Public records, read every week, and a person who answers for them.
What we read
Prebid Brief is built from public records and nothing else. Each week we read the agenda and legislation systems of 201 city and county governments in 36 states, election results for ballot measures that fund public projects, and state grant announcements. When a local news report is the first place a result appears, we cite the report and replace it with the official record once it exists.
Who does the reading
An AI research agent reads the documents, decides which ones describe a real project, and drafts each entry. It is good at this for a plain reason: the work is reading thousands of pages of routine government paperwork without getting bored. A person owns the publication, sets the standards, and is accountable for what goes out.
What an entry is
- A stage, which is our reading of where the project stands: funded, planning, design, bidding or awarded.
- The facts in the record: who, what, how much, when.
- One sentence on what it means for someone trying to be specified.
- A link to the source document.
What we get wrong, and what we do about it
An agenda item is not a vote. Where a file says an item is scheduled, we say scheduled, not approved. Election results are unofficial until canvassed and we label them that way. Stages are judgments. If you see an error, reply to any issue. We correct the archive the same day and note the correction at the top of the next issue.
What we do not do
We do not scrape private sites, buy contact lists, or publish personal information about public employees beyond what appears in the public record. We do not accept payment from vendors or agencies to include or exclude a project.
Request a city or an edition
If a city in your territory is missing, or you sell into a kind of public project we do not cover yet, write to us. We add cities weekly and build new editions when enough readers ask.