It is essential to know that not all codifiers offer the types same services. When reviewing a quote, it is important to ask questions, so that the city knows exactly what it is getting for its money. Here are some suggestions for questions to ask a potential codifier – to help your city make an apples to apples, oranges to oranges comparison of vendors.
Legal Review
The most important question to ask a potential codifier is “do you provide legal review of city ordinances?” Some codifiers are simply organizers and publishers. They organize and number content from A-Z, create a table of contents, index and smartly bind your ordinances into a book. They do not look at content in ordinances. They cannot tell you whether or not your adult use ordinance passes constitutional muster. They can only tell you it is located in Chapter 10, at page 80 and is cross-referenced with “bookstores.”
Other vendors will review your ordinances during the codification process to make sure they are consistent with state and federal law (in addition to organizing and indexing). They will issue you a legal report, highlighting areas of concern. If the city works closely with an attorney to review and update ordinances on a regular basis, the city may not need legal review – just organization. However, if the city ordinance book is older or has been only infrequently updated, legal review is essential.
When seeking legal review from a codifier, some good follow-up questions are:
• How many Minnesota codebooks have you previously reviewed?
• Do you use attorneys to provide the legal review? Or only “legal editors.”
• Will the codifier send a sample legal review with their quote?
• At what point in the editing process with the legal report be provided?
Use of Graphics, Maps and Charts
Many cities these days are seeking to incorporate graphics, maps and charts into city ordinances. Use of graphics can simplify reading and explaining ordinances for both city staff and citizens. (I have previously blogged about this subject at this link: http://tinyurl.com/2evqg58).
If your city is interested in adding graphics (or may be in the future), it is important to discuss this with the codifier up front. Codification vendors may use very different computer software programs to organize ordinances. Not all programs readily incorporate graphics.
In addition, different codifiers may have different preferred methods for incorporating graphics (as links, as appendices at the ends of text, or added directly into the text). These methods may not be consistent with council and staff vision for using graphics. As a result, it is important to ask the codification vendor for samples of previous codes that included graphics.
Finally, cities should ask whether an additional fee is charged to incorporate graphics, charts or maps.
Electronic Formats and Options:
Many cities would like to feature their city code on their website. This is both a convenience to city residents and a timesaver for city staff. Electronic format and access issues should be discussed in depth with a potential codification vendor. For example:
• Does the codifier offer an electronic version of the city code? Is this version available on disk? Can it be placed on the city website?
• Is the electronic format searchable by “key word?”
• Are there extra fees associated with electronic copies?
• What software does the codifier use and will it be compatible with the city’s existing IT resources? Does the codifier offer IT training and phone support?
• Can the internet version of the code be updated as new ordinances are adopted? How frequently? At what charge?
• Can the codifier provide a list of cities (and web addresses) for city clients who have posted their codes online?
Conclusion
When buying a new car it may be easy for the buyer to call to mind the features they most want (air conditioning, side airbags, sun roof). When hiring a vendor to update the city code, the features of a good codifier may be less obvious. Hopefully asking some of these questions during the initial hiring stages will help avoid problems (or disappointed expectations) farther down the road.
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