Wolverhampton City Council launch new electronic report and decision tracking system through CMIS

Press Release: 16 Jul 2006

CMIS (Committee Management Information System) is a Web and Intranet enabled system for managing minutes, agendas and reports from council meetings.

The system allows information to be viewed online about all elected members and their respective wards, the meetings on which they serve, when and where these meetings are held and what decisions have been taken.

Cabinet Member for Organisation, People and Performance, Councillor Ian Brookfield, explained: “We are delighted to be launching the CMIS system which provides better opportunities to Wolverhampton’s citizens for engaging with the local democratic process.

“The system supports Freedom of Information and is an effective way of discharging our obligations to make information as widely available and as easily accessible as possible.

“The transparency and effectiveness of the councils’ operations can be seen directly by the people it affects most”, he added.

Guest speaker at the event was Wolverhampton South East MP, who has a close interest in the e-government agenda in his ministerial role at the Cabinet Office.

Pat McFadden said: “It’s important that government, both locally and nationally, reforms services to make them more convenient for the public.

“By improving access to council services and information for its citizens through the use of technology, Wolverhampton City Council is helping to deliver one of the government’s priorities – promoting greater public involvement in local decision making”, he added.

CMIS offers a range of other facilities which will enhance the availability of information about the democratic and decision making process.
Options include comprehensive search facilities across all content held; a ‘what’s new’ function where newly added items can be highlighted; subscription facilities where subscribers can be emailed about any new information which is publicly available being added to CMIS that is of interest to them; and feedback for public consultation.

The CMIS launch event included a demonstration of the system, a ‘question and answer’ session, plus informal ‘hands on’ sessions.
To promote awareness of the new information system to members of the public a competition is being held with an Ipod prize for the winner. The competition involves using the CMIS system to find the answers to a variety of city council related questions which can all be accessed online through CMIS.

CMIS is available through the city council’s http://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/decisionmaking website address where all council decision making content and public documents can be viewed, together with additional information which complements CMIS. Currently the system displays information for the current 2006/7 and past 2005/6 municipal year. Plans are in place to put historical information on the site later this year.

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