Methodology
How We Verify Facts
Every claim on this site is labeled one of four ways, so you can judge the strength of the evidence and check it yourself.
Backed by an official document: the City Charter, a staff report, meeting minutes, an agenda, a court ruling, or a purchase record. Anyone can look these up directly on the city's website or Legistar system.
Covered by established news outlets describing a confirmed public event or vote. Reliable, but reflects a journalist's summary rather than a primary document.
Something a named person said publicly, at a meeting or in writing. That they said it is verifiable; whether it's true is their claim, not an independently confirmed fact.
Could not be verified against any official record, often because no public record exists (for example, small committees that fall below the size requiring public minutes under California's Brown Act). Flagged clearly rather than omitted, so you know it's worth asking about directly.
We present what happened
This site does not use language like "concerning" or "troubling." It presents what happened and lets you decide what you think about it.
A note on how this site is maintained
Research, fact-checking, and drafting for Newport Beach Civic Ledger are done with the assistance of Claude, an AI system made by Anthropic, working from primary sources — city documents, court records, and established news coverage — which are cited throughout. Content is reviewed and maintained by a Newport Beach resident. For privacy reasons, I don't publish my full name on the site; I'm happy to share it in a direct conversation once we've confirmed we're both Newport Beach residents. This site is updated on an ongoing basis; each page shows when it was last checked. Because this involves AI-assisted research, readers are encouraged to click through to the original source for anything they intend to rely on or repeat elsewhere.