[1st-mile-nm] Santa Fe Open Data Article
Richard Lowenberg
rl at 1st-mile.org
Tue Oct 4 09:43:45 PDT 2016
The Santa Fe Open Data site will take time to develop, as user feedback
and data applications, as well as stories such as this help to create
more open, accurate and community-serving iterations.
RL
-------
http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/Santa-Fe-NM-Serves-Example-Cities-Need-More-than-Just-Open-Data.html
Santa Fe, N.M., Serves as an Example that Cities Need More than Just
Open Data Amid the push to make as much data public available as
possible, cities need to make sure people know what the numbers actually
mean.
BY DANIEL J. CHACÓN, THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN / OCTOBER 3, 2016
A new website designed to revolutionize how the public accesses and
understands the city of Santa Fe’s finances could leave people
scratching their heads and wondering whether spending is way up, despite
an insistence by city officeholders that money is tight.
The OpenGov website, launched in August by Mayor Javier Gonzales,
creates the impression that spending in the current fiscal year has
increased by about $63 million over last year.
This year’s budget is actually millions of dollars lower, but the
transparency website leaves taxpayers in the dark.
The website, http://www.santafenm.gov/opengov , offers no explanation of
the numbers it lists. It’s a collection of figures and charts that
require the public to navigate through other financial documents,
including audits and monthly reports, or to contact the city directly to
get the full story, a process that only adds to the bureaucracy at City
Hall.
(snip)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute 505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org www.1st-mile.org
---------------------------------------------------------------
More information about the 1st-mile-nm
mailing list