Meet Ahmad Sayles and Bill Garcia, the first Chicago Documenters to break 100 assignments.
By Natalie Christian-Frazier
Documenters.org illustration: Alex Laskaris
Steps 1-8 of being a City Bureau Documenter: Create a Documenters account. Attend a mandatory orientation. Apply for an assignment. Scan through agenda items. Familiarize yourself with the names of the agency officials and stakeholders. Attend a local government meeting. Summarize your findings. Get paid to hold your local government accountable.
For Bill Garcia, Chicago resident and longtime Documenter, the aforementioned work is not monotonous — it’s entertaining and useful.
Bill Garcia’s first Documenters assignment was Dec. 12, 2019. He live-tweeted a meeting of the Chicago Police Board.
“A lot of it is very, very interesting. Going through the exercise of live tweeting meetings has expanded my brain,” he says.
As Garcia and fellow Chicago Documenter Ahmad Sayles reach their 100th assignments, we asked them to reflect on their time with City Bureau. Here’s what they had to say.
What are your Chicago Documenters’ origin stories?
Ahmad Sayles: I started documenting in 2019. I was working retail — it was an overnight gig. It was terrible. I was begging for a life raft of some more meaningful work. I had been to Public Newsrooms before that, but it was something about that point of time that told me you might as well give it a try. And this was before remote work.
So I’d get off my night shift, and I’d be right down the street from City Hall. I might as well sit up here for a while and broaden my horizons. It honestly did make me feel better sitting in government meetings.
Bill Garcia: I started in December 2019. I was looking for events on the public library’s website. It was [Documenters orientation] at the Bee Library. It was a cold December day and I was like, ‘Do I really wanna bike to this training?’ I ended up just doing it. That’s how it happened.
Bill Garcia and Ahmad Sayles, who live in Greektown and Woodlawn respectively, are the first Chicago Documenters to reach the milestone of 100 assignments submitted.
Ahmad Sayles’ first Documenters assignment was Oct. 3, 2019. He took notes on a meeting of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.
Chicago Documenters are residents City Bureau trains and pays to attend local meetings. Ahmad and Bill have spent over 500 hours collectively, on Zoom and in person, listening to countless officials discuss a plethora of issues such as police, schools, and development in Chicago.
Since 2019, they’ve helped City Bureau create a public record of agencies like the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the Department of Housing through their copious note taking and live tweeting.
However, neither one of them came to this work to simply transcribe local meetings. Over the course of documenting 200 city meetings, they have witnessed decisions that have directly impacted their respective communities — the expansion of protected bike lanes, the heated debate around the fight for a $15 minimum wage, and TIF funds being allocated to new developments are just a few examples.
What has been the most memorable event or public comment that has happened at a meeting you were documenting?
Ahmad: The difference between advocates and lobbyists is always so clear. I see someone talking about an issue, voicing their opinion, and then you’ll have someone with tailored talking points from a corporation. The minimum wage debate sticks out in my mind. Normal, average people are saying they can’t afford the standard of living. Then a paid lobbyist will come in and be like, ‘You won’t have anything.’
Bill: I would say the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District meetings. You go into these meetings thinking this is going to be the most boring thing. But then you realize how much power they have and what they can do with all of the land they have.
Ahmad and Bill recount stories of their most memorable public meetings. Bill mentions the infamous George Blakemore, a rambunctious regular at City Council meetings. Ahmad expresses the awe he experienced when he learned that some of the most haphazardous city processes have committees and legislation behind them.
Have there been any unexpected connections or uses for the skills you’ve honed in this program in your day-to-day life?
Ahmad: It has helped with interpersonal skills — coming in and introducing myself. It helped me network, get people’s contacts. My network of people that I can talk to about specific issues has dramatically grown. I wouldn’t have gone to any of these meetings or even watched the majority of them. It helped tie me even more into my community.
Bill: Research skills. The first time I did a meeting, I tried to live tweet. You’re being thrown a lot of dense information. Transforming live information into tweets helps you be able to handle a lot more tasks and have a higher awareness.
Chicago’s local government has evolved since both Bill and Ahmad began documenting. They’ve evolved as civically engaged citizens, too. They've both completed 100 assignments, become experts in police accountability structures and zoning processes, as well as other skills that are harder to identify. They’ve both stood their ground at meetings in which hostile facilitators questioned them about their reasons for attending. They tweeted meeting recaps that were retweeted by government officials and local journalists. They’ve parsed through heated discourse at community meetings, searching for the most meaningful pieces of dialogue.
Are there any patterns you’ve seen or changes you’ve seen in local government that’s vastly different from when you first began documenting?
Ahmad: The extensiveness of public comment. Not many eyes were on it. You start to look at the numbers when you’re remote. This is getting traction.
Bill: I think people are tuned in to certain meetings, like anything with the police. Remote meetings are huge now. Web content for some meetings has gotten a little bit better.
Their work documenting public comments has ensured the viewpoints of residents live longer than they would’ve in the past. Documenters badgering agencies for agendas and online information might also have something to do with agencies taking some steps to improve their web content.
In many ways, Bill and Ahmad exemplify what Chicago Documenters is all about: The quiet and incredibly rich work of paying attention to your local government.
Bill: It’s been a much richer experience in a lot of different ways than I thought it’d be.
Ahmad: “If it wasn’t for you all being supportive in so many ways, I wouldn’t have even been remotely close to 100 meetings covered. And [there are the] other Documenters and people who work for other media publications who reach out and tell me you’re doing a good job, or, ‘You made a mistake here, tighten it up.’”
Ahmad, Bill, and the other 998 Chicagoans who’ve been trained as Documenters, understand that the watchful eye of community is the start and the finish of the participatory democracy we’re working towards. City Bureau and the Chicago Documenters team would like to thank Ahmad Sayles and Bill Garcia for the incredibly important work they’ve been doing for 100 assignments — and hopefully, another 100 to come.
A version of this blog was published in the July 10, 2024 edition of Newswire, a newsletter filled with civic knowledge and opportunities designed for Chicagoans who want to make a difference in the life of their communities by connecting them with civic knowledge and opportunities.
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