Why I Built a System to Save the Council Meetings (And What I’m Doing With the Data)

ByAndrée Hebert

Facebook deletes the streams. The minutes are vague. So I built a digital archive to keep the record straight.

The Problem: The Disappearing Data

You might not know this, but the live streams of our Parish Council meetings—the only place to see exactly what was said and how it was said—are deleted by Facebook after 30 days.

Once those videos are gone, all we have left are the “Meeting Minutes.” While legally sufficient, minutes are often vague. They tell you a motion passed, but they don’t tell you the context, the questions asked, or the concerns raised by your neighbors.

In my world, we call this the “Confusion Tax.” It’s the price we pay for a system that isn’t designed for user accessibility.

The Fix: The Automated Archive

I am a “Fixer,” not a complainer. So, I used my “2nd Brain” (AI) to build a solution.

I have automated a system that:

  1. Captures the St. Mary Parish Council live stream immediately.
  2. Downloads the video file before it can be deleted.
  3. Transcribes every word spoken using Applied Intelligence.

The Output: How I’m Sharing It With You

I am not a news station. I am a neighbor with a very organized hard drive. My goal isn’t to tell you what to think; it’s to give you the materials to think for yourself.

Moving forward, I will be publishing the data in three specific formats:

1. The TL;DR Dashboard

  • What it is: “Too Long; Didn’t Read.”
  • The Format: A bullet-list summary of the meeting.
  • The Goal: Pure efficiency. If you only have 3 minutes, this gives you the facts, the votes, and the money spent. No fluff.

2. The Observational Angle

  • What it is: A 360-degree look at the “High Conflict” issues.
  • The Format: When a topic heats up, I will break down the mechanics of the argument. I will lay out “Viewpoint A” and “Viewpoint B” side-by-side.
  • The Goal: To detox the noise. We strip away the emotion and fear-mongering to look at the actual logic being used by our elected officials.

3. The Open Source Repository

  • What it is: The receipts.
  • The Format: I am making the raw transcripts and archived video files available to the public.
  • The Goal: Radical Clarity. You don’t have to trust my summary. You can check the data yourself.

Why This Matters

We deserve a local government that is accessible. We deserve to know what is happening without needing a law degree or 4 hours of free time on a Tuesday night.

I’m just the operator ensuring the system works for us.

ACCESS THE ARCHIVE

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