Quincy buys iPads for councilmembers

QUINCY - Quincy is spending roughly $3,800 on new iPads for councilmembers to replace refurbished laptops purchased a year and three months ago.

The council approved purchasing the tablets and new software to handle its agenda during a recent council meeting. The tablets are part of a plan for the city to move away from paper agendas.

The city is spending $399 each for eight tablets plus protective cases from PC Mall Gov, according to city records.

The lowest price for the iPad2 from Apple is $399, according to Apple's website.

Recreation Director Russ Harrington, who did the research into the computers, said issues have come up with the refurbished laptops purchased by the city. A lot of cities are turning to tablet computers for electronic documents.

"Pretty much iPad prices are iPad prices," he said. "You can't get any discounting pretty much anywhere you go whether it's purchased for the government or for me for the home."

All the councilmembers and the mayor will receive the new tablets and cases to go with them, Harrington said.

Along with iPads, the councilmembers also agreed to purchase new software to manage its agendas for $9,000 for the first year and $3,000 for each subsequent year.  Mayor Jim Hemberry saw a presentation from iCompass Technologies at an Association of Washington Cities conference.

"I think it would be a great way to organize our meetings in the future, and it's a whole lot easier to use that what we're using now," he said.

They also provide a way to track public records requests. It allows people to submit requests online and sends the request to the city staff, he said.

"(The staff member) has a way to keep track of the progress that records request is making through the system," Hemberry said. "It's a really good way to keep track of public records, and we only need to miss one before we pay for that. I can guarantee you that."

The councilmembers did not discuss either proposal before approving them.