Municorn.us One list of everything council has asked staff to do

Every open item, who owns it, what it is blocked on, and when it comes back to council. Built from the agendas, minutes and video your city already publishes, and kept current by one email a week to the person who has the answer.

Email us Cambridge, MA · Dallas, TX
What it is

It turns the record into one list.

What your city publishes

  • Agenda packets
  • Minutes
  • Meeting video
  • Councilmember referrals
  • Staff replies

One ledger

  • Every open commitment
  • Who owns it
  • What it waits on
  • When it comes back

What you get

  • A Monday brief
  • Answers with citations
  • Council meeting prep
  • Records requests assembled
What it produces

What lands on your desk.

IllustrativeNames and dates invented.

Public works director, 7am

What are my department heads waiting on?

Municorn to A. Reyes, Public Works Director · Monday 8 April, 6:00am

Your open items · week of 8 April

Four things are open on your list this week. Reply in this thread, or click here to post updates.

  1. Traffic calming study, Elm St
  2. Sidewalk gap inventory, Ward 3
  3. Fee schedule for right-of-way permits
  4. Alley drainage, 400 block of Third

Municorn

A. Reyes replied · Monday 8 April, 7:12am

1 is with the county, they have had it since the 2nd. 3 is done, draft attached. 4 I thought we closed but let me check with Ruiz.

What the ledger took from that reply

  1. 1Traffic calming studyStill with the county since 2 April. No change.
  2. 2Sidewalk gap inventoryHe did not mention it. Left alone, asked again next week.
  3. 3Fee scheduleClosed, with his attached draft as the evidence.
  4. 4Alley drainageToo unclear to act on. Sent to the ACM, nothing recorded.

City manager, Monday

What do I need to know before Monday?

Open commitments

City of Ellery · Monday 15 April · prepared for the city manager

86% confirmed by the owner in the last two weeks

  • Back to council this month6
  • Blocked outside the city9
  • Dormant4
  • No owner yet3
  • On track25
Waiting on somebody outside the cityCounty, state and utility holds, the oldest since November9
Council expects these back this monthSix things they asked to see before budget6
Nobody owns these yetFound in the last two meetings, still waiting on your office3

This is what the public record shows. If it was said outside a public meeting, or your office has not released it yet, it is not in here.

The clerk, six months later

Where did the traffic study end up?

Direction 24-0311-9c

Traffic calming · Elm St, 4th to 9th

Council direction · 11 March · Councilmember Ruiz

With the county since 2 April. Not yet on a June agenda.

What was asked
Can staff look at traffic calming on Elm Street and come back to us?

Minutes, 11 March, item 9c · video 1:47:20

History
  1. Proposed11 Mar
  2. Accepted13 Mar
  3. In progress2 Apr
  4. Back to council9 Jun
Owner
Public works
Assigned 13 Mar by the ACM
Blocked on
The county
Speed study requested 2 Apr
Returns
9 Jun
Council asked for it before budget
Sources
Minutes, 11 MarItem 9c, Councilmember Ruiz, carried without objection
Video, 1:47:20The mayor says staff will bring it back
ACM email, 13 MarForwarded to the public works director, no reply on that thread
Owner reply, 8 AprSpeed study is with the county, nothing back yet
Agendas since 11 MarNot on a published agenda for 9 June yet
Next
  • Ask the county for a date on the speed study
  • Place it on the 9 June agenda, or tell council why not
People

Who you would be working with.

All three of us, start to finish. No account manager and no handoff.

Ammar Cephas Plumber
Ammar Cephas Plumber City systems and capital

Former CIO for Texas city, industrial siting engineer. Penn economics, public capital markets at Chicago.
Cameron Obrecht
Cameron Obrecht Physical infrastructure

Electrical engineer at Bose, UIUC grad. Boards, firmware and sensing: CAN products, high-voltage assemblies, in-line flow metering.
Vincent Cavanna
Vincent Cavanna Business process & data governance

Full-stack engineer for Word on Fire, Amazon before that. Portals, CRM, and data-quality systems.
Questions

What people ask first.

Do my department heads have to learn software?

No. They answer in the email they already use, in plain English. Nothing to log into.

Can a councilmember use this to direct staff?

No. A question is answered directly. An instruction is held until your office releases it, and we record who released it.

Does the council view create an open meetings problem?

It is read-only. No reply channel and no comment box, so nothing here can turn into a meeting held outside a meeting.

Are these emails public records?

Yes, as they would have been anyway.

Does it write into our systems?

No. We read what your city already publishes, plus whatever you forward. However, we are willing to integrate with your internal project management workflows (e.g., Asana, Jira, MS Teams).

The first read

We will read your published record at no charge.

Send us nothing. We read the agendas, minutes and video your city already publishes and show you the open items we find. If we work together after that, we read whatever else you have the same way.

[email protected]
Based in
Cambridge, MA and Dallas, TX
Who it is for
City and county managers’ offices
What we need from you
Nothing for the first read. It is all published already
Who you get
All three of us on the job, start to finish

The water loss index is a sample of the record work, built from public data.