City of Saint Paul benefits from long-time paired usage of legislative management and communications software. Successes include:
Keeping the public informed of decisions and issues that affect citizens’ way of life – while also providing convenient, accessible outlets to further explore that information – is a daunting task, but it’s not one that government staffers take lightly.
For the City of Saint Paul, Minn., this mission of transparency and public service is made easier by leveraging software both in managing the information flow of public meetings, and in distributing that information to those in the community that wish to be informed.
The City was one of the first users of the GovDelivery Communications Cloud to send out information updates to subscribers, with now-City Clerk Shari Moore as one of the first users of the system in 1999. In 2006, Saint Paul began using Granicus’ webcasting software to livestream Council meetings. A year later, it launched Legistar to prepare legislation and agendas for public meetings, and to pair minutes with recorded meeting video.
Since then, Moore and her office have not only streamlined how they prepare for and run the City’s public meetings thanks to Granicus’ legislative and webstreaming software, but have successfully leveraged the Communications Cloud to quickly and conveniently promote that information to the public.
“We’ve been using these products for a very long time now,” says Moore, “and it just makes sense that they would work well together.”
Moore says her office benefits from being able to have such streamlined method of keeping the public informed.
“To not have to manage an email list – to put that ownership on the citizen or whoever it is that’s looking for it where you lead them to the tool and they can choose what information they want – that’s very valuable,” Moore says.
