1 13 20 City Council Proceedings Official_SpecialCITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL SESSION
OFFICIAL
The Dubuque City Council met in special session at 6:00 p.m. on January 13, 2020 in
the second-floor Council Chambers of the Historic Federal Building, 350 W. 6th Street.
Present: Chairperson Shaw; Council Members Cavanagh, Roussell, Sprank; City Man-
ager Van Milligen, City Attorney Brumwell
Absent: Mayor Buol; Council Members Resnick and Jones
Chairperson Shaw read the call and stated this is a special session of the City Council
called for the purpose of conducting a work session on Socrata Open Performance.
WORK SESSION
Socrata Open Performance
City Performance Measures and Open Data Platform
Assistant City Manager Cori Burbach, Information Services Manager Chris Kohlmann,
and ICMA Management Fellow Rahim Akrami led an interactive work session with the
City Council on the new Socrata Open Performance platform and gather ed feedback
about how it can be most useful in the City Council’s decision-making process.
Topics included:
Creating an equitable community/organization of choice: resiliency, sustainability,
equity, compassion;
Becoming a high-performing organization;
2018-2020 Management Agenda high-priority item direction from City Council;
Background information on establishing the goal.
Designed to give residents what they need so they can do what they want:
o reliable information specific to residents,
o save money and resources,
o improve environment and local economy,
o improve health and wellness.
Insights from Smarter Sustainable Dubuque:
o importance of engagement around data ,
o simple, straightforward approach,
o data collection as part of normal operations.
Challenges & Opportunities:
o silo-ed reporting mechanisms,
o alignment of goals, performance measures, metrics,
o using data effectively to engage residents, partners, council, and staff;
solve problems; recommend policies,
o how well are we doing?
o setting targets and moving the needle.
Next steps.
The presenters did a live, interactive demonstration of the City’s open performance
portal from the City’s web site (https://opengov.cityofdubuque.org/) highlighting the data
available from the eight, categories and various departments.
The presenters responded to questions from the City Council with information on a
completion date; data sources and ownership; system security; who is expected to utilize
the tool; how the information is/can be used for furthering transparency in government,
goal setting; measuring outcomes, program and policy development/analysis; grant writ-
ing and developing partnerships for achieving community goals. Ms. Kohlmann stated
that an online tutorial is forthcoming and that a possible comment component can be
considered.
There being no further business, Chairperson Shaw declared the meeting adjourned
at 7:10 p.m.
s/Kevin S. Firnstahl, CMC, City Clerk