Las Vegas, NV

Sunlight provided assistance with the development of this policy.

Policy and Procedure on Open Data

No: CM510

Department: Office of the City Manager

Approval Date: 4-12-16

Purpose

To establish a policy for an open data initiative for anyone using the City of Las Vegas (City) website.

Scope

Everyone accessing the City of Las Vegas data portal.

Glossary

Data: "Data" means statistical, quantitative, or qualitative information that is regularly maintained, created, or obtained by or on behalf of a City department.

Dataset: "Dataset" means a named collection of related records, with the collection containing data organized or formatted in a specif,rc or prescribed way, often in tabular form.

Department: "Department" refers to all departments, divisions, boards, commissions, agencies, and internal or external organizations responsible for providing and disseminating data.

Open Data: "Open data" means data that is available online, in open format, with no legal encumbrances on use or reuse.

Open Format: "Open format" means any widely accepted, nonproprietary, platform-independent, machine-readable method for formatting data, which permits automated processing of such data and facilitates search capabilities.

Protected Information: "Protected information" means any dataset or portion thereof to which a department may deny access pursuant to state law or City ordinance, or any other law or rule or regulation.

Publishable Data: "Publishable data" means data which is not protected or sensitive and which can be prepared for release to the public.

Sensitive Information: "Sensitive information" means any data which, if published on the Open Data Portal could raise privacy, confidentiality or security concerns or have the potential to jeopardize public health, safety or welfare to an extent that is greater than the potential public benefit of publishing that data.

Policy

Section 1: Open Data Initiative

A. The City will develop and implement practices that allow it to:

1. Proactìvely release all publishable City data, making it freely available in open formats, with no restrictions on use or reuse, and fully accessible to the broadest range of users to use for varying purposes;

2. Publish high quality, updated data with documentation (metadata) and permanence to encourage maximal use;

3. Establish and maintain an open data web portal that provides a central location for published City data;

4. Minimize limitations on the disclosure of public information while appropriately safeguarding protected and sensitive information; and</p>

5. Encourage innovative uses of the City's publishable data by departments, the public, and other partners.</span>

B. The development and implementation of these practices shall be overseen by the Open Data Steering Committee.

C. The requirements of this policy shall apply to any City department, office, administrative unit, commission, board, advisory committee or other division of City government ("department"), including the records of third party agency contractors that create or acquire information, records, or data on behalf of a City department.

Section 2: Governance

A. Implementation of the Open Data Initiative will be overseen by an Open Data Steering Committee, comprised of persons designated by the City Manager from internal City departments and external stakeholders, who will work with the City's departments to:

l. Identify a lead open data coordinator for each City department who will work with the Information Technologies Data Architect and will be responsible for managing that department's participation in the Open Data Initiative;

2. Oversee the creation of a comprehensive inventory of datasets held by each City department which is published to the Open Data Portal and regularly updated;

3. Develop technical requirements for publishing public datasets by departments;

4. Develop and implement a process for determining the relative level of risk and public benefit associated with potentially sensitive, non-protected information so as to make a determination about whether and how to publish it;

5. Develop and implement a process for prioritizing the release of datasets to the Open Data Portal which takes into account new and existing signals of interest from the public (such as the frequency of public records requests), the City's programmatic priorities, existing opportunities for data use in the public interest, and cost;

6. Establish processes for publishing datasets to the Open Data Portal, including processes for ensuring that datasets are reviewed for use-appropriate formats, quality, timeliness, and exclusion of protected and sensitive information;

7. Develop and oversee a routinely updated, public timeline for new dataset publication; and

8. Ensure that published datasets are available for download.

Section 3: Web Portal

A. The City will maintain an Open Data Portal where the City's publishable data will be publicly available.</p>

B. Datasets published on the Open Data Portal shall be placed into the public domain. Dedicating datasets to the public domain means that there are no restrictions or requirements placed on use of these datasets.</span>

C. The City shall assume no liability for the following: errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the public data provided on the Open Data Portal regardless of how caused; decisions made or actions taken by anyone using or relying upon such public data; or any virus or other damage to any computer that might occur during or as a result of accessing such portal or the public data therein.

D. The Open Data Portal and all public data published on the portal shall be subject to terms of use developed by the Information Technologies Department. Such terms of use shall be posted by the Information Technologies Department in a conspicuous place on the Open Data Portal. The City shall reserve the right to discontinue availability of content on the Open Data Portal at any time and for any reason.

Section 4: Open Data Report and Review

A. The Open Data Steering Committee shall submit an annual Open Data Report to the City Council by March 31 of each year, beginning in 201 7 . The report shall include an assessment of progress towards achievement of the goals of the City's Open Data Initiative, an assessment of the current scope of department compliance, a list of datasets currently available on the Open Data Portal , and a description and publication timeline for datasets envisioned to be published on the portal in the following year.

B. During the review and reporting period, the Open Data Steering Committee should also make suggestions for improving the City's open data management processes to ensure that the City continues to move towards the achievement of the policy's goals.