The Town of Arlington, under a contract with NovusAgenda is moving toward less paper and better access to information. The contract costs $8,700 the first year. After that, the annual fee is $7,950, Town Manager Adam Chapdelaine says.
The effort begins with the Dec. 22 selectmen’s meeting and is to occur on the School Committee side “in the coming weeks,” the town announced Dec. 19.
This is a potentially seismic shift in what the public sees from Arlington’s government — from Town Hall as well the School Committee.
Consider this agenda item published in advance of the Nov. 13 School Committee meeting:
“9:10 p.m. Superintendent’s Report K. Bodie
” • Follow up on Civil Rights Report”
What report? Whose? When?
These basic questions are expected to get answers once documents supporting the committee’s agenda are posted online. That may occur by mid-December.
Meanwhile, the public must rely on its own resources, faulty memories or, in this case, a publisher’s desire to clarify: I asked the superintendent about the agenda item cited above, and she said the issue is in response to comments by Stephen Harrington, Precinct 13 Town Meeting member, during public participation Oct. 23. In this case, his comments are online >>
That agenda item is now the subject of a news story reported here >>
Potential aid to democracy
Using NovusAgenda, staffers for town and school departments will be posting meeting notices online, as has long been the case. Now they will also be linking to an agenda documents that support its items up for discussion. Testing for this project, which took place this fall, rendered background information in large .PDF files.
Town and school officials have been following their agenda documents on computers during meetings.
Once activated for the general public, as long as your computer can read .PDF files, you will be able to learn more about what will be discussed at a meeting.
That will help support understanding, and, ideally, better-informed citizens contribute to a clearer democratic process.
Selectmen, School Committee difference
You can expect to see that background information more quickly from the selectmen than the School Committee.
Following a 4-1 vote Monday, Nov. 10, the selectmen vowed to post their agenda and supporting material for a Monday meeting by noon the preceding Friday.
So far, the public will get no advance look at school documents.
The School Committee held no discussion or vote about NovusAgenda on Thursday, Nov. 13, but Chairman Bill Hayner noted that, under the program, the public would get School Committee supporting documents by 6:30 on the evening of a Thursday meeting.
That may be an issue that the School Committee might want to review.
Compromise by selectmen
At the selectmen’s meeting, the vote came about following a compromise brokered by Chairman Steve Byrne.
Dan Dunn favored having supporting material posted when the agenda is — that is, by 7 p.m. Thursday, Town Hall’s long day. “I want people to be as informed as possible,” he said.
Mary Ann Sullivan, the selectmen’s administrator who would post the documents, called Friday “tidier.”
Byrne said he agreed with Friday, because it gives the public a chance to raise questions over the weekend and the board members can respond by Monday. Joseph Curro Jr. agreed with Friday.
Kevin Greeley, the selectmen who created the binder for the agenda back in 1989, said he was concerned about whether the staff had time to do the work. He favored all posting by noon Monday. He also said he did not want emails throughout the weekend.
Diane Mahon said supported Monday as well. “I don’t want people to contact department heads all weekend,” she said.
Byrne suggested the compromise, and it was adopted, with Greeley voting no.
Chapdelaine wrote Thursday, Nov. 13: “Staff will be working over the next month to finalize implementation of the system and integration into the Town’s website. I am currently projecting that public-facing portion of the system will ready to launch by mid-December.”
This viewpoint was published Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014, and updated Dec. 19.
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