agenda processes.
The challenge
With 27 departments and 141,000 constituents, the City of Cedar Rapids needed a less paper-intensive process for managing city council meetings.
Clerk staff would have to collect submissions from each department and organize paper PDFs into binders, which were then delivered to council members’ homes on a biweekly basis. In meetings, the city clerk would manually write minutes and track votes and attendance on paper. Resolutions — generally between 60 and 140 per meeting — had to be printed, signed by hand and rescanned.
The city clerk’s office decided it was time to increase accountability, eliminate the costs associated with printing and delivering paper and make handwritten signatures a thing of the past.
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The solution
The City of Cedar Rapids was already using OnBase, Hyland’s enterprise information platform, as a central repository for documents in some of its departments. Working with authorized OnBase solution provider Integrated Data Products, the city implemented OnBase Agenda Management to address the agenda process problems.
Now, each department creates and submits its own agenda items in OnBase. The items are routed to the clerk’s office for review and approval. If an issue is found, the clerk’s staff easily returns items to the submitting department for correction or clarification.
“This program allows the responsibility of the item to remain with the department rather than with the city clerk staff,” said Sheila Shaver, OnBase administrator/systems analyst with the City of Cedar Rapids.
Prior to implementing the Hyland solution, city clerk staff rushed to make last-minute corrections. Now, the departments can simply resubmit their changes in OnBase. After the changes are made, the packet is regenerated with the click of a button. With OnBase Agenda Management, city clerk staff cut agenda processing time from 30 hours to 15 hours and saved $3,600 a year on printing and delivery costs. By increasing efficiency, the City of Cedar Rapids could reallocate staff time for higher-impact work and more long-term projects.
“The mayor and council members are strictly electronic. We have no more paper at all in our meetings,” Shaver said.
Before the city implemented OnBase Agenda Management, anyone with access to the agenda file share could delete or modify documents. Access is now permission-based at the department level to ensure information security and transparency into who is making changes. With the rest of the agenda process going digital, it was time to eliminate handwritten signatures. Documents are now signed digitally with a few clicks.
With OnBase Agenda Management, the city clerk staff cut agenda processing time from 30 hours to 15 hours and saved $3,600 a year on printing and delivery costs.
The difference
Increasing accountability: Each department is now responsible for its own agenda submissions and uploading supporting documents into OnBase. Any edits or changes are routed back to the experts, which increases accountability and removes the burden from city clerk staff.
Saving time and money: The City of Cedar Rapids reduced agenda processing time by 50% while saving $3,600 annually in printing and delivery costs.
Ensuring security: Ordinances, resolutions and other meeting notes are secured in OnBase Agenda Management. Staff and constituents can be assured that information is secure while remaining accessible.
Improving visibility: Staff have complete visibility into the agenda process, resulting in a more impactful use of time and resources.
Automating workflow: After packets are custom numbered and votes are applied, electronic signatures from the mayor and city clerk are the last step before final legislation documents are automatically generated.