Traditional local government coverage asks a reporter to summarize a meeting that might last six hours and span hundreds of pages of documents.
That means most news outlets either:
- Cover everything so briefly that it becomes hard to follow, or
- Pick just one or two topics the reporter thinks matter most.
But in a small town, everything is important to someone.
So we take a hybrid approach. We write stories about the decisions and policies that impact lots of Moabites—but we also create a public archive of full local government transcripts, reviewed and edited by our staff.
This approach doesn’t just support transparency—it lets us cover more meetings than we could with traditional reporting alone, while still giving readers the context they need.
These transcripts are:
- Searchable by Google, so you can find exactly what was said and who said it.
- Tied to speaker names, so accountability isn’t just about the vote—it’s about the record.
- Linked to the original meeting video, for full transparency.
It’s a choose-your-own-adventure approach to civic information, where you don’t have to rely on what we think is important—you can search, follow, and decide for yourself.
🛠️ How It Works
We start by accessing the official recordings and agendas of city and county meetings. Then we use transcription tools to create a first draft of the meeting, identifying where different people are speaking.
From there, our team:
- Reviews the transcript for clarity.
- Matches speakers to commissioners, staff, and public commenters. When an ID is unsure, we’ll put the name in [brackets].
- Adds timestamps and links so you can jump directly to the moment an issue is discussed on the video.
- Summarizes key takeaways in plain language, so if you’re just looking for the big picture—you’ve got it.
Whether you’re researching a topic, following a long-term issue, or just wondering what happened at Tuesday night’s meeting—you can find it here, on the record.
Read our Local Government Coverage
Help Us Keep This Going
Creating searchable transcripts, reviewing public records, and making local government more accessible takes time and care. We do it because we believe that everyone deserves to see how decisions are made—and who’s making them.
If you’ve found this coverage useful, or you believe in the value of transparent, accountable local government, please consider supporting our work. Even a small contribution helps us keep building this archive and reporting on the issues that matter to Moab.