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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-11-13-WS - RzEN HILLS Approved: April 8, 2013 CITY OF ARDEN HILLS,MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION MEETING FEBRUARY 11,2013 IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Pursuant to due call and notice thereof, Mayor Grant called to order the City Council work session meeting at 7:58 p.m. Present: Mayor David Grant; Councilmembers Brenda Holden, Fran Holmes, and Ed Werner Absent: Councilmember McClung (excused) Also present: City Administrator Patrick Klaers; Community Development Director Jill Hutmacher; City Planner Meagan Beekman; and Deputy Clerk Amy Died 1. AGENDA ITEMS A. Discussion Regarding Agenda Center Module City Administrator Klaers stated that with the launch of the City's new website, staff has learned more about the capability of producing agendas electronically through the website software. He indicated that staff has had some concern regarding the amount of time it takes to produce the current City Council agenda packets, and although it is hard to put a number on it, he estimates that it takes as many as six hours per week to produce the agenda. He would like to discuss the possibility of using the Agenda Center software available through the City's website and change the way the agenda packets are produced. Deputy Clerk Dietl explained that since the new website rolled out, she has been producing the agenda two different ways: the traditional way and the new way through the Agenda Center. She showed the Council the Agenda Center portion of the website and walked through an agenda that was produced electronically. She demonstrated how the proposed new printed agenda packets look different than the current way of producing the packets. City Administrator Klaers inquired if the agenda that is being shown under the Agenda Center area of the website is what the public is seeing. ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—FEBRUARY 11, 2013 2 Deputy Clerk Dietl confirmed that it is the new agenda format that the public is seeing. She explained how to view the packet in its entirety and how to view it in HTML mode, which allows the viewer to click on individual HTML links rather than being required to download the entire .pdf packet. Councilmember Holden asked for clarification regarding the purpose of discussing the differences in the printed packets. City Administrator Klaers stated that staff needs to hear if the Council is agreeable to the new look of the agenda and packet; and stated that the goal will be to eventually quit producing a paper packet, but for now, staff will continue to provide a hard copy of the agenda as a means of easing into the process. Mayor Grant stated that perhaps there are two phases to this process. The first phase is to stop producing the agenda packet the old way and begin using the Agenda Center process, which will save a considerable amount of staff time. He noted that phase two would be to distribute agenda packets electronically and quit printing copies, but he is not sure at this time how or when phase two would begin. City Administrator Klaers explained that all of the information that used to be on the yellow sheets is now on the agenda (i.e. the name of the person writing the memo, the budgeted amounts, the background information, and the requested action information). He noted that the yellow sheets, which will no longer be used with the new process, formerly provided easy visual identification of where the new agenda item started in the paper packet. He indicated that the first page of the new agenda item will still be yellow in color but will now simply be the memo written by staff. It was noted that the narrative of the first page of the memo can be adjusted as needed. Mayor Grant stated that on the yellow sheets that were used in the past, the item number was printed in the upper right corner. With the current yellow sheets being eliminated, he asked if staff could simply indicate in the upper right hand corner of the memo whether it is a consent item, staff comment, new business, etc. to assist the Council in identifying the type of memo they are reviewing. Deputy Clerk Dietl stated that she has experimented with .pdf stamps that can be electronically placed on documents to indicate that they are attachments. She noted that the stamps could also be used to print the memo types as the Mayor has requested. She also noted that staff could print the memo on yellow paper for the printed packet to continue the practice of providing a visual aid indicating a new topic of discussion. Councilmember Holmes inquired about attachments that are 11 x 17 in size. Deputy Clerk Dietl stated that staff had discussed the topic of the larger attachments and indicated that the 11 x 17 paper can still be distributed to Council in their packets just like what has been done. City Planner Beekman stated that when developers provide their plan sets, they generally provide them as 11 x 17 documents. She reiterated that staff can continue to insert the 11 x 17's ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—FEBRUARY 11, 2013 3 as part of the paper packet. She noted that in cities that only provide their agendas electronically, people are accessing those larger documents on their iPads and other devices, but staff is not proposing that the City go completely electronic at this time. Deputy Clerk Dietl noted that one advantage of the new way of assembling the agenda packet is that it allows staff to put the page numbers on the documents in the packet, which is something that has been requested by the Council in the past. Discussion continued regarding the new look of the agenda and Council provided feedback on things they liked and things they would like changed. The consensus among the Council was to do a test run of the agenda packet for next week's meeting. ADJOURN Mayor Grant adjourned the City Council work session me gat Patrick Klaers David Grant City Administrator Mayor