Practical, plain-language articles for city clerks, managers, and council staff. Agendas, records, transparency, governance, and where AI actually helps.
A practical guide to clerk office procedures documentation: short procedure sheets, a three-pass deputy cross-training plan, a coverage calendar, and safe handling of logins and vendor contacts.
A clerk-to-clerk guide to consent agendas: what qualifies, how members pull items, how to record consent action in the minutes, and the mistakes that cause trouble later.
A six-module AI training curriculum for city staff, taught in a deliberate order, with guidance on running short sessions and keeping a training record that holds up.
Out-of-date council rules cost meeting time, staff time and legal certainty. Here is a practical path from audit to redline, public review, adoption and training.
A plain, step-by-step process for building a records retention schedule from your state's schedule, with record series, owners, electronic records and defensible destruction.
A practical plan for a clerk starting or promoted into the role: learn the calendar, meet the people at the seams, build a legal deadline register, inventory records, and fix one problem well.
Your board portal contract is up for renewal. Here is how to compare BoardDocs and its alternatives on what a public body needs, plan a records migration, and run a review you can defend.
A plain explanation of how council-manager government splits deciding from doing, how that division shapes agenda work and staff communication, and how to handle the friction points.
AI prompts and outputs may be public records depending on your state's law and retention schedule. Here is what to ask your city attorney and how to set up tools, logging and staff guidance.
A neutral way for clerks and managers to compare Granicus and CivicPlus for agenda management, built on the questions that decide fit for your city rather than a verdict.
A practical guide to drafting an AI use policy your city can follow, from scope and prohibited uses to records retention, vendor terms, training, and review cadence.
If your city keeps its records in Laserfiche, should agendas run there too? A buyer-focused look at the options, the integration questions, and when staying put is the right call.
A practical buyer's guide for small city clerks: seven criteria that matter, a fair map of the vendor landscape, a scoring worksheet, and a demo plan that tests tools on your own files.
A practical look at how AI helps city clerks assemble agendas, draft staff reports, and keep every decision traceable to the record.
A step-by-step walkthrough for city clerks on how to build a city council agenda, from the posting deadline to the final packet.
A plain-English walkthrough of the public records request process, built for small city staff who do not have a dedicated records team.
A grounded look at where AI helps city and county staff today, the risks worth taking seriously, and how to start with a narrow, low risk pilot.
A timeline based checklist for city clerks covering everything from the two week mark before a council meeting to filing the final record after.
A practical guide to writing staff reports that lead with the decision, not the history, so council members and the public can find what matters fast.
A fair, non hype comparison of Granicus, CivicPlus, Laserfiche, and newer AI native tools, with a buyer framework for choosing what fits your office.
A clear look at what AI can genuinely do for staff report drafting, and the citation test every tool should have to pass before staff trust it.
A practical guide to building a government transparency portal that residents return to, built around what they actually search for.
The public record needs a higher bar than any internal memo. Here is what makes AI generated text safe enough to belong there, and what does not.
A practical guide to taking meeting minutes that capture official action clearly, from motions and votes to closed sessions and public comment.
Council direction given without a vote is easy to lose. A simple tracking log, a named owner, and a regular status update keep every directive visible.