As the 2016/2017 Cambridge City Council begins its work, the City Clerk’s Office is rolling out a new legislative management tool that will allow the City to more efficiently manage how it prepares for public meetings and provide greater transparency with its citizens.
This new Open Meetings Portal will be used for all City Council meetings and committee meetings beginning Monday, January 11, 2016. Later in the year, other City Boards and Commissions will begin using this legislative management tool.
Members of the public wishing to learn more about the Open Meeting Portal are encouraged to join us at one of the drop in sessions that the City Clerk’s Office is sponsoring. These drop in sessions will occur on:
- Monday, January 11 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM
- Monday, January 25 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM
The drop in sessions which will be held in the Ackerman Room in Cambridge City Hall will provide a general overview of the platform and show participants how to:
- Find a meeting
- Download agendas and minutes
- Watch a meeting video
- Search for specific items
It is anticipated that by the end of February historic City Council agendas and related documents will be available via the Open Meeting Portal. Until that time, please visit http://www.cambridgema.gov/ccouncil to search for agenda items prior to January, 2016.
The City Clerk’s Office, as part of the FY16 budget process, selected the cloud-based civic tech solution Accela to replace the current City Council database system. The City’s Open Meeting Portal will help make public meetings efficient and transparent for our citizens and the legislative management system will help the City save time by reducing the manual labor normally associated with legislative meetings. Cambridge will be streamlining meeting preparation and management, reducing paper usage, and engaging citizens online using searchable minutes and videos from public meetings.
If you have questions about the Open Meetings Portal, please contact Paul Creedon, Business Production Analyst at pcreedon@cambridgema.gov