Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

No laptops for county board!

December 12th, 2008 at 01:06pm Linda Grist Cunningham

Tucked at the bottom of a Register Star story about Thursday night’s Winnebago County Board meeting is this nugget: “(Scott) Christiansen also asked for opinions on purchasing laptops for board members. The idea is to get rid of the paper packets members receive each meeting. The chairman said he could have a resolution read by the next meeting in two weeks.”

You want an opinion? How about this: Are you freaking nuts? That’s my tax money you’re thinking about spending on 28 laptops. That’s at least $14,000 for a bottom-end model with some sort of county discount. Load ‘em up enough to actually function and we’re talking double that. Provide maintenance (not to mention training for the dudes some of whom likely don’t know what a laptop is and don’t want to), repairs, peripherals and all the other stuff, and the county’s going to have to hire a full-time IT staffer to support those laptops. Oh, yeah, and the software has to be updated and the hardware replaced pretty regularly. And, when a board member looses his, we get to buy him a replacement? Does he get to keep it if he doesn’t get elected? I repeat: Are you nuts?

I’m all for saving paper; buying laptops isn’t the solution. How about this totally cheap-maybe-even-free — idea: Scan and post the documents to the county’s Web site. The information is public record, so it ought to be up there anyway. Board members can use their own personal laptops or computers to access the information, read it and download any important piece they want. Heck, go ahead and buy ‘em each a ream of printing paper once a quarter; if they use more than that, they pay for it themselves.

If they have to see documents at a board meeting, project them on a screen. You can buy a nifty overhead projection system for $5,000 give or take a bit of change that accesses the documents via the Web site. I know it’ll work; we do it here in the News Tower all the time.

For crying out loud,  I came out of my chair when I read that paragraph this morning. We’ve got an economy imploding, people loosing their jobs left and right and the county board is considering buying itself laptops? We pay these people?

Is that enough of an opinion for you? Geesh…..

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized

6 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Kathy Geyer  |  December 12th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    Greetings, I ran across this entry in your blog, and while I understand your point, I have to disagree with you. I am on the Harlem School Board (disclaimer: I\’m speaking on my own behalf and my own opinion, not the entire Board\’s) We went \"paperless\" about a year and a half ago. It is so much better than receiving packets! The Superintendent\’s Administrative Assistant formerly spent approximately an entire day and a half copying material for us for each meeting, not to mention the cost of a messenger delivering the packets to us. There are only certain employees who are able to do this because of the confidential nature of some of the documents. We now use a web - based program set up just for this purpose and the documents are available to the public from Harlem\’s web site. The current IT staff assists as needed. The documents that must be kept confidential are kept confidential. We are also able to type notes into the meeting site for our own use. The Secretary types the minutes on her laptop. Our board members all have PILES of papers stacked at home from previous meetings. It is a much more efficient way to do business and is very easy to use. I understand the County Board has 28 members as opposed to 7 on the School Board, but I have to think this will save resources. As a resident of County Board District 8, I fully encourage the County Board to do this. It\’s the \"green\" way to go!

  • 2. Linda Grist Cunningham  |  December 12th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    Kathy: Completely agree; going green is way good. You explain beautifully how it works; thank you for that. Clearly, you all are ahead of the pack in doing away with so much wasted paper. I think the county board can go paperless (or darn close), however, without buying every board member a laptop.

  • 3. Kathy Geyer  |  December 12th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    Thanks for your follow - up. The amount of paper is mind boggling, expecially if you are a “veteran.” You don’t want to get rid of it because that little voice says, “what if I need that someday,” but then trying to find something is another story altogether!

  • 4. Jim Phelps  |  December 13th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    This is a wonderfully progressive idea for the Winnebago County Board. I wholeheartedly agree with the Chairman.

    BTW, I had the decision to make of either upgrading a current laptop for our business with a hard drive ($55) or buying a new laptop and found many high quality Laptops and Netbooks in the $300-400 range that would suffice for this enhancement.

    I ended up installing the hard drive myself and I am keeping this laptop, baring major malfunctions, for at least the next 3 years. This laptop is 5 years old, so I would expect that even current low end technology would be able to stay current for at least 5 years, or the standard amount of time for the amortization under GAAP.

  • 5. Neal Ken  |  December 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Incredibly short sighted. One thing the public is always crying about….government should operate more like a business. Do ou know any businesses that would not buy their top execs computers for efficiency sake? Can you imagine the CEO of SwedishAmerican showing up at work and being told to buy his own computer? It would be tough to get work done. Yet, we expect our government to operate like that and then scream and kick when it is not efficient.

  • 6. Linda Grist Cunningham  |  December 15th, 2008 at 11:32 am

    Don’t miss my point: I am all in favor of both going green and being efficient. I am a true believer in both. If I thought (believed) that outfitting 28 board members with personal laptops would accomplish green and efficient, I’d be all aboard. I have no such trust and in the absence of a plan — other than buy the laptops — I’m not signing off on it. Chalk this up to great idea for all the right reasons; show me the plan first.

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