Council Minutes Just A Click Away

But the new Laserfiche system has great benefits for staff members as well by reducing the time required to research historical information such as ordinances, deeds,easements and contracts. Only the Council minutes will be available to citizens through the web site at this time. However, all of this material is public information and can still be researched in the old fashioned way at the Municipal Building on Park Avenue.

Staff members have been scanning city documents into the system and now have all City Council minutes dating back to 1955 available for review by employees that have access to the in-house system. The minutes of the 2005 meetings and all future meetings are on display for anyone to read at Aiken.Net, the city's Web site. An audio tape of each Council meeting is also placed online after the meeting until the ratified minutes can be posted.

"This is a very valuable and easy to use resource," says City Manager Roger LeDuc. "You can go back and read the minutes, or just type in a subject and tell it to search out every reference for that issue. The results are instantaneous and you can print them out for later review." "It is also a great tool for journalists, city workers and any citizens who want to know how their city government came to the decisions they made," said LeDuc.