Restore Public Access to Independence Agendas and Records

This work began when a public research path residents had relied on was no longer available from the City's public-facing agenda page. Leigh documented what had disappeared, checked whether the underlying legacy records still existed, contacted the City, asked why the access point had been removed, received responses and reported the change through The Independence Standard. Her request was straightforward: if the records remained available, put the public link back where ordinary citizens could find it rather than making historical research depend on a Sunshine request.

The timeline should show the sequence clearly: discovery of the missing access; records research into what changed; questions and emails to the City; public reporting; a direct request for restoration; City responses; and discovery on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 that the link was again present on the Independence agenda page. That makes the outcome measurable.

The work also exposed a larger vulnerability: public access should not depend on one website migration or one vendor. That concern led directly into the separate Independence Public Records Archive project, now live at https://tiny.cc/indeparchive. The City restoration and the citizen-built archive are related but distinct accomplishments and should remain separate records.