Township to Post Documents Online

The audience will see the writing on the wall next Tuesday when a projector displays agenda documents over the heads of the Montville Township Committee. The Montville government plans to use projectors and new online access to agenda documents in order to facilitate paperless meetings and an open government, according to Montville Township Committeeman Scott Gallopo.

This initiative goes back to the days prior to Gallopo’s election when he heard from townspeople who wanted a transparent government.

“I am a big believer in helping the public develop informed opinions, so when they come to the meetings they can participate and understand how these decisions are made,” Gallopo said.

Gallopo helped to resurrect the Montville Township Technology Committee and produce the “Recommendation for Transparent Meeting” which was discussed at the last Montville Township Committee meeting. The document, which can be viewed here as an attachment, outlines the procedure and costs of the shift toward paperless meetings.

The first step, Gallopo says, is to get all the information together and put it in a PDF format, and upload it to the town website. The second is to provide the Township Committee with the tools to actually view the material.

The Technology Committee recommends portable computers, which will be stored in the public meeting room. The budget includes five to 10 computers that will be used by more than one board, committee or commission, one or two projectors, and software. Costs are estimated at $6,000, which will come out of the 2011 capital budget.

“We’ll see cost savings,” Gallopo said, “but it’s a service to the public and an effort to streamline the efforts of the Township Committee and the administration.”

The intended outcome is that the public gains access to agenda documentation such as emails, memos, spreadsheets, correspondence via www.montvillenj.org, and reads those documents to become informed. Individuals who bring their laptops to the Township Committee meetings can use the Wi-Fi connection just as the Township Committee will to access the Internet, and follow the meetings while seeing the same documents as the Township Committee. A projector attached to a dedicated computer will display each document on the dais walls for those individuals who do not bring computers to the meetings.

Gallopo said if this paperless system were in place last week, the public could have read Frank Bastone’s Morris County dispatch report online. Gallopo provides a link to the full report online.

“The public within the next eight weeks will have access to all the documents the Township Committee has,” Gallopo said.  “Informed opinions are critical. I have seen over the last year rumor and misinformation really drive a lot of public opinion and too few people controlling the information. Now the playing field will be even.”