At a special session on Monday, Albany councilors will discuss the pros and cons of giving up their often thick paper agendas and switching to laptop computers for use during meetings.

Agenda packets for council meetings would be downloaded from the city's website and saved onto a councilor's computer.

Getting the laptops is the only agenda item for the meeting, which starts at 4 p.m. in the Municipal Court Room at City Hall.

Mayor Dan Bedore and Councilor Jeff Christman are proposing the change. They say calling up information on computers can be faster and easier than looking for it in a stack of papers.

Christman said information from previous meetings would be available on the laptops, and using computers would save paper.

Finance Director Stewart Taylor said using or not using laptops "is all largely a matter of personal preference. Some people feel they can more readily find information in their hard copies than on a laptop."

Some councilors like to write in the margins of their agendas and are concerned about losing that capability. But software programs are available that allow highlighting of items for quick reference, and users can set up their own bookmarks, he said.

Councilor Sharon Konopa objected to the laptop idea when it was first proposed.

Some councilors might not feel computer-savvy enough to get to information quickly on a computer, she said. Konopa also said there would not be enough room on the council dais for a computer and all of the paperwork passed out during meetings.

She also believes councilors would lose contact with their audience if they spent time scrolling on their computers.

The council would have to set an ethics policy concerning laptop use.

The city has $13,500 in the council/nondepartmental budget for laptops, related software and equipment. If the city purchased laptops for councilors, the cost would be about $1,850 for each of the seven council members, and that includes money necessary to buy a different license for Acrobat software.

If councilor purchased laptops on their own, the cost would be about $1,700, each.

Taylor said he has not observed a trend toward councilors in other cities using laptops for city business.

Questions TO BE RESOLVED

At Monday's session, councilors will cover a variety of questions, such as:

n If one councilor does not want to use electronic packets, can the rest do so?

n Should the city purchase the laptops?

n Will laptops stay at City Hall or can they be taken home?

n And who would pay for supplies such as paper, toner and flash drives?