Ephrata council may go paper-free

EPHRATA — Ephrata is examining moving to paper free council meetings.

The idea would mean purchasing computers for all of the city council members and having their agenda packets uploaded before the meetings. Presently, the city uses about five cases of paper per year on packets for councilmembers, according to city staff.

The council discussed the change during their Wednesday meeting.

City Administrator Wes Crago said if the council wanted to move forward with looking at it, he would put together more concrete numbers for the 2010 budget.

“Everything is automatically archived, so from a public records standpoint we’ve got much better tracking of what’s where and hopefully a little more of an increase in communication,” he said.

There wouldn’t be much change in the information in the packets, it would simply save paper and two employees’ time putting together the packets, Crago said. He estimated it would save the city about $200 a year.

Councilmember Bruce Reim asked what the computers would cost the city to purchase.

“Depending on what we’re looking at, between $800 and $1,200 per. We’re looking at notebooks that would last for a minimum of eight years. For some that’s pretty optimistic, for others it’s right down the middle,” Crago said.

Reim said he sees reasons for it and against it. He spent time recently with a city council that was thinking about switching to being paper free because about half of the councilmembers couldn’t or didn’t print their agendas.

“I’m seeing it both ways. I understand the green and that’s wonderful, but if I’m spending $7,000 off the top to go green, where I was spending $200,” he questioned. 

Councilmember Heidi Schultheis said she supported not wasting paper and wondered if the councilmembers could use their home computers.

“Why couldn’t you just go ahead and e-mail it to us?” she asked.

Crago said it is easier to comply with public records law if the city purchases computers specifically for council business.

“Potentially the hard drive could be considered public property,” he said.