Bay Village switch provides easier access to municipal code

Clerk of Council Joan Kemper and former Councilman Paul Vincent look over a leather-bound copy of the city code which will be housed at the library. Photo by Tara Wendell

As with most things, technology improves the way we function. Unfortunately, a lot of technological improvements just make for more annoying distractions. For the City of Bay Village, they found an improvement that can actually improve focus on the task at hand. 

On Dec. 1, 2017, through the work of City Council and their revered clerk, Joan Kemper, Bay Village began utilizing the online municipal code service by Municode. Prior to, Bay Village held their municipal code online, but its function was lacking in search ability and usefulness.

With the Municode platform, Bay Village employees, members of Council, and residents can search ordinances quickly and efficiently while also drawing from more than 3,200 other municipalities that are hosted by Municode. If you’re wondering which farm animals are permitted in Bay Village (sorry, none) and compare it to what Maui County, Hawaii, allows – now you can! 

While on Council, I used an iPad to review our code. I was too clumsy to use paper during meetings and far too fearful of papercuts. My hope is that with the new online code, more members of Council will explore ridding of paper use and start relying on using technology like Municode during meetings. I suggest you give it a try.  

Go to library.municode.com on your phone, tablet or computer and snoop around. It’s user friendly and simple to explore. You can download our current ordinances and make your own edits in Microsoft Word. What a way to spend a weekend!  

This is another productive step toward a more open and accessible government. Cheers, Bay Village City Council. Keep up the good work.