Legislative Management Suite (The "Open Meeting" Engine)

Principal workflows

• Prepare: Departments draft agenda items and staff reports on standard templates, attach supporting documents, and route each item through the reviews your process requires before it reaches the clerk.
• Publish: The clerk builds the agenda from approved items, generates the packet, and publishes the notice, agenda and packet to the public portal and the other places your rules require.
• Meet: During the meeting the clerk records attendance, motions, seconds and votes against each item, while the live stream from your video provider is shown on the portal alongside the agenda.
• Record: Minutes are drafted from what was recorded in the meeting, approved by the body at a later meeting, and published with the video, then kept under your retention schedule.

Who uses it

• City, county and town clerks and their staff
• Department staff who prepare agenda items and staff reports
• Council, commission and board members and their aides
• City and county attorneys who review items and advise on open-meetings rules
• Residents and journalists who follow local decisions through the public portal

Reporting

• Notice and publication status for every upcoming meeting
• Items in review by department, reviewer and target meeting
• Minutes in draft, awaiting approval and published
• Publication evidence for any meeting
• Voting records and legislative history, on the portal and for export
• Retention, holds and audit trail extracts for records requests

Features

• Item templates: Templates for each kind of item, such as ordinances, resolutions, contracts and presentations, with the fields and attachments each one needs.
• Review routing: Items route to the reviewers your process names, such as department head, finance and legal, with comments and returns recorded.
• Agenda and packet builder: Drag approved items into agenda sections, and generate a bookmarked packet with every report and attachment in agenda order.
• Notice rules: Posting requirements for regular, special and emergency meetings configured from your state law and local rules, with the deadline shown for each meeting.
• Publication record: Every notice, agenda, packet and revision is time-stamped when published, with the earlier versions kept, so you can show what was posted and when.
• Meeting console: One screen for the clerk to record roll call, motions, seconds, amendments, votes and recusals as the meeting happens.
• Video linking: The live stream and recording from your video provider are embedded on the portal, with each agenda item linked to its point in the video.
• Minutes drafting: Action minutes drafted from what was recorded in the meeting, for the clerk to edit and the body to approve.
• Public portal: Residents can browse upcoming meetings, read agendas and packets, watch video and search past items, actions and votes, without signing in.
• Voting record search: Search by item, topic, member or date to see every action taken and how each member voted.
• Legislative history: Each ordinance or resolution keeps its full history across meetings: introduction, readings, amendments, adoption and later changes.
• Archive and retention: Meeting records are kept under the retention periods you configure, with holds for litigation or records requests.

Integrations

• Video and streaming: The live stream and recordings from your existing video provider are embedded on the portal and linked to agenda items.
• Chamber voting system: Where your chamber has an electronic voting system, votes can be received from it and recorded against the item.
• Your website: Upcoming meetings, agendas and the meeting archive can be embedded in your existing website or linked from it.
• Records management: Final meeting records can be sent to your records or document management system as the system of record, where you have one.
• Office documents: Staff reports can be drafted in your word processor and uploaded, or written in the Suite's templates.
• Email and subscriptions: Residents can subscribe to a body or a topic and receive an email when an agenda or minutes are published.
• Single sign-on: Staff and members sign in through your identity provider (SAML or OpenID Connect).
• Work API: Meetings, items, actions and votes available to your open-data portal or reporting tools through the Moraph Work API.

Deployment

• Moraph cloud: Hosted and operated by Moraph in the United States region.
• Dedicated environment: Single-tenant hosting where your policies require it, scoped in the proposal.
• Phased by body: Start with the governing body and add boards and commissions in later phases under the same agreement.
• With a managed service: Optionally run with a Moraph managed service for template and routing changes, portal administration and support on meeting days.

Security and privacy

• Public and staff access kept apart: The public portal shows only published records; drafts, reviews and members' annotations are never visible there.
• Staff single sign-on: Staff and members sign in through your identity provider, so your own password and multi-factor policies apply.
• Role-based access: What each person can see and do follows their role and the bodies they belong to, and closed-session materials can be limited to named people.
• Encryption and keys: Records are encrypted, with keys Moraph staff cannot use without explicit, time-bound authorization.
• Complete audit trail: Every draft, approval, publication, revision and recorded vote is logged with the person and time, and cannot be edited.
• US hosting: Data for US government clients is hosted only in Moraph's United States region, under the controls covered by Moraph's SOC 2 Type II report and ISO/IEC 27001 certification.

Limitations

• The Suite does not interpret your open-meetings law. Notice rules are configured from requirements your clerk and attorney confirm, and your staff remain responsible for following them.
• Using the Suite does not by itself make a meeting compliant or protect against claims; it records what was done so you can show it.
• Live streaming and recording use your existing video provider. The Suite embeds and links video; it does not capture or host broadcast video itself.
• Electronic voting by members requires a supported chamber voting system or the Suite's member console; otherwise the clerk records votes.
• Some states require notices to be posted at a physical location or in a newspaper. The Suite records those postings when staff confirm them but does not make them.
• Closed or executive session materials can be restricted, but deciding what may be discussed in closed session is a legal decision for your attorney.
• Migration of historical records depends on the condition and format of your existing archive. Older records may be linked rather than fully migrated.
• Accessibility of documents uploaded by staff, such as scanned attachments, depends on how those documents are prepared.

Next steps

Book a demonstration or a technical briefing at www.moraph.com/solutions/legislative-management-suite-the-open-meeting-engine. Purchasing routes and company information: www.moraph.com/how-to-buy.