Youngstown Daily Legal News

Plan to modernize municipal info databases progresses

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 1, 2014

One in a series of bills known as the DataOhio Initiative has been favorably reported out of one House committee and shifted to another.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 324, would establish the Local Government Information Exchange Grant Program and would create grants for information technology purposes.

HB 324 is included in a package of four bills jointly sponsored by Reps. Mike Duffey, R-Worthington, and Christina Hagan, R-Alliance.

Among the other measures, House Bill 321 would create the DataOhio Board and specify requirements for posting public records online.

House Bill 322 would require the auditor of state to adopt rules regarding a uniform accounting system for public offices and House Bill 323 would establish an online catalog of public data at data.Ohio.gov.

Duffey said the bills were crafted to modernize technology for public information and increase transparency in state government.

“As each concept stands on its own, we divided the legislation into multiple bills. But because each complements the others, we are presenting them as a package,” he said.

Every day, a variety of Ohioans, from researchers at public universities, to journalists, to think tank representatives, make inquiries about public information.

“Everyone is searching for accurate information without too much hassle,” Duffey said. “And yet, hassle is what we’ve got in many cases either because of technology, lack of standards, navigational issues and many other reasons why some requests that should be so simple, simply aren’t.”

Duffey said an ordinary request for information in one city might result in a photocopy of a spreadsheet, a PDF of a PowerPoint or a spreadsheet in electronic format.

“There is no rhyme or reason why it comes to you in that format necessarily,” he said. “And once you have it, the information is not always communicated with the same meaning. For instance, the accounting for different departments or positions may be the same with different names or worse, different with the same names.”

Such situations result in lost time and money, Duffey said.

“It unnecessarily occupies resources that could be used to do something meaningful,” he said.

“That’s why DataOhio is important. We are taking data that is hodge-podge, disorganized and difficult to use and we are convening many of the public offices who are responsible for it, telling them to get in a room together to work out standards, to speak the same language in accounting, to share their data with each other more openly and we are rewarding them for when they do.”

If HB 324 is enacted, the grant program would be led by the director of the Ohio Department of Administrative Services.

The director would be charged with adopting program rules that include all of the following: grant eligibility criteria that must include a requirement that a grantee be a county, township or municipal corporation; specifications for what “data points” must be included by local governments in order for the local governments to be eligible for the grant funding; a requirement that electronic data satisfying the grant criteria be posted on the Internet, by the local government or the state, in an open format that is capable of being searched, viewed and downloaded by the public; specifications for consistent formatting and technology standards for electronic data satisfying the grant eligibility criteria; and specifications for accounting standards for data provided by local governments.

The proposal calls for the director to disburse a grant of $10,000 to each local government, regional planning commission, metropolitan planning organization or regional council of government that meets the grant eligibility criteria.

The bill states that grants must be awarded in the order in which the grantees have met the eligibility criteria.

HB 324 calls for an appropriation of $12.5 million in fiscal year 2015 and $12.5 million in fiscal year 2016.

The total amount of grants awarded could not exceed appropriated funds.

HB 324 has been reported out of the House State and Local Government Committee and forwarded to the House Finance and Appropriations Committee.

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