Meet the New Agenda and Meeting Management Public Resident Portal

If a community passes new legislation and updates its code of ordinances, but residents aren’t informed about the changes, how can they comply?

This communication challenge has vexed clerks and municipal leaders for generations. For every resident who enthusiastically reads the minutes of every public meeting, there are two who only research codes and policies when imminently impacted.

In our quest to help make government work better, we rallied our government technologists—including former clerks and other public sector leaders—to ideate a solution that makes it easy for residents to quickly and easily find the information they need about code of ordinance changes and public meeting progress, no matter how frequently they want updates.

Introducing the New Resident Portal, Included with Our CivicClerk® Agenda and Meeting Management Software

Customers utilizing our Select Agenda and Meeting Management software can easily add our resident public portal functionality to their solution. The public portal combines cutting-edge design elements with features that make it easier for residents to find meeting documentation such as agendas, minutes, and recorded videos.

Oh, and it’s free to Agenda and Meeting Management customers. 🙌

Why Your Residents Will Appreciate Your Public Portal

Our public portal offers:

• A modern design featuring accessible content per Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 standards and responsive access from a desktop or mobile device
• Public commenting on agenda topics via email
• Public user single sign-on and social sign-on options for public comment and sharing features, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple ID
• A calendar feature to track upcoming meetings
• The ability to see votes and motions on meeting topics
• Built-in search and filtering functionality
• Subscription-based email notifications
• An interactive agenda view that allows the public to easily see and access all attachments and view the specific motions and votes made on those items
• The ability to download or view bookmarked PDF meeting materials and up to two additional custom file types
• Live streaming and video-on-demand capabilities when integrated with our CivicPlus Media product, including:
  • Integrated video with bookmarks
  • Video playable on any device
  • Live and on-demand closed captioning available (additional fees apply)
• The ability to share meeting content with other public users via email

Why Your Team and Cross-Departmental Stakeholders Will Thank You for Implementing Our Public Resident Portal

• Improved search capabilities to allow residents to self-serve records requests
• Design and configuration options that allow for custom branding of the portal
• Integrations with other CivicPlus solutions
• The ability to embed the public portal on any webpage or link to it as a standalone web page
• Unlimited public subscribers and notifications
• Optional access to plain text versions of published documents for increased accessibility
• Optional public comment form for accepting comments from the public on an agenda

Let’s Turn Every Public Communication into a Chance to Build Resident Trust

When it comes to your local government meeting documentation, nothing could be more critical than providing easy access to transparent materials for every community member who wants it. Your new Public Portal provides flexibility to staff and accessibility to the public, all wrapped up in a modern, easy-to-use design that will improve residents’ experiences with your meeting materials and processes.