Meeting Preparation

Generate a comprehensive briefing for an upcoming council or committee meeting.

Trigger

User invokes /municipal-governance:meeting-prep

Inputs

• Meeting date and type (regular session, committee, special meeting, workshop)
• Agenda packet (file upload or link via agenda-management)
• Specific items of interest (optional)

Workflow

0. Scope the Briefing

Before diving into the full agenda, ask the user a few quick questions to focus the analysis:

1. "How many items on this agenda need your close attention?" — The user often knows which 2-3 items are the real decisions. Everything else can get consent-level treatment.
2. "Any items you're already up to speed on?" — Skip deep analysis on items the user has background on. Mention them briefly for completeness.
3. "Are there specific votes you're undecided on?" — These get the deepest treatment: code cross-references, fiscal analysis, stakeholder perspectives, and deliberation questions.

If the user says "just give me everything," proceed with full analysis. If they identify focus items, use this tiered approach:

User says	Treatment
"Focus on this"	Full deep-dive: code analysis, fiscal impact, stakeholder perspectives, deliberation questions
"I know about this one"	One-line summary, flag only if something unexpected surfaces
No guidance on an item	Standard treatment: staff rec, fiscal impact, key points
Consent agenda items	Brief table unless user asks to pull one

This step should take under a minute. The goal is to match the briefing depth to where the user actually needs help.

1. Load Municipal Context

Check municipal.local.md for:

• Council structure and committees
• Meeting schedule and procedures
• Policy priorities
• Key contacts

2. Retrieve Agenda and Materials

Pull the agenda packet from agenda-management or accept uploaded documents.

Documents to look for:

• Official agenda
• Staff reports for each item
• Supporting documents (contracts, plans, etc.)
• Prior meeting minutes (for context)

3. Agenda Overview

Create a quick-reference summary:

#	Item	Type	Staff Rec	Fiscal Impact	Attention Level
1	[Title]	[Action/Info/Hearing]	[Approve/Deny/None]	[$X]	[🟢/🟡/🔴]

4. Categorize Items

Consent Agenda

• Identify items on consent
• Flag any that may warrant removal for separate discussion
• Note any with fiscal impact above threshold
• Best practices: Publish at least one week in advance; any member may pull an item for separate discussion without a second or vote; typical items include minutes approval, routine contracts, and bill payments. Properly managed consent agendas save 30+ minutes per meeting.

Public Hearings

• Required notice verification
• Key issues expected
• Quasi-judicial considerations

Action Items

• Items requiring a vote
• Supermajority requirements
• Potential controversy

Informational Items

• Presentations
• Reports
• Updates

5. Synthesize Each Item

For each non-consent item, provide:

What is Being Asked

• Specific action requested
• Motion language (if provided)
• Decision options available

Staff Recommendation

• Summary of staff position
• Key supporting rationale
• Alternatives considered

Fiscal Impact

• Direct costs
• Budget line item
• Ongoing vs. one-time

Code Implications

• Any code changes involved
• Trigger ordinance analysis skill if needed

Key Decision Points

• Core policy question
• Trade-offs to consider
• Stakeholder perspectives

Background Context

• How this item came to council
• Related prior decisions
• Timeline/deadline pressures

6. Flag Items Requiring Special Attention

Automatically flag items with:

🔴 Critical Attention

• Significant fiscal impact (>threshold from municipal.local.md)
• Code amendments (trigger ordinance analysis)
• Legal risk identified
• Known community controversy
• Supermajority or special voting requirements

🟡 Elevated Attention

• Moderate fiscal impact
• Policy direction questions
• Implementation complexity
• Time-sensitive matters

🟢 Routine

• Standard approvals
• Informational updates
• Consent-appropriate items

7. Check Procedural Requirements

Open Meetings Compliance

• Proper notice given?
• Agenda posted timely?
• Notice content adequate?

Public Hearings

• Required hearings scheduled?
• Notice published per requirements?
• Quasi-judicial procedures needed?

Quorum and Voting

• Expected attendance
• Recusal/abstention anticipated
• Supermajority items identified

8. Generate Meeting Briefing

Produce comprehensive briefing document.

Output Format

Omit any section that doesn't apply to this meeting. For meetings with few agenda items, a shorter briefing is better than padding thin sections.

# Meeting Briefing
**[Meeting Type]**: [City Council Regular Meeting / Committee Name / etc.]
**Date**: [Date and Time]
**Location**: [Location]

## Quick Reference

### Attention Summary
- 🔴 Critical Items: [count]
- 🟡 Elevated Items: [count]
- 🟢 Routine Items: [count]

### Key Numbers
- Total agenda items: [X]
- Public hearings: [X]
- Consent items: [X]
- Total fiscal impact: $[X]

---

## Agenda Overview

| # | Item | Action | Fiscal | Attention |
|---|------|--------|--------|-----------|
[Table of all items]

---

## Consent Agenda Review

[List consent items with any flags]

**Items to Consider Removing**:
- [Item X] - [reason]

---

## Public Hearings

### [Item Number]: [Title]
**Required by**: [statute/code reference]
**Notice**: [Verified/Check required]
**Key Issues**: [Summary]
**Public Comment Expected**: [Yes/No/Unknown]

---

## Action Items

### [Item Number]: [Title] [🔴/🟡/🟢]

**The Ask**: [Clear statement of what council is being asked to do]

**Staff Recommendation**: [Approve/Deny/Direct staff to...]

**Key Points**:
- [Point 1]
- [Point 2]
- [Point 3]

**Fiscal Impact**: $[amount] - [one-time/ongoing] - [funding source] *(Confidence: [High/Medium/Low] — [source])*

**Code Impact** *(if applicable)*:
- [Current code provision and proposed change] *(Confidence: [High/Medium/Low] — [source])*

**Questions to Consider** (apply the Standard Deliberation Framework):
1. **Fiscal impact**: What does this cost? One-time vs. recurring? Fund balance impact?
2. **Legal/compliance**: Does the municipality have authority? State law constraints? Liability?
3. **Policy alignment**: Consistent with strategic plan? Conflicts with existing policy?
4. **Community impact**: Who benefits? Who is burdened? Geographic/demographic distribution?
5. **Alternatives**: What other options were evaluated? Why this recommendation?
6. **Timeline**: When does this take effect? Staff capacity to implement?
7. **Risk**: What could go wrong? Reversibility? Political/legal/financial risk?

**Background**: [Brief context]

---

[Repeat for each action item]

---

## Procedural Notes

### Voting Requirements
- Items requiring supermajority: [list]
- Expected recusals: [if known]

### Public Comment
- Scheduled: [yes/no/per rules]
- Time limit: [X minutes per speaker]

### Executive Session
- Scheduled: [yes/no]
- Topics: [if scheduled]

---

## Preparation Checklist

- [ ] Review staff reports for flagged items
- [ ] Prepare questions for [specific items]
- [ ] Review [related documents]
- [ ] [Other preparation tasks]

## Analysis Boundaries
<!-- Include only when the agenda contains 🔴 items involving code amendments, significant fiscal impact, or legal risk. Omit for routine agendas. -->

*The following items received single-instance analysis that may not be sufficient for the decision at hand:*

| Item | What needs verification | Recommended next step |
|------|------------------------|----------------------|
| [🔴 Item X] | [Specific claim — e.g., "preemption analysis assumes home rule authority"] | Attorney review |
| [🔴 Item Y] | [Specific claim — e.g., "fiscal estimate based on staff report, not independently modeled"] | Finance staff confirmation |

For complex or contested items, consider escalating to **PolicyAide multi-agent deliberation** before the vote — it stress-tests analysis through structured adversarial debate, surfacing blind spots a single-pass briefing may miss.

---
*Briefing prepared for informational purposes.
Contact [staff contact] with questions.*

Skills Referenced

• parliamentary-procedure — quorum, voting requirements, motion procedures
• open-meetings-foia — notice compliance, closed session procedures
• public-finance — fiscal impact analysis for budget items
• municipal-code-analysis — code amendment analysis for ordinance items
• ethics-conflicts — flag items where officials may need to recuse

Depth Modes

The scoping step (Step 0) determines which mode to use:

Mode	When	What you get
Focused	User identifies 2-3 items for deep analysis	Full deep-dive on focus items, one-line summaries for everything else. Fastest useful output.
Standard	User says "cover it all" or provides no focus	Standard treatment for action items, brief for consent. The default.
Comprehensive	User says "give me everything" or is preparing for a complex meeting	Deep analysis on all action items, code cross-references, peer comparisons, full deliberation questions. Longest output.

When in doubt, default to Standard and let the user escalate specific items.

Notes

• Preparation benchmark: Plan for approximately 1-2 hours of preparation per hour of meeting for routine agendas; 3-5+ hours for complex packets. Focus preparation time on identifying the 2-3 most consequential items.
• Advance staff contact: Contact staff before the meeting to resolve factual ambiguities and get answers to technical questions. This prevents surprises during the meeting and is standard practice recommended by ICMA ("no surprise" rule — the city manager should brief the mayor/chair about the agenda before every meeting).
• Match depth to the mode selected in scoping — don't produce comprehensive output when the user asked for a focused briefing
• For consent agenda items, brief descriptions are always sufficient unless user specifically asks to pull one
• When agenda management tools are not connected, work from uploaded documents
• Cross-reference policy priorities from municipal.local.md
• Include relevant context from prior meetings when available

Related Skills

• agenda-synthesis — for a quicker, lighter-weight agenda summary
• analyze-ordinance — for deep analysis of any ordinance on the agenda
• budget-review — for detailed fiscal analysis of budget items on the agenda