YOUR COUNCIL IN DATA | Our REports
Good governance starts with good data.
Local Matters examines the public council meetings (yes, all of them) over an entire council term in your municipality to find patterns and lessons about council decision-making in practice. This includes analysis of all publicly available data about your council meetings: agendas, minutes, all reports, and video footage. We use this analysis to build reports on Your Council in Data.
On request we can also do custom analysis on specific topics or policy areas and more. Have an idea? Let’s chat.
MEETING MECHANICS
This report analyzes an entire term of council meetings to examine the mechanics of decision-making in your municipality. How much time was spent on different policy topics? What percentage of staff recommendations pass, and what patterns emerge when examining those that do not? How much time was spent on procedural issues, and what were the most common points of confusion?
This report identifies decision-making patterns, helping municipalities shift into a higher gear.
Discussion Dynamics + the civility index
Council meetings are often described as a fishbowl, and there is plenty of evidence that the temperature is turning up!
This report analyzes the dynamics of discussion during public council meetings: what was the general tone, civility, and sentiment — and how and when did it change over the council term? What policy areas hold broad consensus, and where are the strongest diverging opinions?
This report tracks how discussion dynamics change over a term of council, and what can be learned to help inform better relations between council, administration and the community.