Mayor Landrieu Signs Executive Order to Make Data More Freely Available
to Public
NEW ORLEANS – Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed an executive order
establishing an Open Data Policy, which will institute citywide standards for
collecting, maintaining and cataloging data that is free and open to the
public.
“When I took office in 2010, I committed to
making City government more efficient, open and transparent
so that our residents could hold us accountable,” said Mayor
Landrieu. “From establishing the City’s Office of Performance and
Accountability to launching online tools like BlightStatus, NoticeMe,
Roadwork.nola.gov and Data.nola.gov, the City of New Orleans is leading the way
in providing the public the information it needs. This executive order is the
next step in delivering on the promise we made to our residents and in
shaping the future New Orleans for generations to come.”
Since 2012, the City has been using open data –
data made freely available to the public – to solve difficult problems and aid
internal decision making. Early in the City’s fight against blight, data
associated with blight cases were made publicly available to citizens to
analyze, allowing for frustrating situations to be discussed and solved
together. This collaboration would become the basis of BlightSTAT meetings – a
monthly public forum for residents and City leaders to discuss progress in
blight remediation. Similarly, to help inform crime reduction strategies in
2012, the City and NOPD released 911 Calls for Service data to provide broad
insight into the problems we faced.
Open data has been used to create applications
that have expanded the reach and impact of City services and data, including BlightStatus,
Property.nola.gov and CivicSource.com. In 2012, the City partnered with Code
for America to create BlightStatus, an interactive online tool for
residents to track the progress of blighted units within the Code Enforcement
system in New Orleans. For the first time in the City of New Orleans’ history,
residents could review up-to-date property information directly from City
records without stepping foot inside City Hall. BlightStatus has improved the City’s
work with neighborhood groups and individual residents in the fight on blight. The
City’s portal for property ownership information, Property.nola.gov, made finding
information about property easily available for the first time. It is often
used by neighborhood associations and the private sector as a tool to aid
economic development. Adjudicated property auction site, CivicSource.com, uses the City’s open data
to power their own civic entrepreneurship.
While the City has been recognized nationally
for efforts to use open data, data releases have been ad hoc with no specific
policy or agreed upon guiding principles. In 2015, the City partnered with
Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works
Cities (WWC) initiative, collaborating with WWC partner
organizations the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University
(GovEx), Results for America, and the Sunlight Foundation to develop a formal
open data policy. This Open Data Policy puts in place the necessary standards
to facilitate future innovations and collaborations around data.
Lamar Gardere, the City’s Chief Information
Officer, said, “Knowing what
data we have allows it to be used as a tool for accountability, government
transparency and building trust with the public. Each of the City’s efforts benefits
from the implicit partnership open data creates between the public sector,
community and private/non-profit sectors. We have recognized data as a powerful
tool to create innovative collaboration and to drive results.”
Open data has also been used as the basis for
many of the City’s STAT reports and
meetings, powers the City’s website on street construction (Roadwork.nola.gov) and has helped drive
life-saving initiatives such as optimizing the Fire Department’s decisions on
where to focus smoke detector installation efforts. Open data has the potential
to cement the City’s growing reputation of data-driven innovation and ensures
that commitment to transparency and accountability is not easily discarded.
The Open Data Policy will establish processes
and mechanisms for collecting, maintaining, cataloging, recommending and
governing actions pertaining to data. The executive order highlights the
relevance of data as a critical decision-making tool that encourages civic
innovation.
The goals of the policy and executive order
include:
- Establishment
of a plan for creating a comprehensive data inventory
- Establishment
of a process for proactively releasing publishable City data, identifying
data coordinators for each City agency and prioritizing data for
release;
- Establishment
of a repository where public datasets can be made freely available to the
public on an open license basis;
- Establishment
of a repository where authoritative geographic data will be maintained;
- Establishment
of a plan for reporting progress towards achievement of the goals set
forth in the data policy;
- Establishment
of a plan for maintaining compliance with the Louisiana Public Records law
when publicly releasing data.
In June 2016, the City launched NextRequest, a new and open online system
for processing public records requests. NextRequest allows individuals to
request, track and access the status of their Public Records Requests online.
Today, the City will launch two additional tools
to increase transparency and accountability of local government using open
data. DataDriven.nola.gov is
a website dedicated to promoting the City’s data products and initiatives in a
way that adds context and meaning to the City’s open data. 311Explorer.nola.gov is a website
that allows anyone to look up NOLA 311 requests online. Currently, NOLA 311 is
entirely phone-based. This is the first step in 311 Digital – the expansion of
NOLA 311 to leverage online and mobile tools.
The text of the Executive Order is below:
EXECUTIVE ORDER
MJL 16-01
WHEREAS, the adoption of a Data Policy improves the provision of
services, increases transparency and access to public information, and enhances
coordination and efficiencies among departments and partner organizations; and
WHEREAS, much of the data collected by the City is not cataloged,
impeding the ability to aggregate, analyze and synthesize it to better allocate
public resources; and
WHEREAS, adoption of a Data Policy will encourage the proactive
provision of information currently sought through Public Records Law requests,
saving the City time and money.
NOW THEREFORE, I, MITCHELL J. LANDRIEU, by the authority vested in me as Mayor of
the City of New Orleans, by the Constitution and laws of the State of Louisiana
and the Home Rule Charter and laws of the City of New Orleans, HEREBY
ORDER AS FOLLOWS:
Effective Date: This Executive Order is
effective upon signature of the Mayor.
Purpose: The purpose of this Executive Order is
the development and implementation of a data policy that contemplates a multi-year
process to inventory, assess, and catalog City of New Orleans data.
Chief Administrative Office Policy Memorandum:
The Chief Administrative Office shall issue a Policy Memorandum outlining the
City’s data policy including, but not limited to, the following:
The goals for the data policy;
The plan for creating a comprehensive data
inventory;
The process for proactively releasing
publishable City data, identifying data coordinators for each City agency, and
prioritizing data for release;
The location where public datasets shall be made
freely available to the public on an open license basis;
The location where authoritative geographic data
shall be maintained;
The plan for reporting progress towards the
achievement of the goals of the data policy;
The plan for maintaining compliance with the
Louisiana Public Records law when publicly releasing data; and
Any and all other considerations necessary to
implement the program set forth above in a timely and efficient manner.
WITNESS MY HAND AND SEAL
THE 1ST DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 2016 AT NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.
Signed,
Mitchell J. Landrieu
September 1, 2016
###
|
