Contol Government Spending … NOT!
Paper or plastic normally refers to bags.
Cincinnati won’t buy Kindle e-readers for all its elected officials after all – backlash over the new technology appears to have killed the idea a majority of council approved last month.
Among the budget cuts voted for by five members of council after contentious budget talks was $22,662 in annual savings found by canceling hundreds of copies of council documents. Buying the Kindle DXs for document reading would have cost $7,200 instead. Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who already has a Kindle, pitched the idea as a saver of money and copying time.
But now, after council members including Republicans Leslie Ghiz and Charlie Winburn blasted the Kindle purchase and said they didn’t want one, each council member will decide whether he or she wants one, Councilwoman Laketa Cole said.
If those who oppose the Kindles still want to print out their agendas and ordinances, they’ll have to pay the city clerk’s office for every page after January. How much each page will cost should be determined this week.
Printing out copies defeats the purpose, said Cole, chairwoman of council’s finance committee. That’s because the copying costs council tried to cut still will be borne by the taxpayers – just via some council members’ office budgets rather than the clerk’s budget.
“Didn’t citizens tell us to think outside the box?” Cole said.
Has any other local government tried to go Kindle? It certainly looks to me to be an idea worth pursuing.
How about it students?
Paper or plastic screen?
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 4:04 am and is filed under Government Meetings 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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