While Apple started selling iPads to the public only 15 months ago, the 1.5-pound tablet computers seem well on their way toward ubiquity. This year, Alaska Airlines began issuing them to pilots to replace the 25 pounds of paper flight manuals they were required to carry on flights. Now, Cornelius, N.C., with a population of about 25,000, has stopped printing meeting agenda packages for town commissioners and has given them iPads instead. Anthony Roberts, the town manager (with Bence Hoyle, the police chief), discusses.
Q Why use iPads for your agendas?
A The short version is, unlike a lot of governments, we try to operate as much as a business as possible. At the end of the day, when you are printing agendas around 200 pages apiece and after the meeting they go into the recycling bin, you say, “Why are we doing it like this?” We have to run 20 agendas at 200 pages per agenda. That’s 4,000 pages just on that one, and that’s not including the time to put it together. And you usually don’t get it right the first time because everything changes. I would think it takes over eight hours per packet.
(Chief Hoyle cuts in) And the Police Department would actually deliver it to the board members to make sure they got it and had time to study it.
(Mr. Roberts continues) We see it as a money-saving measure. We see it as saving our taxpayers money.
Q Is Apple giving the town a discount?
A No, we don’t have a deal for using the iPad. We may get a quantity discount from Best Buy. We’re not even an ant in the bucket to Apple. At the end of the day, we might not have but 20. If we put them in our police cars, O.K., we might have 100, but still, that’s not even a grain of sand on the beach.
Q Which town officials get an iPad and how much has it all cost?
A We’ve got 16, so multiply by $500. What’s that? $8,000. So the department heads all get one, the mayor, board members, the town clerk, police chief, the finance director and there are two I.T. guys.
Q You wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t saving some money. How much are you looking at?
A We’re going to track the savings. We think about a year-and-a-half payback, max. [He said that estimate was based on what the town expected to save in paper, copying costs, personnel and other related items.]
Q How do we know that when the commissioners have their heads bent over their iPads during board meetings that they’re diligently perusing agenda items and not using catapulting birds to kill hapless pigs?
A (Laughter) The town owns the iPads. At the end of the day, it’s ours. We have a policy you’re not supposed to be looking at undesirable sites. I don’t think the commissioners would do that. (Laughs again.)
Q At the risk of making this sound like too much of an advertisement, do you know any other stories about how this product has saved Cornelius?
A Chief Hoyle: Last night, I was on my iPad and I accidentally hit the wrong button and pulled up a couple of webcams at local parks, and I saw a suspicious person step out and walk toward the amphitheater. I immediately called up the e-mail and e-mailed in and watched our guys go out there. He said he was just walking around. It was 11 at night. The park closes at dusk. He ended up getting a traffic citation for not having a registration. Another thing is our supervisors can read all the reports immediately.
Q Sounds like you guys have adapted to this technology pretty well.
A Yeah, maybe Apple needs to come hire us. (Laughter.)
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