If you've ever stared down a 16-item agenda the week before a council meeting and thought this is going to be a long night — this one's for you. Meeting prep is time-consuming, but it's a vital part of ensuring that your staff and elected officials are informed and prepared for the coming meeting.
Civic Review has a few features that can dramatically cut down the prep time and help you get things out the door faster. Here's a rundown of what's available and how to use it.
Auto-Generating Briefing Documents
If any of your permit types go to council or planning commission — development projects, business licenses, alcohol licenses, conditional use permits, etc. — you can set up a certificate template that functions as a briefing document for your packet.
Instead of manually typing up a summary for every project, you build the template once and it auto-populates the details from the application. Fields that can pull in automatically include:
Permit number
Applicant name and engineer
Project address
Meeting date
Staff recommendation and any conditions
When it's time to prep your packet, just:
Open the project in Civic Review
Click "View or Print Certificate"
Select your briefing document template
Download as a PDF and drop it in the packet
No retyping, no digging through emails — it's all already there.
Notification Letters and Public Notices
You can also set up letters and notices as certificate templates. A couple of common examples:
A letter to the applicant letting them know their public hearing date
A public notice to surrounding property owners (within 300 feet, for example) with the project info and meeting date
Just include a field in your form for the meeting date and it'll pull in automatically. Download, print, stuff the envelopes — done.
Downloading Attachments for the Packet
Once you've generated your briefing document, use the Download All Attachments button to grab everything uploaded to that project — plans, exhibits, supporting docs — all at once as a zip file. From there it's drag-and-drop into your packet. A lot faster than hunting things down one by one.
Collecting Public Comments
Set up a simple public comment form and post the link on your website. Residents fill it out and submissions come straight into Civic Review. The form typically captures:
First and last name
Address
Which agenda item the comment is about
The comment itself
Before the meeting, pull a report filtered by date range for that comment period, download it as an Excel file, and share it with council. Many cities send this out on Friday so council has the weekend to review before the meeting — giving them time to think through public input before everyone's sitting in the chambers at 9pm.
Running a Community Survey
Community surveys work the same way as public comments. You build the form, post the link, and collect submissions over whatever time period makes sense. Surveys can include:
Drop-downs for rating city services (streets, parks, police, etc.)
Multiple choice or checkboxes for development and housing preferences
Open-ended fields for what residents love or want to see improved
An optional consent checkbox if you want to use positive responses for your city's website or marketing
When you're ready to present results, pull the report, download the Excel file, and build out simple charts or a PowerPoint summary for council. Clean data, easy to present, and much easier to work with than paper forms.
Setting Up Your Templates
Certificate templates are tied to a specific application type in Civic Review. If you already have permit types set up, adding templates to them is straightforward. Here's what to know:
Templates can be built for briefing documents, approval letters, and notification letters
You can have multiple templates per permit type
Our team is happy to help you build out your first ones, especially to get your logo, colors, and formatting right from the start
If you're not sure where to begin or want to talk through what would work best for your workflow, just reach out — we're always happy to help.
If you'd like a more in-depth review, check out this webinar on this topic: