The data covers legislation introduced, and meeting minutes published, between January 1, 2020 and May 15, 2022.

Not all local governments publish the same data on their public websites. The cities of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale both publish whether a piece of legislation passed and which commissioners voted for that legislation. Miami-Dade County and Broward County do not publish that information so the spreadsheets cannot include it.

The “id” column lists the “ocd-bill/” number for each piece of legislation. The “ocd-bill/” number uniquely identifies each piece of legislation - across local governments - in CivicPro’s system.

You can use the “ocd-bill/” number to identify the same piece of legislation across the different tabs in the spreadsheet. Simply use “Control+F,” vlookup, or any other standard function in excel.

This is the title of the legislation that appears on the agenda for each public meeting. It tells you the subject of the legislation and whether it is a resolution or ordinance.

The “identifier” column lists the “File ID” or ““Resolution/Ordinance”” number that each local government uses internally to track its own legislation. It can help you look up legislation on that government’s website.

Note regarding Miami-Dade County: in the “identifier” column, it lists both the relevant committee and the “File ID” number. The “File ID” number is just the six digit number after the dash.

The “id” column lists the “ocd-bill/” number, which CivicPro uses internally to uniquely identify legislation from multiple governments. The “identifier” column lists the “File ID” number (or “Resolution/Ordinance” number) that each of those governments actually use.

However, many of these “File ID” or “Resolution/Ordinance” numbers duplicate across local governments and are not unique.

It is the date the legislation was first heard by the relevant local government.

If it says “TRUE” in the “passed” column, that means the legislation passed and was adopted. If it says “FALSE” then the legislation did not pass.

In the sponsorships tab of the spreadsheet, there is a column called “primary.” This column includes text that says either “TRUE” or “FALSE.” If it says “TRUE,” the commissioner whose name is listed next to the legislation is the primary sponsor for that piece of legislation. If it says “FALSE,” the commissioner whose name is listed next to the legislation is a co-sponsor for the legislation. Please note, in some cases, the primary sponsor will have a duplicate entry as a co-sponsor.

Enter the number in the “identifier” column (aka the “File ID” or “Resolution/Ordinance” number) to pull up the entire piece of legislation.

Miami-Dade County: https://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/searchleg.asp

City of Miami: http://miamifl.iqm2.com/Citizens/Search.aspx#SearchText=

Broward County: https://broward.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx

City of Fort Lauderdale: https://fortlauderdale.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx

If you are unable to locate the full text of the legislation using the “File ID” or “Resolution/Ordinance” number, see the “introduction date” column and pull the agenda for that date.

See WHAT DOES THE “PRIMARY” COLUMN MEAN? above

See WHAT DOES THE “PRIMARY” COLUMN MEAN? above

See HOW DO I READ THE “PASSED” COLUMN? above. Unfortunately, not all local governments publish this information on their public website.

In the “votes” tab of the spreadsheet, if it says “NULL” under a commissioner’s name, that means a vote was not recorded for that commissioner. This may be because the commissioner was not in office when the vote took place, the commissioner abstained, or the commissioner was otherwise not present to vote.

These issue areas were selected based on a survey of residents’ policy priorities conducted by CivicPro, along with CUTGroup Miami and Catalyst Miami, which included approximately 200 Miami-Dade County residents from every ZIP Code in that county.

For more information on the survey respondents and results, see:

Survey Respondent Demographics,

Survey Issue Results, and

Survey Issue Priorities

You can cross reference the legislation listed under each column to determine whether it may have passed, which commissioners voted for or against the legislation, and which commissioners sponsored legislation under each category.

For more, see WHAT DOES THE “ID” COLUMN MEAN? above.

You can email us at info@getcivicpro.com