Collaboration, Focus Crucial to Government Data Work

Representatives of three state and local entities shared recently how their governments are working to do more with data.

During a discussion of “Unleashing the Power of Data: Overcoming Access Challenges” at the Bay Area Digital Government Summit* in Foster City, panelists Subrat Sharma, chief of data and digital services at the California Department of Housing and Community Development; Eudora Fleischman, IT Infrastructure and Security Division manager at the city of Fairfield; and Arti Tangri, Equity Data lead at the city of San Jose, explained to audience members how their governments are making comprehensive use of data.

The Aug. 30 panel, moderated by Rob Lloyd, San Jose deputy city manager, explored the unique role held by government IT leaders, a point the former chief information officer emphasized in opening the conversation.

“All of us in local government know the importance of good data culture,” Lloyd said, adding: “And if you’re going to have exceptional programs and services, the reality of our space is, our electeds, our appointeds, they see the world as it should be. We live in a world as it is; and as leaders, our job is to connect those two things, right?” Among the takeaways:

Realizing its power, officials at the California Department of Housing and Community Development have increasingly utilized their data since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our planning process has now focused a lot on the data that we are collecting from the cities and counties and trying to make sure that we can really plan in a fashion that we are getting the right kind of federal funding or state funding to improve the housing situation in our state altogether,” Sharma said.

Departments at the city of Fairfield, where IT Director and Chief Information Officer Savita Chaudhary was elevated in July to assistant city manager, have been working together on data analytics and processing data to unify it for strategic decision-making.

“It’s also helping us focus our efforts, just like [Subrat] said, with homelessness. It’s like, how many families has the city helped with its current efforts and its current programs? How can we partner with the county, at the county level, and do data sharing in a regional way?” Fleischman said.

Editor’s note: Find Chaudhary’s October 2022 One-on-One interview with Industry Insider — California here.

In San Jose, officials realized they needed a new perspective on using 311 to deal with abandoned vehicles and so-called vehicle blight, one that accounted for their use as residences by the homeless and for the pandemic simply leading to more parked cars.

“We analyze the data that we receive from our 311 platform to understand what are people reporting on [when] they report on abandoned vehicle issues, and [we’re] really trying to redesign the whole thing to address multiple issues that are being reported on,” Tangri said.

*The Bay Area Digital Government Summit is hosted by Government Technology magazine, a publication of e.Republic, which also produces Industry Insider — California.