Cape Coral, FL

Sunlight provided assistance with the development of this policy.

PURPOSE: To establish an Open Data Program to provide as much accurate, current, and high-quality data as possible to residents, businesses, and community groups while respecting privacy and security concerns, as well as adhering to Florida Sunshine Laws and other existing State and/or City data-sharing policies.

SCOPE: This policy applies to all Departments under the authority of the City Manager.

GENERAL: The City is committed to using technology to deliver information that is current, relevant and desired by the public, supporting and maintaining transparency in government. This will allow for an open, accountable government, thereby increasing public trust and understanding. The disclosure of government data is consistent with the public’s right to information and proactive disclosure may promote civic engagement. This policy will also support economic development and redevelopment in the City which will aid in meeting the needs of current and future residents and businesses. This will also provide a streamlined process for internal data sharing among City Departments.

POLICY: The City Manager hereby directs City Departments to work in collaboration with the Governance Committee, as outlined below in this Administration Regulation, to implement and maintain an open data policy for the City of Cape Coral.

Open Data Portal:

A single web portal will be maintained on behalf of the City, administered by the ITS Department, and will act as a central data hub for all open data published by and on behalf of the City. The goal of all data made available on the Open Data Portal is to meet the following data standards:

A. Complete: All facets of the data are available (unless subject to valid privacy, security or are exempt or confidential).

B. Accurate: Reported data is accurate and reliable.

C. Accessible: Data is easily and freely accessed via a central web portal, CapeCoral.net.

D. Primary: Data is collected at the source, with the highest level of granularity (not in aggregate or modified forms).

E. Timely: Data is available to the public in a timely manner.

F. Machine-Processable: Data is reasonably structured and based on industry data standards to allow for automated processing.

G. License-Free: Data must not be subject to copyright, patent, trademark, or trade secret regulation.

H. Non-Proprietary: Data must be available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.

Public Records and Exempt, Confidential and/or Legally Protected Information:

Nothing in this Administrative Regulation will be construed to supersede existing requirements for review and clearance of information exempt from disclosure under the Florida Public Records Law and other applicable laws or regulations.

Program Oversight and Administration:

A. Open Data Governance Committee:

1. An Open Data Governance Committee will be established for the purpose of reviewing the open data policy program.
2. The Committee will be comprised of a representative of the City Manager’s Office, who will serve as the chair, the ITS Director, and on a rotating basis three Department heads and/or division managers/superintendents chosen by the City Manager or his designee. The three Department representatives will be chosen based upon their relevance to the open data being reviewed and will serve at the discretion of the City Manager.
3. The Committee will meet quarterly, or more often as deemed necessary by the City Manager or his designee.
4. At least once annually, the Committee will publish available datasets through an online venue and seek input from the public regarding the datasets.

B. Open Data Governance Committee Responsibilities:

1. The Committee will work with Departments as needed to identify high value datasets for publishing.
2. The Committee will be responsible for vetting data specific to security or privacy concerns.
3. The Committee will conduct an annual review of this Administrative Regulation and make recommendations for revision, if any, to the City Manager, with the goal of maintaining and/or expanding the City’s open data initiative, evaluating the datasets available for relevance, and adding new open datasets.

C. Department Responsibilities:

1. Departments will work with the ITS Department to identify and maintain an inventory of all Citywide data holdings.
2. Departments will comply with Open Data Governance Committee requests for information for the purpose of dataset identification and publication as needed.
3. Departments will actively pursue dataset recommendations for forwarding to the Governance Committee.
4. As datasets are identified and prioritized, Departments will assign staff members to work with ITS and/or the Open Data Governance Committee to advance identified datasets.
5. Departments will assist with the maintenance of existing datasets as needed.
6. Departments will review data periodically and enforce sufficient internal controls to mitigate the risk of reporting incomplete, inaccurate and unreliable data.

APPROVED: Kelley Fernandez, Business Manager

APPROVED: John Szerlag, City Manager