Plain language here
This site puts the city's public records in words you can read once and understand. Here is what that means, and the one line we never cross.
What "plain language" means here
Plain language is writing you can read once and act on: short sentences, common words, and the point up front. When we explain a service, a budget line, or a council decision in our own words, we write it that way.
This follows the same idea the federal government uses for its own public writing: the Federal Plain Language Guidelines and the Plain Writing Act of 2010, which says public agencies should write in a way people can understand and use.
The one line we never cross
Plain language applies to our words. It never touches the city's actual records.
Sourced records are shown word for word
Every figure, vote, motion, and line of legal text that comes from a city record is quoted verbatim: exactly as the source says it. We never summarize, reword, or "clean up" a primary source.
When official text is hard to read, we do not change it. We add a plain-language version beside it, clearly labeled, so you can read the plain one and check it against the real one. The source always stays put.
How to tell them apart
Two looks, one rule. Anything quoted from a city record carries a source tag. Anything we wrote to make it easier, or that a computer drafted, sits in a violet dashed box and says so. Here is the same fact in both:
From the city's records
"SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE 06-25: AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF ORDINANCES: CHAPTER 14, ELECTIONS—SECTION 14-5, C AND D."
Source: approved minutes, July 7 2025 Loris City Council meeting
Plain-language version
Ordinance 06-25 changes Section 14-5, parts C and D, of the city's elections chapter in the municipal code.
Written by this site to be easier to read. Check it against the source on the left.
Rule of thumb: if a box has a source tag, it is the real record. If it is in a violet dashed box, it is our plain-language help or a machine-written summary, and it always points you back to the source.
About the machine-written parts
Some of the plain-language summaries here are drafted with AI, and some scanned documents are read by software (OCR) to make them searchable. These are labeled every time they appear.
Machine-written text can get things wrong. Treat it as a starting point, then check the source we link. The real records never depend on it.
This is the kind of experimental help that belongs on an independent, clearly unofficial site like this one, not on the city's official website. The city is right to be careful with unvetted tools. More about what this site is.