The Erie County Legislature’s Majority Caucus has taken several steps to reduce its paper consumption, along with the associated costs, as it further improves efforts to bring efficiency to the Legislature. As a result, the Legislature was declared the winner of the county’s Paper Reduction Contest for August 2016 with a 46.8 percent reduction from August 2015.

“Since taking the seat of Chairman, I have worked to implement green initiatives that are not only good for our environment but save the taxpayers money. I want to recognize the efforts of all the Legislators and staff to reduce our paper consumption drastically.  We continue to transition into a paperless office through various initiatives and I expect we’ll see better results in the months that follow thanks to these initiatives,” said Chairman John Mills.

At the direction of the Chairman, the Legislature is in the final stages of installing public WiFi in the Chambers for the first time, allowing members to work from tablets or laptops instead of the thick session folders, which can contain hundreds of pages of paper.  

“Improvements have been made in how the Legislature handles business and we are seeing a reduction in printing costs in the process. I am pleased with the progress so far and expect to see continued improvements,” said Legislator Ted Morton, Chairman of the Energy and Environment Committee.

The Legislature expects to have its new WiFi network fully operational in the next few days, which will be available to guests and visitors. The Majority Caucus’s support of technology upgrades have changed how the Legislature operates, streamlining how information is shared and vastly improving transparency.