Public beta: advisory demonstration only — not a City service, official vote, scientific poll, or final legal design. Read the beta notice.
Agora Vancouver

Civitas response record · exact version 1

Should major Council decisions receive a plain-language public advisory vote?

A prototype proposal to pair selected Council agenda items with sourced summaries, trade-offs, advisory voting and a later comparison to the official Council record.

Print-ready page. Use your browser’s Print command to print or save as PDF. Return to the interactive exact-version page.

Advisory beta only — self-selected, not an election or scientific poll. The open-beta result does not verify identity, residence or elector eligibility and has no legal effect. Council and every other lawful decision-maker retain authority.
Exact proposal version
1 (proposal-version:public-council-vote-overlay:1)
Jurisdiction
City of Vancouver
Origin
Demonstration
Status
Open For Participation
Case civitas-case:legacy:public-council-vote-overlayProposal version 1City of Vancouver

Authority verification: Not verified — demonstration only. This record is not a response from the City, Council, Vancouver Coastal Health, police, the Province or another institution.

Civitas demonstration: this attributable workflow record remains separate from the advisory participation aggregate and the lawful decision-maker's record.

Case scope

Assess a read-only public overlay that explains Council agenda items, gathers separate advisory responses and preserves the official Council record as controlling.

Responsible authority recorded: Independent Agora demonstration reviewer — no City or Council authority verified
Response deadline: Sep 30, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT

Position: Under ReviewFeasibility: Feasible With ConditionsResponse version 1

Public response

The beta demonstrates the public side. A future Civitas process would define agenda ingestion, neutral summary standards, challenges, verification tiers and publication of the official Council result.

Evidence considered

The demonstration considers the exact proposal version, reviewed source record and the beta participation method; it does not treat browser responses as verified public opinion.

No separately linked public evidence item is recorded; consult the evidence summary and exact proposal version.

Legal and policy constraints

Council procedure, official records, election and campaign rules, privacy, accessibility, records integrity and non-partisanship require separate review.

Feasibility and dependencies

A read-only prototype is technically feasible, but official data provenance, neutral summaries, correction handling and institutional authority remain unresolved.

Stable published Council data, source provenance, correction workflow, accessibility review, participation-method safeguards and an approved operating owner.

Cost range and confidence

No defensible range recorded. No implementation cost range has been approved or verified.

Rights, privacy and safety

  • Rights/equity: The design must not replace statutory participation, Council authority, fair access or viewpoint-neutral public process.
  • Privacy: Advisory participation must remain separate from identity and Council records; no individual choice should be published.
  • Safety: Abuse, impersonation, brigading and misleading official-looking presentation require operational controls.

Position and reasons

The governance and anti-manipulation rules should be tested before the tool is described as a reliable measure of Vancouver opinion.

Accountable approver: Independent Agora demonstration reviewer
Response date: Aug 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT

Response and correction history (1)
  1. Response version 1 — Under Review · Aug 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT
    Initial response version.

Implementation plans

In ProgressOwner: Unassigned demonstration implementation owner

Council overlay demonstration implementation plan

This demonstration plan records technical and governance work without implying a City commitment, adopted budget or verified institutional owner.

Expected: Nov 14, 2026, 10:45 p.m. PST
Estimated cost: No defensible range recorded
Outcome measures: Each milestone must publish an expected outcome, status history and evidence without changing the official Council record.

Latest status note: Initial plan status migrated from the legacy demonstration steps.

Milestones and immutable status history
  1. In Progress
    Document the beta voting and verification limitations

    Owner: Agora beta maintainer · expected Oct 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT
    Estimated cost: No defensible range recorded
    Outcome measure: Every public participation surface states the unverified, self-selected and non-binding method without relying on colour or hidden text.

    Latest note: The public interface must identify unverified participation and duplicate-vote limits before launch.

    Status history (1)
    1. In Progress · Aug 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT
      The public interface must identify unverified participation and duplicate-vote limits before launch.
  2. Planned
    Prototype a Council-record data adapter

    Owner: Unassigned demonstration implementation owner · expected Nov 14, 2026, 10:45 p.m. PST
    Estimated cost: No defensible range recorded
    Outcome measure: A deterministic read-only adapter reproduces published agenda and voting-record fixtures while naming City minutes as the official record.

    Latest note: Use published City data; corresponding minutes remain the official record.

    Status history (1)
    1. Planned · Aug 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT
      Use published City data; corresponding minutes remain the official record.
Plan status history (1)
  1. In Progress · Aug 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT
    Initial plan status migrated from the legacy demonstration steps.
Public Civitas audit history (2)
  1. Case.Created · Aug 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT
    Legacy demonstration case migrated to the exact proposal version.
  2. Response.Published · Aug 15, 2026, 11:45 p.m. PDT
    Initial demonstration response recorded for the exact proposal version.
  • This is an independent public-beta record, not a City service or official institutional record.
  • Participation tiers are not combined. This record covers the labelled exact version and tier only.
  • Civitas content is a proposed accountable workflow and is official only when the displayed response has separately verified authority.
  • Source and analysis records show provenance and review status; they do not by themselves prove truth, completeness or legal authority.