Frequently Asked Questions

By providing structured and accessible records of public voices, we aim to empower more residents to engage in local governance—where their voices truly matter.

We regularly surface trending topics using criteria like community impact, content value, discussion depth, and engagement, making it easier for residents to stay informed.

The RAT Score evaluates local government bodies on three criteria:

• Responsiveness: Are public comments acknowledged or addressed?
• Accountability: Are by-laws and ethical standards respected?
• Transparency: Is critical information easy to find on official websites?

Without transparency, communities either withdraw from participation or become reactive. A lack of accessible information fosters disengagement or distrust.

Examples include ignoring public concerns, restricting who can speak (e.g., in-person only), or giving disproportionate speaking time—favoring businesses over residents. Some councils even use procedural rules to stifle rebuttals in public hearings.

On January 6, 2025, the San Ramon council dismissed the choice of 11,000 voters by refusing to even interview a candidate for a vacant council seat. Hundreds of residents sent public comments asking to appoint the runner-up from the mayoral election, but were ignored. This showed us how vulnerable democracy is when public input is buried. We launched Opgov.ai to bring those voices to light.

Open governance means making civic information accessible, not just transparent. We structure scattered data to reduce the research burden on citizens and help them engage in the decision-making process.

We extract factual data from official sources and apply AI to summarize and organize it. Our team validates all AI-generated content for accuracy.

Currently, we support English only, but multilingual support is planned.

We use only official government data. To prevent financial bias, donations are capped at $1,000 per donor annually. Our nonprofit is volunteer-led, and funding is transparent.

Yes. We are actively onboarding more cities and school boards. Since our volunteers are primarily high school students, we focus on areas where they have the most voice—school and city governance.

Click on “Sign Up” in the top-right corner of any page. You can sign up using your email address or with a social account.

Click on “Sign In” in the top-right corner of any page. Enter your email and password, or use the social account you signed up with.

1. Sign in to your account
2. Click on your profile icon in the top-right corner
3. Select “Account settings”
4. Go to the “Security” section
5. Click Update Password button
6. Enter your new password and confirm it
7. Click “Save”

1. Sign in to your account
2. Click on your profile icon in the top-right corner
3. Select “Account settings”
4. Click “Security” on left panel
5. Click “Delete account” to permanently delete your account

Note: This action cannot be undone. All your data will be permanently deleted.

You can support our work by visiting our Support Us page.

All donations help us maintain and improve OpGov.ai to better serve our community. We are a 501(c)(3) organization. Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.

To filter meetings:

1. Click the sidebar toggle button in the top-left corner to open the filters sidebar
2. Use the date range selector to specify a time period
3. Select specific topics from the Topics filter
4. The meetings list will automatically update to show only meetings that match your filters

You can reset all filters by clicking the “Clear Filters” button at the bottom of the sidebar.

From the meetings list, click on any meeting to view its details. The meeting detail page includes:

• Meeting summary
• Key takeaways
• Video recording (when available)
• Topics discussed
• Speakers
• Public comments
• Source documents

To change the committee or city you’re viewing:

1. Look for the committee selector in the navigation bar
2. Click on the dropdown to see available committees and cities
3. Select the committee or city you want to view
4. The page will refresh with data for your selected committee/city