Local Government Decision Lookup & Fact Check (Iowa)

Why agents pick this

• It answers no_record instead of guessing. When the minutes don't show it, the tool says so. A web search or an LLM tends to make up a plausible vote.
• Verdict plus evidence: supported, contradicted or no_record, with outcome, tally, named no voters, dollar amount and a link to the minutes.
• $0.005 per lookup. Places it doesn't cover return not_covered free.
• Look up by claim, address or topic. Covers 21 Iowa governments (Des Moines metro, Polk County, Sioux City).

Check what a city council or county board actually decided, using the official minutes. Give it a claim, an address, or a topic. You get back the matching recorded votes with the outcome, the tally, who voted no, the dollar amount, and links to the minutes and the Citizen Wire page. Claims get a verdict: supported, contradicted or no_record.

Built on Citizen Wire records, compiled from official minutes (CC BY 4.0).

When to use this tool

• A user or article says "X city approved Y". You want to confirm it, along with the vote and who dissented, before repeating it.
• You need every recorded decision that mentions a street or address, such as rezonings, plats, licenses or hearings on "Center Street".
• You want the recorded decisions on a topic, like Flock cameras, water rates or rezoning, in one covered city.

When NOT to use it

• The place isn't covered (listed below). You get status: not_covered, which is free, and nothing is confirmed or denied.
• You need live or same-day results. This tool reads a snapshot, so check snapshotDate.
• You need discussion, public comment or video. Use a transcript tool such as City Council & Public Meeting Transcripts.
• State, federal or school board decisions aren't covered.

Coverage (snapshot 2026-10-24)

Des Moines, Polk County Board of Supervisors, Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Grimes, Indianola, Mitchellville, Newton, Norwalk, Perry, Pleasant Hill, Polk City, Urbandale, Waukee, Windsor Heights, Winterset, Sioux City and Coralville. Meetings run from January 2026 to mid-October 2026. Every response repeats the exact ranges in coverage. West Des Moines, Johnston, Ames and school boards are not covered.

Input

field
claim	A statement to fact-check
address	A street address or street name
topic	Keywords
city	Optional. Detected from the claim if you leave it out
dateFrom / dateTo	Optional, YYYY-MM-DD
maxResults (5) / maxChars (300)	Keep the output small
queries	Optional batch of up to 100 lookups

Output (per lookup)

{ "verdict": "contradicted", "confidence": "high",
  "reason": "The closest recorded decision(s) disagree with the claim on: no_voter.",
  "checks": [{"check":"tally","claim":"4-1","record":"4-1","result":"match"},{"check":"no_voter","claim":"Scott","record":["Rayford"],"result":"mismatch"}],
  "matches": [{ "government":"Sioux City City Council","city":"Sioux City","meetingDate":"2026-02-02",
    "itemTitle":"Resolution authorizing an Assignment Amendment with Flock Group, Inc. ...","outcome":"passed","voteTally":"4-1",
    "noVotes":["Rayford"],"abstainOrRecused":[],"amountUsd":548860,"minutesUrl":"https://...","citizenWireUrl":"https://citizenwire.org/sioux-city/2026-02-02/","matchScore":1 }],
  "coverage": "Covers recorded council/board votes ... Anything outside these governments or dates returns no_record." }

How verdicts work (no guessing)

• supported: a closely matching recorded decision agrees with every detail in the claim that can be checked: outcome, tally, unanimity, named no voters and amount.
• contradicted: the closest strong match or matches disagree on at least one detail the record states.
• no_record: no close match, the match is ambiguous, or the place is out of coverage. This doesn't prove the claim is false.
• A small LLM, when enabled, only picks topic words from the claim text. Every fact comes from the records.

Fast mode (Standby)

GET https://catalyst-labs--local-government-decision-lookup.apify.actor/?claim=...&token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN (also takes address, topic, city). GET /coverage lists what's covered.

MCP

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=catalyst-labs/local-government-decision-lookup

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.005 per lookup that returns an answer. A no_record verdict inside covered places counts as an answer. Out-of-coverage places and invalid input are never charged.