How We Categorize
Every action, vote, and public statement tracked in Civic Ledger is tagged with one or more topic categories. This page explains what each category covers, how tagging works, and how to suggest corrections.
Our Process
Meeting data is extracted from the official Transylvania County meeting minutes published by the county clerk. We use AI-assisted processing (Claude by Anthropic) to identify votes, commissioner activity, public comments, and topic categories from the raw minutes text.
Every AI-processed meeting is reviewed by a human volunteer before publication. The reviewer verifies vote counts, commissioner attributions, and category tags against the source document.
Some items naturally span multiple policy areas. A discussion about courthouse renovation costs, for example, might be tagged with both Infrastructure (the building project) and Fiscal Policy (the budget implications). We apply multiple tags when the substance of the discussion clearly touches multiple domains.
The 11 Topic Categories
County budget decisions, tax rates, revenue sources, and financial planning. Includes property tax discussions, sales tax referendums, fee structures, debt management, and grant funding.
Examples from meetings
Public school facilities, capital improvement projects for education, and coordination between the county and school system on building needs.
Examples from meetings
Law enforcement, fire services, EMS, 911 operations, emergency preparedness, and cybersecurity. Includes staffing, equipment, and facility needs for public safety agencies.
Examples from meetings
County buildings, roads, bridges, water/sewer systems, technology upgrades, and capital construction projects. Includes maintenance, renovation, and new construction.
Examples from meetings
Business recruitment, workforce development, tourism, and economic growth initiatives. Includes incentive programs and partnership with economic development organizations.
Examples from meetings
Government processes, public accountability, meeting procedures, advisory board operations, open records, and inter-governmental relations. Includes NCACC activities and legislative advocacy.
Examples from meetings
Land conservation, solid waste management, water quality, parks and recreation, and natural resource stewardship. Includes the county's significant public land holdings.
Examples from meetings
Affordable housing, workforce housing, zoning for residential development, mobile home valuation, and implementation of the county Housing Plan.
Examples from meetings
Public health programs, mental health services, social services, senior services, and community wellness initiatives administered or funded by the county.
Examples from meetings
Response, recovery, and rebuilding efforts related to Hurricane Helene's impact on Transylvania County and western North Carolina. Includes FEMA coordination, infrastructure repair, and community resilience.
Examples from meetings
Cultural events, community organizations, historical preservation, recognition ceremonies, and quality-of-life programs that build community identity and engagement.
Examples from meetings
Suggest a Correction
If you believe an item has been mistagged, misattributed, or is missing context, we want to hear from you. This is a community project and accuracy matters.
Email corrections to civicledger@proton.me with the meeting date, the specific item, and what you think should be changed. We review all feedback.