Agenda
The public notice for a meeting. It lists the time, place, and items of business expected to be discussed or acted on. California law generally requires regular-meeting agendas to be posted at least 72 hours before the meeting. [4]
Civic Records Glossary
Plain-language guide to City Hall records
Civic Gallery mirrors official San Jose meeting records and source documents.
This glossary explains the terms residents will see while browsing agendas, matters, attachments, minutes, and generated summaries.
These definitions are written for Civic Gallery readers. They are based on San Jose public records, California open-meeting rules, and the Legistar data model that powers the City's agenda portal.
Always treat the official City record as authoritative.
Records you will see
Agenda portal languageAgenda Item
A specific piece of meeting business on an agenda. In Legistar, event items sit under an event and can carry agenda notes, minutes notes, action names, vote information, matter links, and attachments. [5]
Matter
A legislative file or record that can appear on one or more meeting agendas. In Civic Gallery, a matter is the durable record behind an agenda item, such as a council item, ordinance, resolution, report, or contract approval.
Matter File
The file number attached to a matter, such as 26-575.
Civic Gallery uses matter files as stable labels for linking meeting
items, attachments, extracted text, and generated summaries.
Attachment
A document connected to a matter. Attachments can include staff reports, ordinances, resolutions, agreements, memos, letters, exhibits, and other supporting files. Legistar exposes matter attachments that are available for Internet viewing and can also return the file content for an attachment. [6]
Minutes
The official meeting record after a meeting occurs. Minutes document what business was handled and record Council votes as required by the City Charter. [3]
Body
The public entity holding the meeting, such as the City Council, Planning Commission, or a board or commission. San Jose publishes agendas and minutes for Council, committees, boards, and commissions through the City Clerk and agenda portals. [1]
Official Source
The government-published record or document. Civic Gallery links back to official Legistar, City Clerk, and source-document URLs so readers can verify information before relying on it.
Actions & meeting terms
What the public body doesMotion
A Council action made, seconded, and adopted during a meeting. San Jose's meeting guide describes motions as the least formal and most common Council action for handling an agenda item. [2]
Resolution
A formalized Council action filed by number with the Office of the City Clerk. San Jose's meeting guide says resolutions generally become effective immediately upon adoption. [2]
Ordinance
A Council action that adopts law, authorizes expenditures, or determines land use. San Jose's meeting guide notes that most ordinances require two readings and generally do not take effect until 30 days after adoption at the second meeting. [2]
Roll-call Vote
A vote where each Councilmember's vote is recorded by name. The San Jose City Charter says votes on ordinances, resolutions, and motions are by ayes and noes, with individual votes entered in the minutes. [3]
Public Comment
An opportunity for residents to address a public body. San Jose's public meeting guidance says comments may be submitted through agenda eComment links or by email for Council and committee meetings, and commission comments go to the commission liaison listed on the agenda. [7]
Closed Session
A non-public portion of a meeting for limited subjects such as personnel matters, real estate negotiations, or litigation. California open-meeting rules treat closed-session exceptions narrowly. [8]
Study Session
A public meeting used for deeper review of a special issue or project. San Jose's meeting guide says formal actions or decisions generally are not made during study sessions. [2]
Continued, Deferred, Or Dropped
A continued or deferred item is moved to a future meeting. A dropped item is no longer expected to be considered or acted on at that meeting. [2]
Civic Gallery terms
How this site labels recordsExtracted Text
Text that Civic Gallery extracts from an official attachment. It helps search and preview documents, but it is not a replacement for the official PDF or source file.
Generated Summary
An AI-produced summary based on extracted text. It is assistive and may be incomplete or wrong, so the official attachment should be reviewed before relying on the summary.
Theme
A broad subject area, such as Housing or Transportation, that Civic Gallery assigns to a matter using AI. Themes are assistive labels to help browsing, not official classifications, and a matter can carry more than one.
Pulse
The homepage view of which themes the city's bodies appear to have focused on recently. "Heating up" highlights themes appearing on more agendas this quarter than last. It is derived from AI theme tags and is a guide for discovery, not an official measure.
Source Snapshot
A stored copy of an official source payload observed during ingestion. It helps Civic Gallery keep records traceable to the public source data that produced them.
Source Present
A Civic Gallery status meaning the record still appears in the latest source data. If a record disappears from the source, the app preserves the historical record while marking that source absence separately.
Sources
Provenance- City of San Jose Office of the City Clerk Agendas, minutes, boards and commissions, records, and City Clerk role.
- City of San Jose Guide to Council Meetings Meeting terms including motions, resolutions, ordinances, study sessions, closed sessions, and continued or dropped items.
- City Charter of the City of San Jose Council action by ordinance, resolution, or motion, and vote recording in minutes.
- California Government Code Section 54954.2 Regular-meeting agenda posting requirements and public online access requirements.
- Legistar Web API: Event Items Event item fields, matter references, agenda notes, minutes notes, actions, votes, and attachments.
- Legistar Web API Help Events, matters, matter attachments, histories, types, statuses, and attachment file endpoints.
- City of San Jose: Participate and Watch Public Meetings Public comment, eComment, email instructions, and meeting-body viewing guidance.
- California Attorney General: Open Meetings Brown Act public-access principles and narrow construction of closed-session exceptions.
- City of San Jose Governance Structure Council-manager framework, City Council role, City Clerk role, and Council appointees.