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Help keep count
Tally LA is independent and paid for out of pocket. Here's what it costs, what's next, and how you can help.
Costs
What it costs to run
As of October 28, 2026. Every dollar is listed.
| Since | Paid to | For | Billed | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 27, 2026 | Namecheap | tallyla.com domain | Yearly | $11.48 |
| Oct 28, 2026 | Render | Website server, database and nightly data job | Monthly | $13.00 |
| Oct 28, 2026 | Render | Pro workspace plan | Monthly | $25.00 |
The monthly cost covers the website, the database, and the job that checks every source each night. It doesn't count the time spent reading records and checking numbers, which is most of the work.
What's next
Planned work and what it would cost
Estimates use each vendor's current price. They are paid for as money comes in.
| Work | What it adds | One-time | Monthly | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Searchable meeting transcripts | Text transcripts of every City Council meeting since 2020, timed to the video, so you can search what was said and jump to it. The County already publishes its own transcripts; the City doesn't. About 2,400 hours of audio at about 4 cents an hour on Groq's Whisper service, then about 13 new meetings a month. Needs the audio files from the City Clerk. | $96 | $1.50 | Within a month of funding |
| Meeting summaries | A short summary of what was discussed and decided at each meeting, written from the transcript and checked by a person before it's published. A small AI model costs a few cents per meeting. The real cost is the time to check each one. | $20 | $1.00 | Right after transcripts |
| Every City Council roll call since 2025 | Each member's vote on every item, loaded from the City Clerk's meeting system instead of entered by hand. Time only. | — | — | Next 2 to 3 months |
| Posts from officials | Show what the Mayor, Council members and Supervisors post on X next to their votes. Showing a single post is free. Collecting posts automatically costs about half a cent per post read through X's paid access. | — | $15.00 | When there's room in the budget |
| A bigger server and database | Keeps the site fast as more people use it and more records are loaded. Render's next server size is about $25 a month, and a 1 GB database is $19 instead of $6. | — | $31.00 | When traffic or data outgrows the current plan |
| Records requests | Requests under the California Public Records Act for the data the governments don't publish. Filing is free. Agencies can charge for copies. The main cost is time and follow-up. | — | — | Ongoing |
| Total if all of it were done | $116 | $48.50 | On top of today's $38.96 a month | |
Contributions
Tally LA is a project made with love by Blac Flag LLC. It is not a nonprofit, so contributions would not be tax-deductible.
We aren't taking contributions yet. We want to set up how funding works ourselves before we accept money: clear terms, no influence over what we publish, and every dollar listed on this page.
If you'd like to help pay for the work above, tell us and we'll let you know when it's set up.
Other ways to help
- Report an error. If a number looks wrong, tell us with the page and the record that shows it.
- Send a tip. A contract, report or vote we should look at.
- Share a page. Every page has its own link and cites its sources.
- Go to a meeting. Public comment is open at City Council and Board of Supervisors meetings. The meetings page has the schedule and video.
- File a records request. Anyone can ask for public records. If you get records about spending, send them to us.