Model Data Governance Policy & Practice Guide for Cities and Counties
Preamble: The Why, What, And How Of This Guide
“Data is like garbage. You better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.”
-Mark Twain
Purposes, Intended Uses, and Scope
Purposes. Data Governance is an important, complicated consideration in the modern era of local governments. As cities and counties (each sometimes hereinafter referred to as a “Jurisdiction”) discover ways to use, retain, and organize data, it is imperative to learn from one another as we consider the complex nature of governance. Sharing effective approaches to policy development and implementation tools in a “community of practice” manner, as envisioned in the formation of the MetroLab Network Data Governance Task Force that produced this document, enhances the ability of local governments to both use data to provide increasingly efficient and beneficial public services, and to protect the public and mitigate risks of misuses of data.
Intended Uses. This Policy and Practice Guide (the “Guide”) is intended to be several things:
- A useful tool for practitioners, co-developed by practitioners (with the guidance and input of expertise from individuals from academia and other organizations with relevant expertise).
- A living guide housed on the MetroLab Network website, and curated, updated, and refined there through a multi-functional online platform to help local governments as they keep pace with rapidly evolving Data collection and dissemination technologies and other changes in circumstance.
- A reminder of several legal considerations that permeate Data Governance—while a few lawyers were involved in this project, it is incumbent upon us to tell you that this is not legal advice, and the local governments should of course obtain legal advice from their attorneys on legal issues affecting Data governance policies and practices.
Scope. The suggested governance approaches in this Guide are for Data that is owned or in possession of a municipality—this includes Data that the Jurisdiction directly collects, or Data received by a local government intentionally (i.e., the local government has contracted with a third party or is working with a third party on a project/pilot, such as a grant). While this Guide addresses a wide range of local government interactions with such Data internally and externally, it does not include governance approaches or specific policy considerations or recommendations on issues of surveillance or uses of artificial intelligence.
A Note on Maturity Levels: We recognize that cities and counties are at different levels of established processes with respect to Data Governance. We have included the full gamut of recommended policies. This Guide includes resources and recommendations for varied maturity levels and the website search tools will be maintained in a way designed to help users at varying stages in their Data Governance journeys navigate to the resources most pertinent to their needs and circumstances.
Simply put: got data? Use whatever portions of this Guide fit well with your needs and circumstances!
Data Ethics and Data Empowerment
We would like to highlight the ethos of this collaborative group of practitioners and Data Governance subject matter experts. First, what drives much of our passion and curiosity to ensure a proper governance structure is our sense of obligation to protect and provide for residents. Data is a powerful tool, a tool that is required to provide services for everyday necessities like water, electricity, and food stamps. Therefore, it is incumbent upon local governments (and other levels of government alike) to protect and take care of people’s information. And while Data is something to protect, it is also something that can unlock answers to complicated challenges and improve local government services. Thus, we also wish to advocate for its (proper) use. Data is also a powerful tool for good. The combined importance of those two themes is the “why” behind the publication of this Guide. Local governments have a moral obligation to protect individual Data, and an obligation to use it to hold it accountable as a service provider. We know both can and should coexist.
Project History and Methodologies
Project History
Origin. Students and faculty in an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional projects-based, graduate-level civic and social entrepreneurship course at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) developed a Draft Model Data Handling Policy (“Draft Data Handling Policy”) in collaboration with personnel in Kansas City, MO city government and in Kansas City, KS/Unified Government of Wyandotte County, and other individuals.1 Many elements of that document reflected: (i) studies of data-related and “Internet of Things” (IOT) policies or guidelines in various cities in the U.S. and some in other countries, many of which were “Open Data Portal” policies; (ii) research on several issues presented by municipal data initiatives; and (iii) review of a sampling of data sharing agreements that some cities had entered into with for-profit companies and other organizations in varying contexts.
MetroLab Network Vetting of Draft Data Handling Policy. The Draft Data Handling Policy was vetted at a Roundtable Session at the September 2019 MetroLab Network Summit held in Boulder, CO. That session validated the proposition that many local governments were in the process of developing or were interested in developing relatively comprehensive Data Governance policies with wider scope than seen in Open Data Portal policies. It also provided great feedback and suggestions for a next iteration of that draft document that would, among other things, have more practice tools, be less “prescriptive,” and offer options for local governments at varying levels of maturity in their data collection, data security and data sharing activities and processes. Following up on the Boulder session, a call for collaborators from across the United States to participate, with MetroLab network assistance, in the co-development of the next iteration of the Draft Data Handing Policy, as described in an April 2020 article in the online GovTech publication.2
2022 Formation of the MetroLab Network Data Governance Task Force. After a hiatus occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the winter and spring of 2022 UMKC Professor Tony Luppino renewed the call for collaborators to build on an April 2020 version of the Draft Data Handling Policy and organized an initial co-working group for its next iteration. At a Roundtable Session at the MetroLab Networks Summit in Chicago, IL in June of 2022 several members of that group presented reasons to take a “community of practice” approach to that endeavor. That session led to a collaboration, among Prof. Luppino, MetroLab Network leadership, and Miles Light of the Future of Privacy Forum to expand and formalize an initial project co-working group, which in turn resulted in the MetroLab Network formally launching a national task force to bring practitioners and subject matter experts together. That MetroLab Data Governance Task Force (sometimes referred to in this Guide as the “Task Force”) is comprised of city and county staff members, metropolitan planning organizations staff members, educators, and other researchers from diverse disciplines and jurisdictions across the United States—a group of approximately 50 individuals from some 20 cities and counties that made this Guide possible.3
Methodologies
The Task Force utilized the following principal steps/methodologies in producing this June 2023 Guide:
- Online meetings of “Sub-Groups” of volunteers to explore specific topics and “standard headaches” (i.e., “Challenges”) identified in May 2022 by the initial co-working group.
- Asynchronous postings in an online platform of comments on the April 2020 Draft Data Handling Policy, resources to consider in addressing the Challenges presented, and use cases to help guide thinking on the development of potential policies and practice tools.
- Initial drafting of Guide text, working off of the April 2020 document as a starting place, by a group of volunteer drafters and editors from within the Task Force.
- A series of live online co-working sessions open to all Task Force members to explore key discussion questions relating to text sections of this Guide, with results then taken into account by the editors in producing a refined draft.
- An “all hands” online meeting, and an additional call for postings in the Task Force’s online platform to gather feedback on that refined draft and gather “practice tools” suggestions for inclusion in the Guide’s appendices.
- Presentation of the Guide in an online platform on the MetroLab website in June 2023 as both a downloadable document and electronic version that users can navigate on the site.
Format of this Guide
This Guide has five Sections essentially corresponding to key topic areas identified by the 2022 Initial Co-working Group and subsequently refined by the Task Force. Each Section begins with a brief “Section Note” summarizing its purpose/subject matter and noting the most prominent Challenges identified by the initial co-working group addressed in the Section, and then proceeds with recommendations of principles, policies, and/or practices a city or county might consider adopting in addressing such Challenges. It also contains several footnotes citing or linking to sources or providing other information for readers. References in the Guide to materials posted on websites mean such materials as they existed on those websites on June 20, 2023. In addition, a library (Resources Library) of Data Governance resources has been compiled in conjunction with the Task Force initiative, and contains links to a wide range of policies, practice tools, and associated background readings. Both the Guide and the Resources Library are meant to be “living” instruments accessible on the MetroLab Network website that can be updated, expanded, and refined over time.
A core set of definitions reflecting municipal uses of Data will be vital to standardizing practices across departments and jurisdictions.
While cities, counties and states use many rules and regulations, a common first step is to establish privacy principles, often by way of resolution passed by the Jurisdiction’s governing body.
Doing public good with Data requires that the Data is of sufficient quality/integrity, is properly accessible, and is stored safely.
While protecting data from outside threats is a major concern in a Jurisdiction’s Data Governance, just as important is standardizing internal departmental procedures to safeguard data throughout its lifecycle.
With the volume, velocity, and variety of data expanding exponentially, Jurisdictions are increasingly employing Data sharing to innovate, fill knowledge gaps, and facilitate other parties’ public good initiatives.
This library of Data Governance resources has been compiled in conjunction with the Task Force initiative, and contains links to a wide range of policies, practice tools, and associated background readings.
Doing public good with Data requires that the Data is of sufficient quality/integrity, is properly accessible, and is stored safely.
While cities, counties and states use many rules and regulations, a common first step is to establish privacy principles, often by way of resolution passed by the Jurisdiction’s governing body.
A core set of definitions reflecting municipal uses of Data will be vital to standardizing practices across departments and jurisdictions.
While protecting data from outside threats is a major concern in a Jurisdiction’s Data Governance, just as important is standardizing internal departmental procedures to safeguard data throughout its lifecycle.