TITLE
Recommendation to approve the City’s Open Data Policy and related standards to implement modern Citywide practices for sharing data with the public, staff and policy makers. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
National, state and local governments are making data more easily available to their communities and stakeholders to enhance transparency and improve cross- departmental efficiency. This effort is commonly termed “Open Data.” Data is varied and can include wide ranges of information, from City revenues to health statistics to public safety response times. This openness has enabled citizens to gain greater understanding about the workings of government agencies. The data is freely accessible and can be viewed online and downloaded in a variety of formats.
At the request of Mayor Robert Garcia, the Technology and Innovation Department (TI) set out to develop an Open Data Policy (Policy) and related standards, with guidance from the City’s Technology and Innovation Commission (Commission), to implement modern Citywide practices for sharing data with the public, staff, and policy makers.
The purpose of this Policy is to set guidelines for incorporating an open data framework into existing and future systems and procedures, and to aid in determining which datasets should be made public, how to make datasets public, and how to maintain the existing published datasets.
The City’s Open Data information will be made accessible on the DataLB Hub Portal and shall meet open data standards as outlined in the Policy.
All City departments shall participate in a Citywide data inventory process to determine what datasets are appropriate for inclusion and how they can be made public. Each department will be asked to assign a Data Coordinator as the primary point of contact for the Open Data program. The Data Coordinators will work with TI to realize the vision of the Open Data program across the City. The Data Coordinator will depend on subject matter expertise within their respective departments to brainstorm and identify these datasets. This effort will help build a Citywide baseline of data resources, which will in turn help prioritize and identify resources to help departments publish data to the DataLB Hub Portal.
The City’s DataLB Hub and all public data contained on such a portal shall be subject to the Terms of Use developed by the City. Such Terms of Use shall be posted by the City on the DataLB Hub.
The Policy was based on best practices as outlined by the Sunlight Foundation, a national, non-partisan, nonprofit organization that uses tools of civic technology and open data to make government and politics more accountable and transparent. The Policy is also based on a review of five cities known for having innovative and successful implementations of open data portals. These cities included Boston, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia and Seattle.
As TI developed the Policy, staff worked closely with Commission members with expertise in Open Data practices. Initially, the Commission hosted three Open Data Forums in late 2015, to understand the demand for various City datasets and to educate the public about the potential for Open Data.
The Commission reviewed several drafts of the Policy and made recommendations to staff. Many of these recommendations are included in the attached Policy. The Policy also incorporates feedback from City departments.
This matter was reviewed by Deputy City Attorney Amy R. Webber on November 28, 2016 and by Budget Analysis Officer Julissa Jose-Murray on December 2, 2016.
TIMING CONSIDERATIONS
City Council action on this matter is requested on December 20, 2016, for immediate implementation.
FISCAL IMPACT
The fiscal impact of the Policy is unknown at this time and will be reevaluated as the Policy is rolled out Citywide. At this time there is no funding dedicated for Policy projects. Departments will be asked to comply with the Policy using existing staff resources and appropriation; balancing existing workload with Open Data requests. There is no local job impact associated with this recommendation.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
BRYAN M. SASTOKAS
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
APPROVED:
PATRICK H. WEST
CITY MANAGER