Clearlake City Council approves agreement for agenda management system
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – In an effort to save staff time and resources, the Clearlake City Council on Thursday approved an agreement with a company that will provide new agenda management services to the city.
The council unanimously approved the request for the new services from Administrative Services Director/City Clerk Melissa Swanson following a presentation by representatives of Municipal Code Corp., a company headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, with a West Coast office in Portland, Oregon.
The discussion starts at the 35 minute mark in the meeting, shown in the video above.
Swanson told the council that it takes city staff about 35 hours per month – the equivalent of almost an entire work week – to review and produce agendas, with another four hours required to print out agendas for the two monthly council meetings.
The city currently relies on what Swanson’s written report called an “antiquated, time- and paper intensive process” that is estimated to cost $2,200 per month or $26,400 annually in staff time.
She said city council agenda packets use an average of more than 19,000 pieces of paper per year.
“To visualize this, 19,000 sheets of paper stack up to over 6 feet tall, and over my time as city clerk, that stack of papers would stretch as high as a 10-story building,” she said.
That doesn’t count the work necessary for the city’s planning commission, marketing committee or any ad hoc committees, Swanson said.
She said an agenda management system would streamline the agenda process for staff, the council, committees and the public.
While staff time and paper costs wouldn’t be completely eliminated, Swanson said they would be greatly reduced.
In July, the Administrative Services Department published a request for proposals for an agenda management system. Swanson said several proposals were submitted and staff selected three vendors for a final review by department heads and stakeholders including Mayor Russ Cremer.
She said they reviewed them on Sept. 14, using criteria including technology level, ease of use, user interface, pricing structure, functionality and integration with the city’s current technology infrastructure. After demos by the three finalists, Swanson said the committee’s decision was to recommend the council approve an agreement with Municipal Code Corp., or MuniCode.
Her written report said city staff contacted 14 other California jurisdictions that currently use MuniCode Meetings, with 10 responding to their request for information. All 10 said they would recommend MuniCode for ease of use, customer service and smooth implementation processes.
She said the cost would be $11,500, which includes the one-time cost of $1,500 for historical data importation. Implementation of the new program is included in her department’s budget.
MuniCode representative Leon Rogers, appearing via Zoom, showed the council the company’s meeting portal, a link for which would be put on the city’s website. It will have search functions for date ranges and by board and commission, with meeting information and agendas available for download.
Rogers said the software allows council members to vote through the system.
He also explained that they would train staff on how to use the program.
Following the presentation, the council unanimously approved the agreement with MuniCode.
Swanson told Lake County News that the module doesn’t come with a video portion like Granicus, the agenda management system used by the county of Lake for Board of Supervisors and Lake County Planning
She said the city will continue to use Zoom to record meetings and post them on the city’s YouTube page.
In other business, the council held a public hearing to consider updates to the city’s zoning code, design review procedures and design standards, and following extensive discussion decided to hold the matter over until its next meeting.
The council also denied appeals of abatement orders for 15615 34th Ave. and 16221 32nd Ave., which were cited for illegal outdoor marijuana cultivation.
At the request of the League of California Cities, the council approved a resolution in support of Proposition 20, the Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act. The proposition, which is on the November ballot, would reclassify as “violent” some crimes currently categorized as “nonviolent” and create two additional categories of punishable crimes with increased penalties.
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