Standards
The rules this site is produced under. Most of them are enforced by code, not by promise.
- 1
Every entry links to a primary document.
An entry is published only when the government document behind it is attached: the motion, the board letter, the report, the court filing, the vote record. Press coverage is never a source here. If a record has no document yet, it waits.
- 2
Headlines describe; they do not argue.
A headline says who did or proposes what, in at most 90 characters, in the tense the record supports: present for a vote, an award or a filing; “proposes”, “seeks” or “would” for a motion or recommendation not yet decided. Words of judgment are blocked by code before anything publishes.
- 3
Machine drafting is disclosed on every entry.
A language model drafts the headline, the one-line description and the summary from the document. The About page says so once for the whole site: “Drafted by machine from the primary document; not independently reviewed. Read the document.” An entry the editor has read and approved carries a different line saying so, with the editor’s name. The claim is always about our text, never a vouch for the contents of the document.
- 4
Numbers, names and dates come from the document.
Automatic checks compare every figure, date and proper name in a draft against the document and the record’s title. A draft that fails a check is redrafted once; if it still fails, it publishes with a visible “machine flag” note naming the check, and the document is authoritative.
- 5
Lawsuits and settlements are reported for the public interest in them.
What the city or county is accused of, where it happened, which department or officers were involved, the stage of the case and the amount when the record states it. Private individuals are named only as the case name names them, and their injuries or personal circumstances are not restated beyond the kind of claim. Officials, agencies and contractors get full treatment.
- 6
Ranking is a formula, and the formula is public.
What leads the edition and the email is decided by a score, not by taste: how much is at stake (dollars and who is reached), how unusual the action is, how time-sensitive it is, multiplied by how well it is documented and how clearly it can be explained. The weights are configuration, and we change them when reader behavior shows they are wrong.
- 7
Images are real.
A map of the place a record is about, a photograph from Wikimedia Commons under a free license with the author and license credited, or the first page of the document. No generated imagery, no stock photography.
- 8
The record is kept apart from commentary.
Countywide is made by Tomás Sidenfaden, who also publishes commentary about Los Angeles government. Entries here say what a document says. Where a video is attached to an entry it is labeled as commentary, and it never changes the entry’s text.
- 9
Corrections are made in place and logged in public.
When an entry is wrong, we fix the entry, add a dated note to it, and record the correction on the corrections page, which is never pruned. Anyone can report an error from the entry’s page. Reports are read by a person.
Questions about these rules go to the form on the about page.