In scoping
Municipal Governance
City councils. Zoning boards. Planning commissions. Business Improvement Districts. Housing authorities. Local development corporations. The bodies where land, money, and daily life actually get decided — and where the accountability infrastructure is thinnest.
Where rules get set and outright ignored here
- Zoning variances granted without published rationale, sometimes to entities tied to the granting board.
- BIDs collect mandatory assessments from property owners, then operate with corporate-level opacity.
- Housing authority contracts awarded to vendors with documented performance failures.
- Meeting notices technically compliant but functionally hidden.
- Public-comment periods scheduled during business hours, in inaccessible rooms, for decisions that were already made.
What TASFGA will track
- Variance ledger — requests, rationale, grants, and relationships
- BID audits — assessment in, spending out, governance of that flow
- Zoning decision tracker — what changed, who benefited, who was not heard
- Meeting-access audits — notice, timing, accessibility, comment windows
- Vendor/contract transparency — who got paid for what, on whose recommendation
Why this matters
Most Americans' direct experience of governance is municipal. The potholes, the permit, the rezoning, the school board. These bodies control massive budgets and discretionary decisions with almost no external audit infrastructure. Accountability here is not exotic — it's the difference between a neighborhood that works and one that's been allowed to rot.