How to read this site

City hall has its own vocabulary. Here's the short version, so nothing on this site needs a decoder ring.

"Unofficial" vs. official results

The city publishes official vote records only after the council approves its meeting minutes — usually weeks later. We don't make you wait: the day after a meeting, we read the meeting transcript and post what happened, clearly stamped unofficial. When the official record lands, it replaces the unofficial read, and we log any disagreement between the two. Unofficial means "reported early and labeled honestly," not "rumor."

Data freshness

The footer separates two ideas that often get mashed together: when the static site was built, and how far each data source has been checked. "Current through" means the newest meeting date present for that source. "Pipeline checked" means the last time the automated updater ran, even if City Hall had not published anything newer. If a source fails, the footer says which check failed and whether that slice may be behind.

A batch of items the council considers routine and passes together in one vote, without discussion. Any member can pull an item off consent to debate it. When you see dozens of items pass at once, that's the consent agenda doing its job.

First reading, second reading

Some ordinances must be voted on more than once before they're law. A "first reading" pass means the council likes the idea; the ordinance only takes effect after it passes its final reading. So an item can "pass" twice — that's the same law moving through stages, not a rerun.

Item numbers

Every piece of business on a meeting agenda gets a number (Item 1, Item 45…). The numbers reset every meeting, so "Item 5" only means something alongside its meeting date — which is why we always show both.

The dais