ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020159
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
OK, SO the thought of Mayor David Bowers futzing around at the keyboard might bring a smile to the face. Even the mightiest are humbled - but only temporarily - when taking those first fumbling steps into the computer age.
The idea that Roanoke City Council might go "paperless," conducting its work instead on laptop computers, would be only the most visible public sign that the city had upgraded its computer technology.
More significant to its operations would be such advances as a high-speed data networking system, a computerized booking link between police and sheriff's departments, and a geographical information system that would plot water, sewer and other utility lines on a map of the city.
The cost of going high-tech is not inconsiderable - the changes a technology committee has proposed for City Hall would cost $1 million - and savings often are deferred as the job of simply learning to use the new tools expands workloads.
But, as businesses have found, computerization does increase efficiency in the end, and fewer employees can handle more work.
And as important as cost efficiency is the public expectation of increasingly sophisticated service. Businesses and individuals grown accustomed to easy access to information expect their government to be able to tell them - quickly and precisely - just where that water line runs.
Computers are needed for planning and public safety not because this work hasn't been getting done in the past, but because computers can help do it better. Eventually, the public will see anything less than that higher standard as unacceptable - archaic, backward, unbefitting a city of Roanoke's progressiveness.
It's not important whether Bowers takes notes on paper or onscreen. (No fair diverting council debate to e-mail, though.) It is important to keep pace with the dramatic changes in the way business is conducted throughout society. Governments not only need to adapt, but to adapt in ways that will ensure that every member of the public - the PC haves and the PC have-nots - has ready access to full information about the public's business.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB