Full Access to Board Agendas

The Board of Supervisors/County Administrator and the School Board/Superintendent have jointly implemented full internet access to their Agenda backup documents.  This is a breakthrough for openness and replaces years of darkness.  Both Boards are using the same system called BoardDocs which reduces costs, improves efficiency, and demonstrates that collaboration between the two Boards benefits the Citizens of Essex County.

As attendees at the Board Meetings are aware, over the past 2 years both Boards began posting their agendas on their websites.  The backup documents for each meeting include their consent agendas, resolutions, and other items that are to be discussed and considered.  Those documents have always been provided, in the form of printed documents, to the Board Members prior to each meeting.  The Virginia Open Meeting Law requires that those same documents be made accessible to the public.  Both Boards, to their credit, have provided a folder of the backup information, excluding privacy matters (personnel, legal, disciplinary), at the office of each respective Board Clerk.  Very few citizens, including me, found the time to go to the clerks' offices and review the information before each Board Meeting.

The School Board began using a software application calleed BoardDocs 3 months ago.  The Board of Supervisors will implement BoardDocs at the January 2014 meeting.  If you want to be well informed about issues prior to Board Meetings you will be able to access, prior to Board Meetings, the same information that the Supervisors and School Board Members review from your computer, tablet, or smart phone with internet access.

In addition to greater openness and improved public access to important information, the use of electronic documents saves thousands of dollars spent on paper, toner, binders, file cabinets, document disposal, and clerical time each year.

Both Boards and their information staffs are also looking toward the future and evaluating a potentially better meeting software system.  Similar to BoardDocs, the system under study could provide more flexible and faster agenda preparation plus it would permit videos of each Board Meeting to be viewed by the public on demand.  School Board Meetings are already being recorded on digital video so the additional open access and transparency will be essentially at no additional cost.

ESO is pleased to see the two Boards, their Administrator/Superintendent, and the staffs initiate joint projects which improve productivity, provide significantly greater services to our citizens, and SAVE MONEY because of their collaboration.

John Clickener - Publisher