Minutes 02-23-09
MINUTES OF THE EASYAGENDA PRESENTATION HELD ON
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2009, AT 4:00 P.M. IN
CONFERENCE ROOM B, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA
PRESENT:
Jerry Taylor, Mayor Kurt Bressner, City Manager
Joe Rodriguez, Vice Mayor Lori LaVerriere, Assistant City Manager
Woodrow L. Hay, Commissioner Carisse LeJeune, Assistant to the City Manager
Marlene Ross, Commissioner James Cherof, City Attorney
Janet Prainito, City Clerk
Judy Pyle, Deputy City Clerk
Kofi Boteng, Director of Utilities
Nancy Byrne, Assistant Director of Development
Phyllis Koch, I.T.S. Director
John McNally, I.T.S. Manager
Lynn Swanson, Legal Assistant
Amy McDeavitt, EMS Billing Specialist
The meeting was called to order at 3:59 p.m.
Robert Porter, R&S Integrated Products and Services, Inc., provided a presentation
on the EasyAgenda process. The product had been upgraded, and the City of Boynton
Beach would be receiving the newer version, "EasyAgenda 2008." As the product had
been integrated with Microsoft Word, the City would continue to use the agenda item
request form. An agenda deadline, usually set by the City Clerk's Office, would be
configured into the system, as would a publishing deadline.
Various settings could be configured to custom fit the City's process. City employees
and Directors would be using the EasyAgenda interface, while the Commission would be
using a "smart" or bookmarked PDF. The tools of EasyAgenda were created as a result
of the company's observation of the agenda process and input received from its user
data base.
The EasyAgenda process produced the agenda shell, the agenda which was linked to
each agenda item template, and the full agenda with backup. Notes, text and other
markups could be added through Adobe Acrobat.
The agenda distribution method had not yet been determined. The agenda could be
sent to a desktop icon, downloaded from the website or File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
site, copied to memory sticks or provided in hard copy. If sent to the desktop icon, the
most recent agenda would be posted.
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Boynton Beach, Florida February 23, 2009
City Attorney Cherof recommended discussion regarding implementation be deferred to
a future date, stressing the focus be centered on the system's function.
Mr. Porter noted parallel or overlap systems were usually run for three full meetings.
Bookmarks were automatically created to navigate easily through the agenda. The full
agenda packet created a table of contents, or an agenda shell, which was linked to the
associated backup. The publishing configurations determined placement of the title and
were usually decided by the City Clerk's Office and/or the City Manager's Office. The
appearance of the agenda templates would remain the same. As the system tracked
the approval process, signoff was eliminated. The Word document would be published
and converted to a PDF, and links would be created. The header would be
automatically published and the document paginated. The backup could be in desktop
format, scanned through Word, or laser fiches images could be used. The agenda
packet could accommodate large-format documents, which were then reduced by the
publishing engine. The publishing engine could also produce an HTML document which
could be posted to the website, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site, or Laser Fiche.
The EasyAgenda product would not require the installation of any software. The laser
fiche server was generally used which utilized Microsoft Sequel as the database. The
artwork would be City website friendly and would utilize the City's graphics. The
announcement windows could be used to identify the users of certain changes Citywide
or in the project. The user log-in would identify the roll of the user. The three roles in
EasyAgenda consisted of a submitter, reviewer and agenda coordinator/administrator.
The reviewer and agenda coordinator/administrator inherited the rolls before them.
The approval process was usually driven by the organizational chart.
Passwords could be changed at the "Today" page, and a user could be delegated. A
calendar on the Today page allowed the user to access future meetings, and personal
items allowed the Department Head to work on agenda items for several upcoming
meetings at the same time.
All users could view the meeting in its entirety. Multiple meetings would be listed. The
City Clerk's staff and the agenda coordinator would be trained in how to set up
meetings and create drop-down menus.
The agenda item dashboard was an important component of the product, and the
status of an item could be seen at a glance. The buttons viewed by the agenda
coordinator or City Clerk allowed them to navigate to different sections and to change
the order within the section. The first button was for the agenda item submitter, the
owner of the item. The second button was connected to the departmental structure,
the third button to the technical review, the fourth to the City Manager's Office and the
fifth button to the publisher or the agenda coordinator. Items could be rescheduled
and file names or nicknames could be changed. In the event changes were made to
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Meeting Minutes
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Boynton Beach, Florida February 23, 2009
the agenda at a later date, it was recommended the entire agenda be republished. The
system was capable of publishing a draft, final, supplemental or amended agenda, and
a watermark could be inserted, informing the users of a supplemental or amended
agenda.
Notations could be made by opening a page and going to tools, comment, and markup.
Advanced editing could also be made. The most popular annotations were the post-it
notes. Existing language could be highlighted, underlined or stricken, and additional
files could be attached. Adobe Acrobat training could be provided for bookmarking and
adding annotations.
The system allowed the Commissioners, when pulling items on the consent agenda for
discussion, to create an annotation and identify at a glance the items that had been
pulled. It also allowed Commissioners to type notes or comments directly to the
agenda shell for speedy access. In accessing the agenda on the City's website, the
system allowed the public to search for particular items without having to peruse the
entire agenda as each item could be published as a separate document.
(Vice Mayor Rodriguez left the room at 4:54 p.m.)
(Vice Mayor Rodriguez returned at 4:59 p.m.)
(Ms. LaVerriere left the meeting at 5:05 p.m.)
The discovery process was generally completed in 30 to 60 days. A working model
would then be utilized to publish several meetings, and a parallel phase would follow,
for a total of 90 to 180 days to complete the process. Ms. LeJeune indicated the City
Manager's Office would be meeting individually with the agenda staff team and various
departments to work through the process, and hands-on training would be provided to
the submitters and the approvers. These occurrences would extend the process
beyond 90 days.
It would be necessary to determine the number of laptops to be purchased. It was
noted an additional meeting module had been purchased for the CRA agendas.
Mr. Porter would work with ITS, the City Clerk and the City Manager's Office to develop
a schedule, and activity would be ongoing prior to production.
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Meeting Minutes
EasyAgenda Presentation
Boynton Beach, Florida
February 23, 2009
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting properly adjourned at 5:16
p.m.
~~~~
Stephanie D. Kahn
Recording Secretary
022709
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