Legistar Optimization Project Wrap-Up Meeting - January 27, 2025

This meeting was the final formal call between Granicus consultants (Carolyn and Brian) and Napa city staff (Tiffany and Sam) to review completed changes and outstanding items for the Legistar agenda and meeting management system reconfiguration. The project involved separating the Housing Authority (HA) and Public Finance Authority (PFA) into their own body types, enabling new reporting features, and documenting remaining tasks.

Discussion Items

• Review of Completed Changes: Carolyn confirmed that boilerplate language for meeting bodies has been updated live. Tiffany noted that the PFA boilerplate still needs to be copied from a recent agenda; Carolyn will assist.
• Separation of Body Types: The Housing Authority and Public Finance Authority were split from the primary legislative body into their own types. This prevents cross-contamination of items and allows distinct procedural rules. All relevant workflow controls and office members have been configured.
• HTML Agendas and Minutes: Carolyn will enable the feature. HTML versions will apply only to new meetings published going forward. The team agreed to start using it from February 1, with existing January meetings to be republished retroactively.
• One-Click Packet Generation: This will allow collation of packets with bookmarks for printing. Carolyn will enable both the internal single-click PDF and the packet publication to Insight. Brian warned that signed or encrypted PDFs may need flattening (e.g., via Microsoft Print to PDF) to avoid collation errors.
• Report Changes: The “printed on” date will be suppressed. Fonts and alignment have already been adjusted to place recommendation/attachments under the item number, which staff approved.
• Feature Request: Staff requested that non-ready statuses (draft, approval review, approval paused) appear in red instead of green in the agenda module, to avoid confusion with items that are actually ready to publish. Carolyn will submit a feature request and tie it to a support ticket for updates.
• Repairs:
  • Special meetings imported from historical data (e.g., 2015) are missing from Insight. Carolyn will investigate with the migrations team (Chris Minton); worst case, they can be republished.
  • Motion text in minutes was confirmed to be working correctly for the January 21 meeting. A closed session problem (pulled item lacking “withdrawn” action) was resolved by adding additional action types (withdrawn, continued) to the closed session workflow.
• Consent Calendar Issue: Tiffany reported that when processing consent votes in Legistar, the first item (typically Minutes) frequently fails to retain the standard action, requiring manual correction. Carolyn asked Tiffany to record a screen capture of the issue for analysis.
• Live Manager Use: Tiffany expressed interest in using Live Manager to edit motion text (e.g., changing future tense to past tense) during meetings. Brian and Carolyn confirmed that if the “use media manager text on import” setting is enabled, editing in Live Manager should work. They recommended testing on a small upcoming meeting (February 4).
• Next Steps for Planning Commission: Sam will independently migrate the Planning Commission from Media Manager to Legistar. Carolyn will provide a list of file types in advance. Training sessions with Lauren are scheduled: three sessions the week of February 3 and two the following week.

Key Outcomes

• Action Items for Carolyn (Granicus):
  • Enable HTML agendas and minutes (target: January 30 so staff can start February 1).
  • Enable one-click packet generation (both for internal and Insight publication).
  • Suppress “printed on” date on reports.
  • Submit feature request for status color changes and tie it to a support ticket.
  • Upload all remaining project call recordings to the Media Manager folder (Legistar Optimization Project).
  • Investigate missing special meetings from Insight.
  • Provide Sam with the list of file types for Planning Commission setup.
• Action Items for Napa Staff:
  • Tiffany to republish January 2025 meetings after HTML feature is enabled (excluding cancellations).
  • Sam to consolidate drafter/approver groups on her own timeline.
  • Staff to test Live Manager editing on February 4 meeting.
  • Tiffany to record a screen capture of the consent calendar issue and share it with Carolyn.
• Training: Lauren will conduct scheduled training sessions starting February 3, with emphasis on Live Manager and consent calendar processes.
• Support: After project close, minor tweaks can be handled via Granicus support; larger projects would require a new project engagement.