Making Democracy Readable

There is a fundamental paradox in American politics: the level of government that impacts our daily lives the most is the one we pay the least attention to.

The Local Impact Paradox

While national elections dominate the news, it is your local city council and county board that decide whether an affordable housing project gets built, how much funding goes to public safety, whether your street gets a bike lane, and how high your local taxes will be. Yet local turnout is low: in 15 of America's 30 largest cities, fewer than 20% of eligible voters cast a ballot in the most recent mayoral election, according to Portland State University's Who Votes for Mayor? project.

Why? Because paying attention to local government is exhausting.

The Illusion of Transparency

City halls often claim to be "transparent" because they publish their records online. But uploading a dense, 500-page PDF of a city budget or a 200-page meeting agenda isn't true transparency. It's compliance.

Public policy researchers call this an "administrative burden." When information is technically public but practically impossible to read without spending hours deciphering legal and procedural jargon, the average working resident is locked out of the process.

That leaves the field to paid lobbyists, special interest groups, and political insiders: the people with the time to understand what elected officials are actually doing.

Our Mission: Data Over Rhetoric

The philosophy behind MyLocalGovernment.com is simple: an informed democracy requires accessible information. We build tools that strip away the administrative burden of local civics, so residents can follow what their governments are doing and take part before decisions are made.

The Agenda (what they're about to decide)

Every week we read the published agendas, sort the decisions by how much they matter, and explain each one in plain English, with the arguments on both sides and an easy way to write to the officials before they vote.

The Ledger (how they spend)

Policy is meaningless without funding. Federal money covers only about a quarter of public infrastructure spending in the U.S.; states and local governments cover the rest, according to the Urban Institute. Our budget portal translates municipal budgets into plain English, so you can see where your tax dollars go.

Starting in Santa Cruz County

We cover the County of Santa Cruz; the cities of Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Capitola and Scotts Valley; the County Board of Education, Pajaro Valley Unified School District and Cabrillo College; and two regional agencies, the Regional Transportation Commission and Santa Cruz METRO. If we can make local government in one county readable, the same approach can work anywhere.

How it works

Where the agendas come from

Agendas are collected straight from each government's official meeting portal:

That includes the Board of Supervisors, the four city councils, and the commissions and committees those portals publish, plus the school and regional boards listed above. Other school districts (including Santa Cruz City Schools) and special districts such as water, fire and sanitation are not covered yet.

How items are sorted

Procedural items (roll call, minutes, proclamations, closed session) are set aside. An AI model (Anthropic's Claude) sorts the rest into three tiers: Major (big spending, taxes and fees, new laws, housing and land use, policing), Notable (meaningful contracts, programs and policy positions) and Minor (routine contracts and administrative decisions). For Major and Notable items it also reads the staff report when one is published and lays out the arguments on each side. It is told to use only what the documents say and to stay neutral.

Writing to your officials

On any item, pick a side and, if you like, say in a sentence why it matters to you. We draft a short email built around your reason, which you can edit and then send from your own email account. It goes to the public-comment address printed on that meeting's agenda, or the one the government publishes for that body. If we can't confirm an address, we don't offer a button.

Limits

  • AI summaries can be wrong or incomplete. Every item links to the official agenda and documents, which govern.
  • Agendas can change after they are posted. Check the official agenda before the meeting.
  • Agenda formats differ between portals, so an item can occasionally be split or labeled imperfectly.

The Bottom Line

Government information belongs to the public. You shouldn't need a law degree or a background in finance to know what your local government is deciding. By organizing the information and making it readable, we aim to level the playing field, increase local engagement, and hold local government accountable to the people it serves.

See what's on the agenda →View the budget portal →