Government transparency and access to civic information is important to their communities, residents told us.
By Darryl Holliday
City Bureau cofounders Andrea Hart (middle) and Darryl Holliday (right) speak at the City Club of Cleveland in December. (Photo: City Club of Cleveland)
Starting this month, concerned residents in Northeast Ohio can easily find, filter and learn about local public meetings, a key step to taking an active role in shaping the public policies that affect their lives. City Bureau’s Documenters.org now includes public meeting dates, times, locations and records from more than 150 government agencies at the city and county level in Cleveland and Akron, all standardized in a single location for the first time.
To date, we’ve collected information on more than 1,600 public meetings and 1,700 official documents like meeting minutes, agendas and notices for Northeast Ohio.
Cleveland and Akron join Chicago and Detroit on our list of cities with more public, more accessible information on local government activities and decisions, updated daily by our open-source City Scrapers technology. This public service was made possible by support from the Cleveland Foundation and Akron Community Foundation. It offers a solution to a growing problem across the country: Government agencies hold thousands of public meetings every day across the U.S., but the vast majority receive no media coverage, produce minimal records and are often sparsely attended. And these important spaces for democracy go unwatched.
Getting to Know Northeast Ohio
The addition of these Northeast Ohio cities is the result of an invitation and conversations with residents about information needs in Cleveland and Akron.
Following a tour of the region in July, where our staff met with Clevelanders and Akronites committed to their communities, this month, City Bureau led four public events with the Cleveland Foundation, Akron Community Foundation, NeighborUp and Hack Cleveland, from Cleveland’s City Club (you can watch the video of that conversation, moderated by Lila Mills, here) to community hubs like the Rice Public Library and The Well in Akron. We were there to discuss our new tool for journalists, organizers, researchers and concerned residents who want more transparency from their public officials.
These conversations taught us a lot about Northeast Ohio as well. We asked where folks get trusted information, where they share it and how they create it. We also asked how our transparency tools could be used locally. Here are some of the things we were told:
On the introduction of Documenters.org as a local transparency tool
“I think this tool would make people more informed and, therefore, make government better, too.”
“A full Documenters program could help our journalists better cover our communities.”
“We have a number of very active neighborhood-level organizations that would use this information for organizing work.”
On the state of local media
“We need more coverage of public meetings.”
“I would be very interested in attending trainings to help my community through media.”
“The local news sources are very limited.”
On the relationship between government and the public
“There are civic engagement touch-points that exist where [Documenters.org] can deepen engagement and accountability.”
“It’s time, if not too late, to redefine society’s imagination.”
“There are many government agencies that do not practice transparency and other citizens that would likely be interested in participating.”
While we’re beginning with Documenters.org as a transparency tool in Cleveland and Akron, our full Documenters program utilizes the same technology to train and pay local residents to attend and document public meetings. When asked if people wanted to see us build local Documenters programs in their area and who we should work with locally in that effort, the answer was a resounding yes—and it came with a list of trusted local organizations that we’ll use to forge new connections.
Holliday explains the Documenters.org website and program at a Public Newsroom workshop at Cleveland’s Rice Library. (Photo: Andrea Hart)
Our Next Steps
We’ll continue listening and taking the time we need to get the full picture. Our recent visit to Cleveland and Akron shows us that Northeast Ohio is ready and eager for solutions to information inequity. We’ll continue to grow Documenters.org, introducing new features that push the possibilities of governmental transparency and seeking national funding that builds capacity in our partner cities.
If you’d like to be a part of this work, stay updated or offer suggestions, let us know using the form below.
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