February may have been the shortest month, but it was the longest stretch of action-packed city council meetings in recent history. There was adversity, innovation, and raw emotion–and that was just in Kansas! We also released several compelling podcast episodes about city council transparency, including the councils that do it correctly and the councils that are way, way behind the times.

We chronicled:

3 council meetings

In 3 states

With a combined population of

904,200

We saw

1 little girl show off her prototype for a new kind of homeless shelter

Dozens of residents politely plead to save a 100-year-old building

A 6-week presidency cut short

4 podcast interviews, including the mayor who plunged his council into turmoil and the councilor who dislikes how his own council does business

1 promise to video stream council meetings by December

And wherever you are reading this, be sure to stop, stand, and give a polite round of applause to these localest of leaders:

Indianapolis-Marion County city-county council

McMinnville, Oregon city council

Bonner Springs, Kansas city council