Smart Government – Page 6

Chattanooga Open Data

Problem

Currently the City of Chattanooga has very limited data made public to its citizens, hindering citizen engagement and trust in government.

Solution

Mayor Berke is working to release unprecedented amounts of public data in the city to spur civic innovation and economic growth. From interactive budgeting tools, to applications that show where road closures are — open public data empowers the local development community to help solve difficult civic problems. Through a strong partnership with the Public Library, Chattanooga is also investing in an independent platform to host all community data (nonprofits, private businesses, community organizers)– not just government. The Library will also be an independent advocate for high-quality open data, which is invaluable for the long-term future of government transparency in Chattanooga.

Land Value Taxation

Problem

As in most states, the current system for how land is taxed in Michigan does not encourage investment in unused properties. This lack of investment, especially in struggling urban and rural areas, hurts the economy by hindering opportunities for growth and property development.

Solution

Representative Townsend supports legislation to allow cities to implement land value taxation, which would place the property tax burden on the actual land and not the buildings or improvements. This incentivizes a property owner to develop property in order to balance the tax burden and encourages private investment through rewards for those who invest in their property. This method is a market-driven way to encourage investment in struggling communities and to reuse existing assets rather than promote urban sprawl.

City County Compact

Problem

Like in many areas of the country, the City of Dayton and Montgomery County have not always worked together effectively to make government work faster, fill in gaps and improve customer service.

Solution

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley has helped lead the effort to enter into the first ever City County Compact with Montgomery County to align priorities and leverage both government’s resources. Through the Compact, 5 specific initiatives have been chosen for 2014-2015, including projects in education, workforce development, public safety, criminal justice and environmental quality. By publicly declaring the Compact’s goals, the governments will be held accountable for measurable results.

Git City Codes

Problem

City codes are complex, confusing and often maintained by a private third party behind a paywall. How they are updated only adds to the confusion and makes it near impossible for anyone, other than a chosen few government employees, to understand the changes. As a result, there is often very little input from citizens when the code is changed and no way for a citizen track let alone suggest changes.

Solution

Mayor Andy Berke has developed Git City Codes, which moves the operating DNA of cities, their codes and ordinances, into the public light by opening up the code to general public and managing updates through Git. Git is a distributed revision control system often used for collaborative computer coding projects. This will allow citizens to access all city codes and provide more timely input on improvements.

Radical Transparency

Problem

Citizens often don’t have access to the same data and information that city officials use to make their decisions and as a result it can often be confusing how decisions are made.

Solution

Mayor Andy Berke has proposed the “Radical Transparency” initiative in Chattanooga, that opens up the data and information that drives decision making within the city to the general public. Lots of cities have open data or transparency or performance management efforts, but rarely are they all connected. This effort leverages the efforts already in place to use data to drive continuous improvements through performance management and provides that same information to the public via the city’s open data portal. By allowing anyone to view and perform their own analysis on such data, Mayor Berke is helping to restore trust in local government.

S.BEND Reports

Problem

The City of South Bend created the first open data portal in Indiana in 2013, but the distribution of information through this platform has not had a measurable impact to further conversations with residents on how to improve city services beyond anecdotes.

Solution

Mayor Pete Buttigieg helped launch S.BEND reports, which helps breakdown big data on the performance of city services into more manageable and relevant information for residents. Through the Director of Community Outreach the City codes and catalogs each neighborhood’s priorities, then gathers data about city services like Vacant and Abandoned Home Initiative or Code Enforcement and reflects meaningful information, like the total amount of pounds of litter removed from illegal dumping in the neighborhood, while providing context regarding how the neighborhood fares relative to the rest of the city. By making this open data portal more accessible to city residents, S.BEND reports helps elicit action, including an increase in neighbor compliance with Code Violations, which reduces operational costs for the city – as city crews do not have to abate violations- while improving the quality of life in the neighborhoods.

How to steal this idea:

Learn more about South Bend’s open data portal at https://data.southbendin.gov/.

For additional resources, visit https://www.ci.south-bend.in.us/government/content/open-data.

Numerous cities outside Indiana have adopted open data portals and policies.

Charlotte in North Carolina developed an interactive tool that generates reports at a neighborhood; however, the data does not refer to specific city services.
The City of Chicago, in a partnership lead by Argonne National Lab and Brett Goldstein, are developing Plenario, a tool that analyses open data in arbitrarily defined geographies, but residents with low tech skills might still be unable to use this data. Learn more about Plenario at https://www.govtech.com/data/University-of-Chicagos-Plenario-Changes-How-We-Use-Open-Data.html.

Visit and share the gallery of NewDEAL Challenge winners at governing.com/newdeal.

Empathy School

Problem

Cities often create solutions to solve a problem they have with providing a service to citizens without any thought or consideration to the end user, the citizen. This internal focus creates services that work for cities but not for citizens.

Solution

Empathy is key to citizen centered design and a muscle that must be exercised if cities want to develop city services that are responsive to their citizens needs. Mayor Andy Berke has proposed the creation of an Empathy school, which puts city and community leaders in the shoes of everyday citizens as they seek to attempt to access the same services and use the same systems. Through this understanding, city departments will be able to improve how their services meet the needs of the citizens they serve.

Making Government Awesome

Problem

Typically, government services are built after long, costly procurement processes that rarely ask users for input on their interactions with those services. Meanwhile citizens’ interactions with government are often perceived as cumbersome or inefficient. In order to increase trust in government, local agencies should place users at the center of service design in order to make government services more convenient and easily delivered to citizens.

Solution

Mayor Andy Berke has proposed a new way of approaching government services through his “Making Government Awesome” plan. By implementing a user-focused design in reimagining how government services are delivered and consumed, Mayor Berke is helping to improve how citizens interact with their local government. Through this approach, Berke has already been able to make the permitting process in Chattanooga easier for new businesses through a user-centric design process.

Background Checks

Problem

Pennsylvania state colleges and universities failed to obtain criminal and child abuse background checks for all workers at youth summer athletic and academic camps on the school’s’ campuses.

Solution

After finding a lack of background checks during audits of six universities, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale established recommendations that universities enforce their background check policy for youth camps to ensure that they obtain and retain the appropriate background checks for all student employees, outside temporary workers, temporary part-time instructors, and volunteers who have direct contact with minors at youth athletic and academic camps.

Transparent Treasury

Problem

Too often, public pension investments are opaque and confusing to the public. A review of public pension websites nationally reveals that it is often very difficult for the public to access basic information on how pension investments are performing, which fund managers public funds are invested in, and what fees and expenses are being paid out of the system. Sometimes such disclosure is prohibited by the contracts between pension systems and the fund managers they employ. The public has a right to know how their funds are being managed, and stronger scrutiny of public investments will fuel an informed public dialogue on how performance can be improved.

Solution

Rhode Island Treasurer Seth Magaziner launched the “Transparent Treasury” initiative, combining tough new disclosure standards for fund managers with a new online portal, making key investment information easy for all to access. Transparent Treasury is a commitment to publicly disclose investment allocations, performance, fees and expenses in aggregate and individually for every fund manager that the state pension system invests in. Going forward, Rhode Island will only invest with fund managers that agree to publicly disclose performance quarterly, and fees and expenses annually.

Chattanooga Open Data

Problem

Solution

Land Value Taxation

Problem

Solution

City County Compact

Problem

Solution

Git City Codes

Problem

Solution

Radical Transparency

Problem

Solution

S.BEND Reports

Problem

Solution

Empathy School

Problem

Solution

Making Government Awesome

Problem

Solution

Background Checks

Problem

Solution

Transparent Treasury

Problem

Solution

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