The Council Beat
The Council Beat downloads Toronto’s official voting record, meeting attendance, and declared-interest data, then turns new decisions into a static site with meeting reports and RSS.
The pipeline does not ask a model to decide what matters from an unbounded stream. It gives a written brief only to items with a split vote, an amendment, or a declared interest. Vote counts come from the official result and tally; each brief carries its agenda item code and links back to the official record. Unanimous items remain available as a consent line rather than becoming artificial headlines.
The site also includes FixIt Toronto, a 311 complaint router that joins a resident’s plain-language problem to official categories, ward aggregates, and public councillor contact information without pretending to submit the complaint on the resident’s behalf.
Brief text is generated automatically and disclosed as wire copy. The project includes checks for vote-count mismatches and relative dates because the useful role for the model is concise language, not authority over the underlying civic record.