Copy that: Public Copier Coming to Santa Clara County Government Center
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN JOSE – “You might still be writing ‘2015’ on your checks, or you might be amazed that in 2016 people are still writing paper checks at all, but for public agencies like the Santa Clara County government, most business still happens on paper,” said County Supervisor Joe Simitian today.
But, Simitian noted, “That means people engaging with County government often need to make copies.” Soon it’ll be much easier to do that. At Simitian’s urging the County is installing a copier for public use on the first floor of the Government Center in San Jose.
“We often ask people to make two, four, sometimes six copies of documents to do fairly routine things, and we don’t always do a good job of telling them that in advance,” said Simitian, who brought the proposal to install the copier to the Board of Supervisors. “We ought to be making it easier to comply with our own requirements for getting business done with the County. This is one small but, I think, genuinely helpful way to do that.”
Simitian said he was initially prompted to raise the issue following a conversation with a constituent about the fact there was nowhere in the 11 story County building to make a copy. Simitian said he thought the accommodation was, “obviously minor in the scheme of things; but the kind of thing we should be attentive to if we’re treating the public right.”
At its meeting this morning, the Board of Supervisors approved the installation of a copier accessible to the public on the first floor of the Government Center at 70 West Hedding Street in San Jose. Visitors will be able to make black-and-white copies there, for 10 cents per page.
“We’re not trying to duplicate the services of commercial copy shops,” said Supervisor Simitian. “I just want people to be able to come to the Government Center and take care of their transactions in a single trip.”
The copier should be installed and operating within the next three weeks. “Until our long-predicted but still elusive paperless future finally arrives,” Simitian said, “visitors to the Government Center will be able to find the copier near the volunteer-staffed information booth on the first floor."