
{"id":15544,"date":"2011-01-27T10:05:49","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T15:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=15544"},"modified":"2011-01-27T10:05:49","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T15:05:49","slug":"county-makes-technology-strides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/01\/27\/county-makes-technology-strides\/","title":{"rendered":"County makes technology strides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Orange County has made major improvements in its use of technology over the past two years, according to a report presented to the Orange County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>The report from the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s information technologies department outlined the department\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major accomplishments in 2009 and 2010, including the development of the new county GIS website, which standardizes Orange County land data and provides the public with a convenient way to create address lists from maps. <\/p>\n<p>Other accomplishments include the provision of streaming videos of commissioner meetings, completing the move from the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s antiquated mainframe to upgraded computer servers and systems, the provision of new wireless hotspots and a major upgrade for the county website.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, staff implemented a new jury-selection and -management system that allows the clerk of courts to directly manage jury pools without the involvement of county staff. <\/p>\n<p>Board members applauded the department\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s efforts. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been night and day in the two years that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been sitting here on where we are and where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Commissioner Pam Hemminger said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now we can actually move forward on some things that will be very positive for the county.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s servers are tomorrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mainframes, and we do have to have that kind of continuous upgrade of systems,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d board Vice Chair Steve Yuhasz said, adding that upgrades will help to avoid a huge replacement 20 years down the road.<\/p>\n<p>Todd Jones, chief information officer with Orange County, said the technology infrastructure is in really good shape. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think you will see a fair reduction in the infrastructure-related capital costs going forward,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>This year, the county plans to implement technology that will archive all incoming and outbound county emails, which will improve response times to public-records requests. County Manager Frank Clifton said officials are developing a policy on county documents. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Almost all those documents, outside of personnel, are public records,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[The new archiving technology] will just make it easier for people to do electronic searches.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In addition, county staff plans to create online tools for residents to register their pets, reserve meeting rooms and sign up for classes, team sports and recreational facilities. Plans also include an initiative to bring public wireless access to all county buildings. <\/p>\n<p>In other business, the board agreed to hold up to three work sessions a year during the day, straying from their longtime practice of holding only night meetings. <\/p>\n<p>Yuhasz said holding some meetings during the day will improve access for those who cannot attend night meetings. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If all our meetings are at night, then someone who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come at night can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come and address the commissioners,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we should start with a couple work sessions, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to rule out the possibility that we might at some point have a regular meeting during the day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Valerie Foushee cautioned against holding too many daytime meetings, saying that such a schedule would only allow those who are independently wealthy or who have control of their work schedules to run for a seat on the board. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Orange County has made major improvements in its use of technology over the past two years &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15544"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15573,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15544\/revisions\/15573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}