Extract text from BOS PDF

[hartsick]

See how easy it is to detect when the police budget is up for discussion.

Things we would need to do (SF):

• Detect when relevant meeting is
• Grab call-in instructions

Questions:

• How to tell when a police budget will be discussed?
  • What terms would we expect to show up?
  • When is the last time this was discussed, so we can use as example?

[hartsick]

This worked to extract the text, with minimal weird formatting: https://github.com/yob/pdf-reader/blob/master/examples/text.rb

[hartsick]

Example text for call-in instructions:

6/10/2020

WATCH SF Cable Channel 26\n\n                                    WATCH www.sfgovtv.org\n\n                                  PUBLIC COMMENT CALL-IN\n\n                         (415) 655-0001 / Access Code: 145 736 9773\n\n

Watch San Francisco Cable Channel 26 or visit the SFGovTV website\n                   (www.sfgovtv.org) to stream the live meetings or watch them on demand. Members\n                   of the public are encouraged to participate remotely by submitting comme▯nts\n\n                   (www.sfbos.org/participate-and-submit-comments-remotely).\n\n                   PUBLIC COMMENT CALL IN\n                      (415) 655-0001 / Access Code: 145 736 9773\n\n

6/03/2020

WATCH SF Cable Channel 26\n\n                                    WATCH www.sfgovtv.org\n\n                                  PUBLIC COMMENT CALL-IN\n\n                          (415) 655-0001 / Access Code: 926 891 085\n\n

Watch San Francisco Cable Channel 26 or visit the SFGovTV website\n                   (www.sfgovtv.org) to stream the live meetings or watch them on demand. Members\n                   of the public are encouraged to participate remotely by submitting comme▯nts\n\n                   (www.sfbos.org/participate-and-submit-comments-remotely).\n\n                   PUBLIC COMMENT CALL IN\n                      (415) 655-0001 / Access Code: 926 891 085\n\n

[hartsick]

This may be a better place to snag call-in information: https://sfbos.org/remote-meeting-call