BoardDocs Alternatives for City Councils and Local Boards

A board portal renewal notice rarely arrives at a convenient moment. It tends to land in the middle of budget season or just before a busy run of meetings, and the easy path is to sign and move on. The harder path is to ask whether the system you have is still the right fit for your council, commissions and boards. Either path can end in the right answer. What matters is that the decision is deliberate, and that you can explain it to your manager, your council, and anyone who later asks how the city chose its meeting software.

This guide is for clerks and staff whose contract for BoardDocs, or another Diligent product, is coming up. It does not argue that you should leave. BoardDocs is a familiar platform for many public bodies, and a system your staff and residents already know has real value. The goal is to separate what a board portal is designed to do from what a city council process requires, then compare your current system and its alternatives on those requirements. It also covers the part of a switch that is easiest to underestimate: moving years of past packets and minutes without damaging the public record.

One caution before you start. Product lines in this market change through acquisitions, renaming and bundling. Treat anything here about a specific company as a starting point to confirm in a demo and in writing.

What BoardDocs and Diligent are publicly known for

BoardDocs

BoardDocs is a web-based board management platform best known in the US for its use by school boards. Many school districts post their meeting agendas through BoardDocs public pages. It is also used by some cities, counties, special districts, libraries and other public bodies. Its general purpose is to help an organization build agendas, distribute packets to board members, and make meeting materials available to the public.

BoardDocs is now part of Diligent. If your contract was signed years ago, the company name on your renewal paperwork, and possibly the support structure behind it, may have changed since then.

Diligent

Diligent is a governance technology company widely known for board portal software used by corporate and nonprofit boards, along with broader governance, risk and compliance products. Its public sector offerings include BoardDocs, and like many vendors in this market, its lineup has changed through acquisitions.

At renewal, ask Diligent directly which product it recommends for your city going forward, whether BoardDocs remains the product it positions for organizations like yours, and what the plan is for the version you run today. This is not a criticism. Any vendor that has grown through acquisitions may have overlapping products, and asking where yours fits is ordinary due diligence.

Questions for your incumbent

• Is the product, edition and hosting arrangement in the renewal the same as what you have now?
• Have support terms, included modules, or contract language changed?
• Will the vendor put any roadmap commitment in writing, rather than describe it verbally?
• What would the vendor offer to address the pain points your staff has documented?

Asking these questions is part of a fair review, not a negotiating tactic. Your current vendor deserves the same chance to answer them as anyone else.

Board portal needs versus city council needs

The term "board portal" comes largely from the corporate and nonprofit world. A board portal's core job is to give a small group of directors secure access to confidential materials, often with annotation, voting and messaging features. A public body shares some of those needs, but its center of gravity is different. Most of what a city council considers is a public record before, during and after the meeting, and getting an item onto the agenda involves many more people than the council itself.

Not every city fits the right column perfectly, and not every product fits the left. Many systems sold to government were built for public meetings from the start. Use the table to sort your own requirements, not to judge any product.

Public bodies differ from each other, too

A school board, a city council and a library board all hold public meetings, but they run different processes. Consider:

• Number of submitting departments. A council agenda may draw items from many departments, each with its own review chain. A smaller board may receive nearly everything from one office.
• Legislative formality. Some councils track ordinances through readings, committee referrals and amendments. Others mostly approve consent items and hold hearings.
• Number of bodies. A city may support a council, a planning commission, several advisory boards and a successor agency, each with its own posting requirements.
• Quasi-judicial hearings. Land use and appeal hearings carry notice and record requirements set by state law.

If you mainly support one body with a simple process, a platform designed around a single board may serve you well. If you support many bodies with departmental workflows, weigh that heavily.

Your realistic options at renewal

Most clerks end up choosing among a handful of paths. Laying them out side by side keeps the review honest.

1. Renew, possibly with changes

Staying is a legitimate outcome. Your staff knows the system, your council knows where to find packets, and residents have bookmarked your public page. If your pain points can be addressed through training, configuration, or a different edition, renewing may be the lowest-risk choice. Use the renewal to fix how you use the system, not just to extend the term.

2. Move to another product from the same vendor

If Diligent proposes a different product, evaluate it like any new system. Ask what migrates automatically, what does not, and whether your public links will change. A switch within one company is still a migration.

3. Move to a municipal agenda and meeting platform

Several vendors build agenda and meeting management specifically for local government. Granicus and CivicPlus are two widely known examples, and there are other national, regional and smaller providers. These platforms are generally built around departmental item intake, public posting and minutes, though details vary by product. Our separate guides on Granicus alternatives and on comparing Granicus and CivicPlus go deeper on that market.

4. Use a general-purpose board portal

Some small public bodies with simple processes look at board portals built for nonprofits and companies. These can work well for distributing materials to members. Check closely how they handle public posting, accessibility and records retention, because those may not be what the product was designed around.

5. Add a preparation tool alongside your agenda system

Much of the hardest work happens before an item enters any agenda system: writing the staff report, checking it against past actions, and confirming the packet is complete. Tools in this category work alongside whatever system publishes your agenda. Govera is one example. It drafts staff reports, resolutions and agenda items grounded in the city's own records, with citations to the source document, page and meeting, and it runs packet completeness checks and tracks commitments made in minutes. Staff review every output. Because Govera focuses on preparation, evaluate it together with the system that posts your agendas, and confirm in a demo how the two would work together.

These options are not exclusive. A city might renew its portal and add a preparation tool, or switch platforms and leave its records system untouched.

What to compare: criteria that matter to a public body

Every vendor's feature list looks long. The criteria below are the ones that usually decide whether a system works for a public body. Score your current system first so you have a baseline.

Public access and accessibility

Residents, reporters and other agencies are users too. Look at the public view without logging in. Can someone find last year's budget hearing in a few clicks? Do links to individual items stay stable over time? Are posted documents accessible, including scanned attachments?

The US Department of Justice has issued rules under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act on web accessibility for state and local governments, with compliance dates that depend on population. Ask your city attorney how those rules apply to your posted agendas, packets and archives. Ask each vendor to describe in writing how the product supports compliance and what remains your responsibility.

Item intake and approval workflow

Bring your real approval chain to the demo: department head, finance, city attorney, city manager, clerk. Ask to see it configured. Watch what happens when an item is sent back for revision, when a reviewer is out, and when an item arrives late. Check how comments and versions are tracked.

Agenda building and posting

See how the agenda is assembled, reordered and published, and how changes after posting are handled. Open meetings laws differ by state on posting deadlines, locations and required content. The system should make your legal deadlines easier to meet, not add steps on posting day.

Minutes, votes and follow-through

Check how minutes are drafted, how roll call and individual votes are recorded, and how approved minutes are published and linked to the agenda. Ask how directions given at the meeting are captured so commitments do not disappear into a PDF.

Closed session materials

Confirm how the product separates closed session materials, who can see them, and whether access is logged. What may be discussed in closed session and how those records are kept varies by state, so ask your attorney what you need.

Records, retention and export

Many renewals are really decided later, at the exit. Ask how documents are stored, what metadata is kept, and whether you can export everything, files plus metadata, in standard formats at any time, not only at contract end. Map this against your retention schedule and confirm which system holds the official copy of each record type.

Security and data handling

Ask where data is hosted, how it is separated from other customers' data, how access is controlled, whether user actions are logged, and how the vendor handles security incidents and notification. Bring IT in early, and ask for documentation rather than a slide.

Integrations

Each time you hear "integration," ask what it means: a live connection, a scheduled file transfer, a link on a web page, or a future plan. Common touchpoints are your website, meeting video, records management system and single sign-on.

Support and training

Ask who you call, during what hours, and how issues are escalated. Ask what training is included at go-live and for new staff later.

Cost structure

Compare the shape of costs, not just the first-year figure: implementation, migration, training, per-user or per-body charges, add-on modules, storage, renewal escalators and exit costs. A lower first-year number can carry higher ongoing costs, and the reverse can also be true.

Migrating past packets and minutes

If you switch, the migration is where problems are most likely, because it touches the public record. Past packets, minutes and attachments are records your city must retain and produce on request, and residents and staff rely on links to them. Plan the migration before you sign.

Start with the retention schedule

Your state or local retention schedule sets how long different meeting records must be kept and which are permanent. Minutes are often treated as permanent records, while some supporting materials may have shorter periods. Confirm with your records manager and your state archives guidance. The schedule tells you what must move, what can sit in a read-only archive, and what may be eligible for disposition through your normal process.

Decide where the official record lives

Some cities treat the agenda system as the official repository. Others treat it as a publishing tool and keep the official copy in a records management system. Settle this first, because it changes what a complete migration means.

Get exit terms from your current vendor

Read your contract's data return provisions. Then ask your vendor, in writing:

• What export formats are available for documents and metadata?
• Does the export preserve meeting date, body, item numbers, and attachment order?
• Are minutes, votes and action history included, or only files?
• How long will read-only access continue after the term ends?
• Is there a charge for export or extended access?
• How long after a request will the export be delivered?

Ask early. The answers shape your timeline and belong in your comparison.

Protect public links

Over the years, your website, staff reports, ordinances, press releases and outside sites have linked to documents on your current public page. A platform change can break those links. Inventory the most important ones and ask both vendors what is possible for redirects or a lasting archive page. At minimum, post a clear notice explaining where older records now live.

Migration checklist

• Inventory every body, date range and record type in the current system.
• Map each record type to its retention period.
• Decide what migrates, what goes to a read-only archive, and what stays in the records system.
• Request a sample export and review it before committing to a full one.
• Confirm the new vendor can import with metadata intact, and get the scope in writing.
• Spot-check migrated meetings against originals: file counts, attachment order, item numbers, approved minutes.
• Keep read-only access to the old system until verification is complete.
• Document what was moved, when, by whom, and how it was verified.
• Update website links and post a public notice.
• Tell staff who handle public records requests where to look during the transition.

Time the cutover around your meeting calendar. Avoid budget adoption and heavy hearing periods, and consider running both systems for a few meetings so you catch problems before the public does.

Running a fair review

A fair review protects the city, and it protects you when someone later asks why the city chose what it chose. It is also fair to the incumbent, who should be evaluated on the same terms as everyone else.

Start from the notice deadline

Check your contract for auto-renewal language and notice windows. Missing a notice date can commit you to another term. Work backward from that date, leaving time for requirements, demos, references, legal review and, if you switch, migration before the old contract ends.

Know your procurement rules

Purchasing thresholds, whether a formal solicitation is required, and whether you may use a cooperative purchasing contract all depend on state law and local policy. Talk with your purchasing officer and city attorney at the start. Cooperative contracts can save time, but confirm they are permitted for this purchase and that their terms suit your city.

Build a small evaluation team

Include the clerk's office, IT, a records lead, someone from a department that submits many items, and someone from the manager's office. A council liaison can speak to the member experience. Keep the group small enough to schedule.

Write requirements before demos

List must-haves and nice-to-haves based on your process and documented pain points. Avoid borrowing requirements from one vendor's materials, which tilts the field toward that vendor. Set scoring weights before any demo and keep them fixed.

Use scripted demos

Give every vendor, including your incumbent, the same scenarios and sample materials. Ask each one to:

1. Route a departmental item through your actual approval chain, including a return for revision.
2. Add a late item and amend a posted agenda.
3. Publish an agenda and show the public view on a phone.
4. Record a roll call vote and produce draft minutes.
5. Restrict a closed session document and show who accessed it.
6. Find a specific item from a past meeting the way a resident would.
7. Export a full meeting with its metadata.

Have each evaluator score independently right after the demo, then compare notes.

Call references that look like you

Ask each vendor for 2 to 3 references with a similar form of government, number of bodies and state law environment. Ask about implementation, migration, support and what they wish they had known. If you can, also talk with a public body that moved away from the product.

Document the decision

Keep requirements, score sheets, notes and written vendor responses. A short decision memo will help when you brief your manager or council.

Get it in writing before you sign

Demos show intent. Contracts show commitments. Whether you renew or switch, confirm these points in the contract or an attached statement of work.

Have your city attorney review the final contract, including any vendor terms incorporated by reference, such as online terms of service that can change without a signature.

Next steps

Start with these this week:

1. Find the notice deadline in your current contract and calendar it with reminders.
2. Ask your current vendor for written answers about your product's future, renewal terms and data export.
3. Gather pain points and must-haves from departments, IT and records.
4. Confirm with purchasing and your city attorney what process this purchase requires.
5. Pull a sample of past meetings and decide how much history would need to move if you switch.

Whether you renew with changes or move to another platform, a clear written record of how you decided is worth almost as much as the decision itself. If staff report drafting and packet preparation are where your office loses the most time, consider adding a preparation tool such as Govera to the review alongside your agenda platform options.