New Agenda Process

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

Lake County, Florida’s agenda process was formerly paper-based and involved the tedious tracking of paper agenda requests through a workflow maze. All five commissioners would each receive a binder with 500-1,000 pages for review. Creating an electronic copy for the county website was nearly impossible. Whenever changes were made, an addendum had to be published to the meeting agenda. The county was determined to improve this vital process. In 2012, a cloud-based automated agenda system was put into operation and agenda items and backup documentation were able to be submitted online. The agenda item is now able to progress through an automated workflow for approval. All agenda items and backup documentation are auto-assembled into a single PDF document made available to commissioners for viewing on iPads and published online for public viewing. Commission meetings are streamed live over the Internet and citizens can follow along with the electronic agenda package. During the meetings, agenda items are bookmarked to the video recording. Later, the bookmarked agenda and video are posted to the county website for viewing. Search queries can be performed across all agendas and the related video can be played back from the archive.