We use primary public sources whenever possible, preserve a source path for material assertions, and show when information was last verified. A page is never more current than the evidence behind it.
Source order
For civic facts, our preferred order is: official records or agendas; the responsible government body or agency; direct on-the-record confirmation; and credible secondary reporting that clearly attributes its source. We may use a secondary source to identify a lead, but we do not treat it as a substitute for underlying evidence when that evidence is available.
Municipal and record data
Legal municipal jurisdiction is determined from the canonical municipality data, not from postal “community” labels. Public-facing records must originate from record_publishable and be released through an audited promotion process. The public site does not query the canonical database directly in a reader's browser.
Publication snapshot: A deployed civic page is a versioned, non-PII static snapshot. It retains source URLs and verification information while excluding records that fail the quality or publication rules.
Verification dates and freshness
Where a page gives a direct civic answer, it should display the date the answer was checked. Meeting, hearing, and deadline information needs faster review than standing background information. If a material item is stale or cannot be confirmed, we label that limitation rather than filling the gap with an inference.
What we do not publish
- Subscriber information, private correspondence, or raw personal data that does not serve a clear public-interest purpose.
- Records marked non-publishable or unpromoted within the publication workflow.
- Unsupported claims presented as facts.
- Thin, automatically generated pages that do not meet the editorial and indexability standards.
How to challenge a factual claim
Send the page URL, the specific statement, and your supporting evidence to [email protected]. Factual errors are handled under the corrections policy; editorial rules are explained in the standards.