The City of Chattanooga will encourage transparency to celebrate Open Data Day on March 7. On that day, citizens will be able to look into an online portal that will transparently show how the city’s finances work.
“We’re releasing a whole host of financial transparency datasets, and some other kinds of HR-related datasets,” said Tim Moreland. “This is one of the bigger releases we’ve ever done.”
For instance, those who look at the portal (which will be at www.chattadata.org) will be able to access a slew of statistics focused on how money was spent, and who wrote the checks that funded projects.
“We have something called Open Checkbook,” said Mr.
Moreland. “Every time someone writes a check, you can actually go and see what’s going on. The data goes from 2010 to 2020.”
Moreland did assure the Council that a person’s private information would not be accessible on the site. He did say “We do think this is going to be a very good transparency tool for citizens and folks and anyone who wants to see what is going on and understand what is happening.”
Other available information will be spotlight the demographics of employees in the city. Website visitors will be able to see the ratio of male-to-female employees, the racial breakdown of said employees, and a bevy of other statistics.
People will also be able to see how much money is spent paying salaries for different departments of Chattanooga’s government. After some initial confusion over whether or not the Council counted as the executive branch or not, it was declared that the City Council would actually go under the general government section.
“This is fabulous,” said Councilwoman Carol Berz, “because it brings a transparency that I’ve always wished for.”
Mr. Moreland did add the disclaimer that the information found on the site may not be completely accurate, as he said “The data is only as good as the data given to the system.” He stressed that there may be data the city does not possess yet.
He then went through several other sections, including one that showed information about traffic at various intersections around Chattanooga. While most of the information came from the center of the city, the information came from places as far as East Ridge. Mr. Moreland ended the presentation by reiterating the purpose of the site.
“The amount of data we’re going to be releasing is part of this Open Data Day celebration and we’re really excited about it,” said Mr. Moreland. “and I just wanted to share this with you.”