Methodology & Standards
Better Santa Rosa City is a community-maintained public information portal. Every record and metric we present follows strict principles of sourcing, verification, and non-partisanship.
1. Source collection
Every dataset is compiled by hand from public records: audit reports, census releases, budget statements, ordinances and resolutions, and the official portals listed in the source registry. There is no automated scraping: a person reads the source document and transcribes what it actually says.
2. Primary-source preference
We prioritize primary official records issued directly by government authorities. This includes Commission on Audit (COA) annual audit reports, Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) fiscal statements, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) census data, Santa Rosa City Council ordinances and resolutions, and official department directories.
3. Secondary-source handling
When primary documents are unavailable, secondary sources such as reputable news publications, historical references, PhilAtlas, or Wikipedia may be referenced. Secondary sources are always explicitly identified and never visually conflated with official records.
4. Verification process
Every record carries a lastVerified date: the day it was last compared against its source. We preserve source definitions strictly: we do not label city revenue as the appropriation budget, nor do we present proposed projects as completed infrastructure.
5. Data freshness model
Datasets are audited on a scheduled basis, and a dataset is only as current as its stalest record. Freshness badges shown across the site are computed from each record's lastVerified date, so a stale record is visibly stale rather than silently wrong.
6. Found an error?
Accuracy is our highest priority. If you identify a factual error, broken source link, or outdated record, please report it through our public GitHub repository so the correction can be tracked and verified.
7. Missing information
We never extrapolate or fabricate missing information. When a field is absent from reviewed sources, we explicitly state: "Data not available in the source reviewed." Broken original links are labeled "Original source currently unavailable."
8. Image licensing & media credits
Every photograph and illustration on this site is used under its stated license, with author, source, and license recorded per asset. Full credits live on the media & image licensing page.
9. Independent civic-information project
Better Santa Rosa City is an independent civic-information project, not affiliated with or operated by the City Government of Santa Rosa. We do not endorse political candidates, rank officials, assign municipal report-card scores, or publish editorial commentary. We present public records neutrally so residents can form their own judgments.
Pages that present our own curation or summaries carry this project's badge rather than a source-classification badge: