http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...e-c67939befcc7
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Nine city aldermen will stop getting paper copies of municipal reports and council agendas this fall.
The switch to electronic documents, tested by Ald. Brian Pincott since June, will reduce the amount of paper being used by council members.
"There's a small forest that we mow down every single year for our agendas," Pincott said Thursday. "It can be a binder minimum -- four inches thick -- to sometimes two of them.
"That's a lot of paper that ultimately we don't really need to have that is all available electronically."
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The move is expected to save a considerable amount of paper and, in turn, a lot of money for Council. Not everyone is on board with the plan, however:
Quote:
Ald. Dale Hodges, who has been on council since 1983, said he won't be one of them.
"I want to be papered," he said. "I'm not signed up."
Hodges said he prefers having a physical agenda, partly because he'd have to wire his house with Internet connections so he could go through council documents in the evenings and on weekends.
"With a paper agenda, I haul it home, I haul it in the back of my car, I haul in the front of my car and put it in the trunk of my car or wherever it will fit," said Hodges.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Ward 1 Alderman, my friend and yours,
Dale Hodges. Here's a guy with his finger on the proverbial button of this city and he doesn't have internet at home? Guess he's afraid that if his secretary sends him an internet today he might not get until Tuesday. It could get held up by enormous amounts of material and have to wait in line. It's not a big truck, people.
In fairness to Ald. Hodges he's not the only one on council who has refrained from going paperless. He is the only one, however, made to sound like a Luddite with his ridiculous reasons.
I've heard stories from colleagues about older gentlemen who work in their office and distrust email. They have their assistants print out all their emails so they can be read in paper form before an appropriate response is dictated.