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By Jeffrey Shwom

As a resident and writer, I’m advocating for a centralized information system for all civic meetings in Somerville for the benefit of all of us … and selfishly, for me as a journalist.

Our government is coming back from summer break in 2025. Fall is in the air, and so are back-to-school and back-to-work routines. September is also here, and with it, a month of renewal, new habits, and new starts. Maybe someone new or old wants to learn about our government and go to a meeting or become informed locally. It is an election year, too! This is my palette to paint with, to inform my fellow residents and visitors. I cherish it … until I remember the information is all over the place.

Before we start yawning about seemingly mundane resolutions and ad nauseam orders to have city staff visit with the council, I want to share what is truly at stake. Our mayor and our civil servants operate a $380 million government in four square miles. The same government is trying to defend our values as a community, like by suing the federal government for its stance on immigration enforcement, trying to replace miles of sewer pipes, fix a rat problem, and figure out the magic solution to solve the housing crisis. The small inner workings of those items are at these meetings, and unless we make the agendas and meeting notes more accessible and easier to find, our belief in how our local government serves us, the underserved, underrepresented, and vulnerable populations, can be challenged. 

Sounds big and grand, right? It is. But using one week earlier this month as an example, here is the maddening process of figuring out what’s going on civically. 

I had identified nine civic meetings of interest over a seven-day period. Of nine, five are missing agendas. To even find a meeting date and time, I use at least four separate city webpages – Somerville Legistrar calendar, Somerville city website calendar, the city Agendas, Minutes, & More page , and the Public Library calendar. If pickings are slim, and the past few weeks have been tough, I also use Somerville Times’ legal ads to find agendas for commissions and department meetings like licensing and historic preservation, to name a few.

To get the most up-to-date information, I usually must wait until the day before to feel confident. My work starts a few days or weeks ahead, and if a posted agenda is unclear, like say the monthly assessor’s meeting, I ask questions. Though I got a response from the chief assessor, I missed the deadline for getting that information to print. 

To be fair, state public meetings laws dictate that agendas need to be posted 48 hours in advance, and they are. The city government is just getting back into more robust action after getting its summer tan at Dilboy pool in West Somerville. But what finance items are the city councilors discussing and potentially recommending for approval next week? Will the construction advisory group be talking on Monday about preliminary results from a second survey about whether to build the Winter Hill school in the same or a different place, and with expansions? Not sure…there is no agenda up yet.

Many committees and commissions do post ahead of time, and the government has made a lot of strides. Changing the open meeting law to allow video conferencing like Zoom was essential during the pandemic and now allows folks to watch meetings from home and afterwards. It’s essential to how I write and I’m grateful for it. Plus, our wonderful city officials, councilors, volunteers, and staff do great civic work daily. They volunteer, sometimes paid, sometimes unpaid, to make this city better. To give back. To do good. We should be lifting all of them up and ourselves, too.

In the 12 years I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen so much excitement about being civically engaged as I have this year. Look at the total number of people running for at-large councilor or the rally for Rumeysa Ozturk at Powderhouse Park. As silly as this all sounds, if I, a steward of sharing all of these meetings, can’t find information to share with the public, it makes it hard for me to share the good work.

Here’s my ask: I’m calling on our city counselors and the executive branch of our government to have a meaningful discussion about how to centralize this information for the benefit of all. Furthermore, I’m advocating for the best practice to be posting preliminary agenda items at least one week before a meeting, and any minutes or results should be posted within 48 hours after a meeting. 

If these suggestions become internal best practices, I think the whole community benefits.

Jeff Shwom is a local journalist and former staff writer for The Somerville Times. He organized the Ball Square District Association during the pandemic and is a Magoun Square resident, too. Follow him on Reddit at u/jeffshwom.