High-tech meets local government: civic leaders embrace tablet computers

It's probably not a winning sales pitch for high-tech gadgetry, but the new tablet computer is proving a good fit for local government.

The county Board of Supervisors is using Hewlett-Packard's Elitebook tablet PCs. The Watsonville City Council this week received Apple iPads. And city leaders in Santa Cruz have begun mulling the sleek touchscreen devices as their peers in government offer positive reviews.

"I think I'll be able to do everything I did with paper," said Supervisor Ellen Pirie, who stopped lugging her notoriously bulky meeting agenda around with her when she received her Elitebook earlier this month and could download all the necessary materials to it...

The main goal in getting tablet computers, say government administrators, is to save time and money, particularly when it comes to duplicating paper documents.