Case Study: City of San Jose, California achieves paperless modernization and 90% reduction in paperwork with Granicus

Digitizing Citizen Boards and Commissions Application Provides a More Diverse Pool for San Jose

The City of San Jose Clerk’s Office, serving more than one million residents in the heart of Silicon Valley, was hamstrung by paper-based processes: weekly council agendas could include up to 100 items with 20–50 pages each, 23 citizen boards ran on paper applications and spreadsheets, and staff spent significant time physically organizing documents while meeting public disclosure requirements.

By adopting Granicus’ Boards & Commissions, Legistar, eComment and SpeakUp, the Clerk’s Office fully digitized board applications, agenda management and public engagement—tripling online applications (100 to 340), doubling appointments (39 to 82), and reducing filing cabinets from 14 to 1. The move cut staff time from two full-time positions to just half of one person’s workweek (freeing 1.5 FTE), improved accessibility for residents with disabilities, and broadened the diversity of applicants.

City of San Jose, California

Anh Tran

Deputy Clerk