What the agenda does not tell you.
The weekly brief reads what councils are about to vote on. Records goes behind the vote: what each city already owns and how old it is, and what was actually paid the last time someone bought it.
Three sources, in order of how hard they are to copy
The first two work today. The third is written and was not started.
Documents attached to agendas
Price and plan documents attached to agenda items in the last five weeks that could be read by machine: quotes, proposals, price lists, bid tabulations and capital plan sheets. Anyone can read them. Few do, and the file gets more useful every week it is kept.
Registers cities publish
Agencies whose own playground register is public, real and useful. They came out of 79 U.S. map layers that have a place for an install date, most of which had left it empty. Finding them took a search of 1,441 public map services.
Records that are not online
Governments we already read every week that an out-of-state business may ask under state law. The first 24 requests are written for 15 states. None was filed.
The requests were written and not sent
Most cities keep a list of what they own and do not publish it. It is a public record, and it comes out when someone asks. 24 requests are written. The owner of this business decided not to file them for a demonstration, so that no public employee is put to work for one. 6 of the 8 governments checked take requests by email, and 44 of 51 jurisdictions let anyone ask.