How the City Council issues page works
The source: official meeting minutes
After each City Council meeting, the City Clerk writes up the minutes: the official written record of what the Council took up, who spoke to it, and how it voted. Once the Council approves them, the city posts them on its website as PDF files.
This page uses the minutes of every full City Council session, regular and special, once its minutes are posted. Committee meetings and budget hearings have their own records and are not included. When a joint meeting and a regular meeting were held the same night, both sets of minutes are read and the night counts as one session.
- 2026
- 20 sessions
- 2025
- 26 sessions
Reading the scans with AI
Many of the city's minutes are scans: pictures of printed pages, not text a computer can search. To read them, we use AI text recognition, the same kind of technology that lets a phone copy the words out of a photo. It looks at each page and writes out the words it sees, keeping track of which page each word came from.
Newer minutes are read by an AI document reader (Firecrawl) that understands page layout, so it keeps columns and lists in order. Older minutes were read with Apple's built-in text recognition. Either can occasionally misread a word, a name or a number, especially on a faint or crooked scan. That is why every excerpt on the issues page links straight to the original page of the minutes.
… Arpke discussed the School Department Budget, whether the public schools pay property taxes to the City and how the B.M.C. Durfee High School Debt Exclusion is included in property taxes. Ms. Arpke clarified that public schools do not pay property taxes to the City and explained that property tax bills are not itemized to show all allocations of the payment. School Committee Member Collin Dias stated that Corporation Counsel has attended School Committee meetings and asked if the School Department was being billed for his services. …
“Property tax” appears 5 times in these minutes. See the original page
Just the minutes, not the attachments
A posted minutes file often carries more than the minutes: committee reports, petitions, letters and other papers filed with the meeting. We read from the call to order to the Clerk's signed attest ("A true copy. Attest:") that closes the minutes, and leave the attachments out, so a long attached report can't swamp the count.
Counting the issues
Each issue is a list of words and phrases that people use when they talk about it. Property taxes, for example, includes “property tax”, “tax rate”, “tax bill”, “levy limit” and “Proposition 2½”. A session counts for an issue when its minutes use any of those phrases at least once, and every use is counted as a mention.
No AI decides what a meeting was about. The phrases are matched as whole words, ignoring capital letters, and the same list is used for every session and every year, so the counts can be compared. We tested the phrases against real minutes and removed matches that only look like an issue: a budget line called “Water Rate Revenues” is not a debate about water rates, and the state's recording notice at the top of every meeting is not a discussion of transparency.
Utility pole and conduit petitions (requests from utilities to place poles or run lines) are routine business rather than an issue people raised, but they are counted like any other, so you can follow how many requests come in from year to year.
See all 22 issues and their phrases
- Property taxes
- property tax · tax rate / tax bill · levy limit / Prop 2½ / override · residential exemption / classification · assessments / abatements · taxpayers · excise tax · tax relief (seniors/veterans)
- City budget & spending
- budget · fiscal year / FY · free cash / stabilization / reserves · deficit / shortfall / cuts · overtime · borrowing / bonds · net school spending / Chapter 70 · ARPA / grants
- Water & sewer
- water rates / bills · water mains / lines / breaks · sewer / CSO · stormwater / drainage · drinking water / quality · Watuppa / reservoir · flooding
- Flock & surveillance cameras
- Flock · license plate readers · security / surveillance cameras · real-time crime center / police drones
- Police, crime & public safety
- public safety · crime / violence · police staffing / patrols · arrests / police enforcement · fire / EMS · feeling unsafe
- Homelessness
- homeless / unhoused · encampments / tents · shelters · panhandling · sober homes / transitional housing
- Drugs, addiction & mental health
- opioids / overdoses / fentanyl · needles / syringes · substance use / addiction / recovery · mental health · drug dealing
- Roads & sidewalks
- road / street repair & paving · potholes · sidewalks · crosswalks / ADA ramps · snow removal / plowing · streetlights
- Traffic & speeding
- speeding / speed limits · traffic · stop signs / signals · pedestrian / bike safety · dirt bikes / ATVs / mopeds
- Parking
- parking · tickets / citations
- Infrastructure & capital projects
- infrastructure · capital plan / projects · bridges & highways · South Coast Rail / MBTA / train · gas lines · broadband
- Housing
- housing (general) · affordable housing · rents / tenants / landlords · new units / apartments
- Zoning & development
- zoning · variances / special permits · development / developers · demolition / historic preservation
- Schools & education
- schools / students · teachers & staffing · Durfee / new school buildings · special education · absenteeism / test scores · school safety
- Trash, blight & code enforcement
- trash / recycling · illegal dumping / litter · blight / vacant & abandoned property · code enforcement / nuisance · rodents · graffiti / overgrown lots
- Parks & recreation
- parks / playgrounds · specific parks · pools / splash pads / fields · recreation programs
- Economic development & business
- economic development · businesses / jobs · downtown / waterfront · TIF / tax incentives · industrial / biotech parks · Brayton Point / offshore wind / energy
- Alcohol, cannabis & tobacco licensing
- liquor licenses / alcohol · cannabis · tobacco / vape / smoke shops · entertainment / late-night licenses
- Immigration
- ICE · immigration / immigrants
- Government accountability & ethics
- audits · ethics / conflicts of interest · transparency / public records · outside counsel / lawsuits
- Utility pole & conduit petitions (routine)
- National Grid / Verizon / Eversource · poles / conduits
- Quality of life (noise & fireworks)
- noise · fireworks
Comparing years
A year in progress has fewer sessions than a finished one, so comparisons are made per session. Mentions, the default, shows how many times the minutes mention an issue, and when two years are compared, the mentions per session. Sessions shows the share of each year's sessions whose minutes mention it at least once.
2026 runs through September 22, 2026. A session is added after the city posts its minutes, usually a few weeks after the meeting, and we update the counts.
What this can't tell you
- Minutes are a summary, not a transcript. An issue raised aloud but not written into the minutes is not counted. The meeting video has everything that was said.
- A mention is not a measure of time or importance. One line in the minutes can stand for an hour of debate, and a routine item can be mentioned many times.
- Minutes change in length. Some years' minutes are written in more detail than others. The Sessions view is the steadier comparison; Mentions can rise just because the minutes got longer.
- Words, not meaning. A phrase list can't tell whether the Council was for or against something, or what it decided. Read the excerpt and the page for that.
Check it yourself
On the issues page, click an issue, then a phrase, to see the sessions whose minutes use it most. Each one shows the passage and links to that page of the original minutes, so you can read it in context.
If something looks wrong, use Report an error on the minutes page, or email us with the issue, the meeting date and what you found. Counts last updated October 31, 2026.