Methodology
How OpenTexas sources, transcribes, enriches, and indexes public meeting records.
What we hold for Houston
These are coverage figures — how much of the public record we have published. They are not an accuracy measure, and we do not currently publish one.
- Meetings
- 196
- Bodies covered
- 94
- Earliest record
- January 6, 2026
- Latest meeting
- October 29, 2026
Minutes are published on the body's own schedule, often weeks after the meeting.
936 published motions. A decision can only be extracted where minutes exist.
Next scheduled meeting on record: November 4, 2026.
Known source problems
- October 22, 2026 · District E Town Hall — No content available for enrichment (empty transcript + no agenda/minutes)
Bodies covered (94)
9/11 Day Of Remembrance ~ 25th Anniversary · Apartment Ordinance Community Meeting · Arts & Culture Committee · Budget And Fiscal Affairs · Charlotte Baldwin Allen Sculpture Unveiling · City Controller's Office: Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration · City Pulse · City Pulse: Back To School Edition · City Pulse: Fifa World Cup 2026 Houston Preview · Common Grounds: Coffee & Conversation - Domestic Violence · Consolidated Council Session · Consolidated Houston City Council Session · District B Disaster Preparedness Town Hall Meeting · District E Town Hall · District E Town Hall: Clear Lake · District E Town Hall: Kingwood · District F Deed Restrictions Workshop · District K Mpac Meeting · Dr. Persse Retirement Celebration · Economic Development Committee · Ethics And Governance Committee · February 3 & 4 · Fifa Fan Festival Opening Ceremony · Fleet Week Houston Closing Ceremony · Fleet Week Houston Opening Ceremony · Government Operations Committee · Historic Preservation Appeals Board · Housing And Affordability Committee · Houston Archaeological And Historical Commission · Houston City Council Session · Houston Forensic Science Center: Board Of Directors · Houston Forensic Science Center: Board Of Directors Meeting · January 21. · Joe E. Ramirez Blvd. Street Renaming Ceremony · Labor Committee · Mayor's Press Conference · National Vietnam Veterans Day Ceremony · Nexo Latino (#12): “Edmundo Casas” · Nexo Latino (#14): “Andres Ortiz-Monasterio And Jorge Suarez-Velez” · Nexo Latino (#15): “Adolfo Loredo And Hector Garcia · Nexo Latino - Podcast (#01): "Tema - Data Centers" · Planning Commission · Planning Commission: Major Thoroughfare And Freeway Plan Hearing · Press Conference "Return Of Pride Banner District In Montrose" · Press Conference - "The Ensemble Theatre 50th Anniversary Event Announcement" · Press Conference: "Andover Park Groundbreaking" · Press Conference: "Avda Public Awareness Campaign" · Press Conference: "Boulevard 61 Ribbon Cutting" · Press Conference: "Coh Details Thanksgiving Day Parade 'deck The Hall' Celebration" · Press Conference: "Columbia Tap Trail Lighting Improvements" · Press Conference: "Edgewood Community Center Groundbreaking" · Press Conference: "Fifa World Cup 2026 Public Safety Briefing" · Press Conference: "Freedom Over Texas Announcement" · Press Conference: "Greenspoint Mall Demolition Day" · Press Conference: "Harrisburg Metro Substation Ribbon Cutting" · Press Conference: "Houston Dynamo Fc And Houston Dash Announce Ticket Giveaway" · Press Conference: "Hpd Fbi Announce Arrest Of Sexual Assault Suspect" · Press Conference: "Hpd Opens North Belt Safety Complex" · Press Conference: "Hpd South Central Police Station Groundbreaking" · Press Conference: "Human Trafficking Prevention Ahead Of The World Cup" · Press Conference: "Immigration Ordinance" · Press Conference: "Jones Hall 60th Anniversary And Rededication" · Press Conference: "Lawrence Park Groundbreaking - Let's Play Initiative" · Press Conference: "Lovers' Lane Cold Case Murder Investigation" · Press Conference: "Mayor Whitmire Partners With Votehouston" · Press Conference: "Mayor Whitmire Provides Update On Tropical Storm Edouard" · Press Conference: "Mayor Whitmire Signs Executive Order Giving Houston Airport Workers Raises" · Press Conference: "Mayor Whitmire With Hpd Local Leaders Discusses Ice Shooting" · Press Conference: "Mayor's Back 2 School & Health Fair Announcement · Press Conference: "Metro Pd Partnership Tower Substation Ribbon Cutting" · Press Conference: "No Trafficking Zone Initiative" · Press Conference: "Power Protection Initiative" · Press Conference: "Proposed Fiscal Year 2027 Budget" · Press Conference: "Terminal B North Concourse Ribbon Cutting" · Press Conference: "Trinity East Senior Groundbreaking" · Press Conference: "West Houston Assistance Ministries Homeless Outreach" · Press Conference: "Youth & Paws - Barrio Dogs, Inc. Proclamation" · Press Conference: “Daca 14th Anniversary” · Press Conference: “Hpd-Ice Policy” · Press Conference: “Oem Update · Proposition A Committee · Public Safety Committee · Quality Of Life Committee · Resilience Committee · Score Houston (#14): " Soccer - A Business Opportunity You Cannot Miss” · Score Houston (#15): "The Veteran Business Playbook" · Score Houston (#16): "From The Lab To The Cloud — Building An Ai Platform For Biomedical Research And Application" · Sergio Ivan Rodriguez Pedestrian Bridge Groundbreaking Ceremony · Service Delivery Committee · Special Called · Super Neighborhood Alliance Meeting · Tag Houston Region: State Of Mobility · Technology And Innovation Committee · Texas Women Veterans Day Ceremony
Where the records come from
We pull official meeting videos from city platforms — Granicus, CivicPlus, PrimeGov, Swagit, and YouTube — once per city per day. Agendas come from the city's public agenda system. Nothing is republished without an official source.
How transcription works
Every meeting is transcribed with word-level timestamps, then enriched with AI to extract decisions, agenda items, public comments, and civic issues. Transcripts may contain errors; video and original audio remain the authoritative source.
How search works
Search is hybrid — keyword matching plus vector similarity — inside Meilisearch. Results are real records (meetings, agenda items, dev applications). The summaries on each result card were produced during enrichment and are reviewed periodically. Written answers come only from the assistant, described next.
How the assistant answers questions
The “Ask about” assistant answers plain-English questions from the same records search uses: agendas, minutes, transcripts, recorded decisions and development applications. It does not answer from general knowledge about your city. It is free with a sign-in.
Every statement in an answer links to the meeting it came from, so you can open the agenda, minutes or the moment in the video and check it yourself. When the records do not cover a question, it says so instead of guessing.
It keeps a recommendation separate from a decision. A planning commission that votes to recommend denial has not denied anything; the council decides next, and the answer says which body acted and which body acts next.
Known limits. Until a body approves its minutes, a vote may be known only from the recording; answers label those votes as recording-based. Not every meeting has a transcript or minutes yet, and coverage differs by city (see the coverage figures at the top of this page). Like the summaries, answers can contain errors.
Before a change to the assistant ships, we rerun a fixed set of real residents' questions with checked answers and compare the results. Passing that set does not guarantee every answer is right, which is why every answer shows its sources.
AI limitations
AI summaries can contain errors. Always verify legal actions, vote counts, and named-person attributions against the official video, transcript, and minutes. Where records are incomplete, we mark the gap rather than guess.
Corrections
Spotted a problem? Email corrections@opencityrecord.org with a link to the page and a description of the issue. We review every correction and update the affected record.