Messages about city business can be public records even when they live on a personal phone. Here is how to set policy, capture and retain messages, search them, and brief your council.
A practical guide for staff planning a council retreat: defining outputs, picking a facilitator, open meeting rules, pre-work, a decision-focused agenda and follow-through.
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.
Out-of-date council rules cost meeting time, staff time and legal certainty.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 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.
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.
A practical look at how AI helps city clerks assemble agendas, draft staff reports, and keep each decision traceable to the record.
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.
Council direction given without a vote is easy to lose. A simple tracking log, a named owner, and a regular status update keep each directive visible.