Launching Digital #MoCo

We live in an era of great change. But can Montgomery County government keep pace? 

That is a big question facing our county’s leaders. We want Montgomery County to be recognized as an innovation capital, where the government, the private sector, and community leaders work together on our biggest challenges.

In that spirit, the County Council recently passed a bill that I crafted called the Open Data Act. It will require County Government to be more sophisticated in how we collect and manage data and it will establish a new policy of sharing valuable data openly with the public. The new law is a foundation for a new digital strategy for Montgomery County, which I have helped formulate with County Executive Ike Leggett and his superb team.

What does it all mean for you?

• The county budget is now on the web in remarkable detail. Citizen analysts will be able to manipulate the data and even casual users can create their own visualizations using our online tools.  The smallest budget details are searchable for each department, including the salary for all county employees. In time, every department will have a public data set.

• Use our new 311 mobile app to request county services. Want to report a road repair or fallen tree limb, request bulk trash pickup, you name it -- use 311 mobile wherever you are.

• 3rd party app developers will improve services. Across the country, app developers are figuring out how to create valuable services for consumers based on government data. From transportation planning apps to real estate and tax apps, you are going to benefit from letting the private sector leverage county data to create apps.

• Your voice can be heard in new ways. Already I talk with residents daily on my Facebook page.  You may also interact on Facebook with the county police department, fire & rescue, libraries, regional centers, and more. The county also has a new tool for collaborating with residents, called engageMontgomery, where you may submit your own ideas for county priorities and “second” those submitted by others. Its a great tool that government agencies are using all across the country to garner input from residents.

• More innovation jobs in Montgomery County. MoCo has one of America’s most highly skilled workforces, we have dynamic IT and biotech companies. Striving for leadership in digital government will send a positive message to the private sector and the county council is specifically looking at how we can use these new tools to foster economic development.

• Next steps and how YOU can get involved. We need a forum where local government officials can join with experts, programmers, journalists and most importantly, citizens like you. I have proposed that the County begin planning a summit where participants can exchange ideas, advocate for issues, leverage open government content, and provide input for better local governing practices. This is a chance to help shape the community around us. The planning is still in initial stages and we will need help from people like you. Please reply to this email if you are interested.

In launching the new digital government agenda, the County Executive released a Digital Roadmap that says, “this strategy aims to be disruptive.”

That’s exactly right. We need to disrupt and create. New ideas will help us drive change in this county for the better.

The Montgomery County Open Data Act of 2012

Today, the Montgomery County Council will vote on the Montgomery County Open Data Act of 2012; which I authored, serving as the Council’s Lead for Digital Government.  The bill received a unanimous committee recommendation and is co-sponsored by almost every member of the County Council.  

The bill will completely change how Montgomery County collects, manages and publishes data.  The bill:

1. Establishes an open data policy for county government, with the intention of publishing a comprehensive data set for each department
2. Requires creation of an implementation plan as a regulation that must be approved by the Council, to ensure there is no gap between the policy goal and actual implementation
3. Mandates publishing results of public records requests submitted under the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA), a first for any local government

The legislation is an important step in building the information infrastructure of future innovations in service delivery and resident engagement.  We are undertaking other steps as well, some of which may be unique for local or state government.  

The new open data legislation was developed in close collaboration with County Executive Isiah Leggett.  Mr. Leggett established CountyStat and 311 systems in 2007, two foundational and challenging innovation practices for local government.  Open data was a natural next step.  As a result of his support for the legislation and participation in crafting it, our county’s open data program is not controlled or supported by just one branch of government, but rather has the support of a unified county government -- legislative and executive.

To put this legislation in context, a broader open government initiative is also underway in Montgomery County, coordinated across government entities that are not legally under the aegis of the county government or subject to decisions made by the County Council.  Our school system is technically a state agency, as is our parks and planning agency and also our community college, while our Housing Opportunities Commission is a quasi federal agency.  With support from our technology committee I urged them in this direction, and now all are participating in developing a unified open government strategy.  This is possible thanks to the county’s long-standing Interagency Technology Policy Coordinating Committee, which was founded by the County Council in 19XX.  Their high-level work-plan is here.

As a result of my initial discussions about open data with the executive branch last year, the county has already published open data sets on a Socrata platform.  A new openMontgomery website will launch shortly with many high value data sets, including the entire county budget, financial information on expenditures, and more.  

The suggestion to place most of the definitions in the legislation in an “implementation plan” came, not surprisingly, from the executive branch.  As the executive branch explained the complexities in how each department would implement the open data policy, it made sense to me to let them draft a regulation that will govern how the data is collected and published for each department.  So long as the County Council has the ability to change that implementation plan regulation (which we do), I concluded that it would be better to let them take the lead in defining precisely how to proceed.  My support for this approach was particularly informed by open government advocates who pointed out to me that just rushing to put up data up for the sake of data is expensive, wasteful, and inefficient.  Proceeding deliberately and collaboratively makes more sense.

The real benefit to this method is that the County Council will soon have a plan to review that will go into greater detail than the council could have prepared as a policy, and we will be able to modify that plan.  Based on what I have learned about how challenging it can be for a department to implement open government principles, I suspect there is a real gap in the intentions of a jurisdiction’s open data law and how it is implemented.  The core question of what counts as “data” at each different department or agency is something that it would be impossible for legislation to truly define.  And how will a data set change and expand over time as the county invests more resources in the effort?  Those are the questions that really matter, and now the Council will have a say in the implementation.

My goal was simply to establish a data set for each department that would help the council as well as residents measure the work of that department and its governing policies; as well as provide data that app developers would find useful.  It is, of course, the developers who will take the data and use it to improve access to services by creating new applications.  

The second part of the legislation requires the County Government and County Council to publish the results of public record requests on the internet.  Our government is subject to the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA), which provides a clear right to residents to demand information from the government.  In practice, however, this right is not effective, according to the State Integrity Investigation.  

While that investigation did not focus on Montgomery County but rather on the provisions of the statute, the Open Data Act will provide a new mechanism to ensure effective implementation in Montgomery County by posting MPIA requests on a county website, the status of the response to that request, and then the response itself.

Implementation of this standard will again be defined in a plan that will be reviewed by the Council, in order to help us avoid problems that beset the Port Authority of New York, which established a similar policy.  As far as I am aware, Montgomery County will be the first local government in the country to establish this practice.  No states have established it, nor have any Federal agencies.

When it comes to innovation and creativity, dynamism and progressivism, I want to see Montgomery County recognized among San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Boston, New York City, Seattle and similar metro areas with strong innovation economies. Not only do these areas provide global leadership in the private sector but their local governments are breaking new ground with technology and services.

Montgomery County has what it takes to compete, there is no question. We have one of America’s strongest IT and biotech sectors, we have one of the world’s most educated and highly skilled workforces.

But we can do better to position ourselves regionally, nationally, globally.  That is why I have put so much effort into my role as Council Lead for Digital Government, and I believe the Open Data Act will be an important step forward.

Daily Journal 07/09/12: Wheaton, Digital Government, Pepco

On Monday, I met Larry Couch, chair of the Justice and Advocacy Council (JAC) of Montgomery County. The JAC is a Catholic organization that advocates for our low-income. We talked about a variety of issues, including the Working Families Income Supplement, a tax benefit that helps our low-income families by supplementing their wages. The JAC fought to create the original State Earned Income Tax Credit, which the county matches with its own local tax credit.  We talked about working together to get the county to a 1-1 match of dollars provided by the state (today we add about 75% of the amount). 

Next, Councilmember Navarro and I convened a discussion about Wheaton public safety issues with Chief Manger, and Mid-County Regional Services Center Director, Ana Lopez van Balen, and their teams. We reviewed progress from the Wheaton Public Safety Audit of 2004 and parameters for a new public safety initiative there. Our goal is to integrate these elements of the Wheaton Public Safety Task Force into the larger effort of Wheaton Revitalization. More soon.

In the afternoon, I attended a GO Committee on IT issues. As the Council lead for Digital Government, I have been working to accelerate the county’s digital strategy. I was very happy to review the substantial agenda that has been put forward by our agencies on open data, digital citizenship, data visualization, social media, mobile platforms, and other areas– and not only for county government but also MCPS, HOC, MNCPPC, and Montgomery College. These groups will be working together on a range of initiatives in these areas and residents will begin to see the results soon.

In the evening, I met with the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board. We talked about Pepco and who has accountability for ensuring that we have decent electric power here in the County. The point I stressed to the group is that I believe its time for the Governor to give us a fresh start at the PSC.  The PSC is the only entity in the state that has direct authority over Pepco.  They are an independent state agency and their members are appointed by the Governor. The Governor needs to appoint new members because these members are not getting the job done. 

Daily Journal (June 22, 2012): Your Council on Video

Today began with continued work on our digital strategy; my new staffer, Arthi Subramanian, is working hard to assemble our thoughts into a road-map that we can publish and help guide our actions in the future.

As part of that effort, I am working to find money to televise 100% of the county council’s “worksessions.” A worksession is essentially a committee meeting and, as my colleague Valerie Ervin remarked, it is where most of the decisions are made on most of the issues that come through the county council. The exception is issues that are more controversial and are not resolved in committee, and therefore have full council debate and amendments. The share of those issues is small compared to the items that get worked out in committee and then placed on the “consent agenda.”

Unfortunately, the council does not usually have time to discuss the items on the consent agenda, so significant policy issues are passed with a vote at the council but no discussion.

For this reason, the Government Operations Committee (of which I am a member along with Valerie Ervin and chair Nancy Navarro) decided this year that we should televise 100% of the committee worksessions – to promote transparency and also create a very useful video archive of county council deliberations. Today we only take video of about half of the worksessions (they are all recorded by audio).

Another recommendation I am working on is better using a powerful video tool that we have, called Granicus, to “tag” all of the content from the council deliberations. Already, you can come to the council website and search the video by keyword---the search results will pull up parts of council meetings and worksessions that used that word.

Want to see what every council member has said in a public meeting about public safety, transportation, etc? This tool will allow you to find the answers. Pretty handy, right? The purpose of getting 100% of the worksessions is to make that keyword or tagging tool as useful as possible, and then to make it a more prominent feature of the Council website. This is one important step in improving our legislative transparency.

If you have any thoughts about how these systems can be improved, please let me know.

Daily Journal, March 14 (Digital Gov)

Today started with an impressive briefing by leaders in the tech sector on the topic of Montgomery County and the new economy. We talked with a venture capitalist, Brad Burnham, who urged us to create urban areas where young tech workers want to live, promote community banking to increase lending for small businesses, and use our data effectively to foster new tech start-ups. These are all initiatives I am working on and excited about, so I was very encouraged by his comments.

David Lieber from Google talked about ways that we can partner with the company, particularly with Google Transit but also Maps, Apps and other areas. We’re already started with Google but need to build a more effective partnership.

Wayne Jackson, CEO of Sonatype, a cyber security firm, talked about how he moved his company here from Silicon Valley. His comments were particularly interesting as we discovered a tension between the advice of Burnham, who said that young tech workers are less interested in schools, and Jackson, who said that he located his company here precisely because the workers are more loyal and rooted in the county. Jackson said our quality school system is essential for fostering the kind of workforce that he needs to have a successful company. He targets a different workforce, essentially, that has tech skills but won’t jump ship for the next start-up quite as easily when times get tough. In truth I assume you need both layers for a robust economy and in my view MoCo doesn’t have enough of the younger types to have the right balance, but according to Mr. Jackson we don’t want to swing the pendulum too far in that direction.

Over lunch I sat with my team to talk about upcoming priorities, strategies, and legislation that I am preparing to introduce.

In the afternoon, I had a discussion with a current events group at Magruder High School. I left that meeting invigorated by the unique and amazing qualities of our MCPS students.

Rushing back to the office, I then met with the county executive’s team to talk about our progress on digital government. We will soon be rolling out an open data platform (as Burnham was urging this morning) and an array of other initiatives that I have been planning with the Executive Branch. They are doing a superb job getting this initiative going.

After some time chewing over various issues with my chief of staff, I headed down to Glen Echo for the Montgomery County Commission on Children and Youth’s awards event, where they honored the generous volunteers who do so much to support youth programs in the county.

Hiring a Digital Gov Staffer

I’m hiring a policy assistant who will focus on digital government and engagement, in addition to other public policy and community organizing duties. Qualifications include a keen understanding of current developments in the digital gov field and the ability to help the council office form policy and legislative initiatives as well as implement digital campaigns. Please contact me for details. Thanks!

Daily journal, 12-7-11 (MCPS budget)

The big issue of the day was the budget proposal from the new superintendent of MCPS, Dr. Joshua Starr. I talk to Josh when I can at events in the community, and I've been impressed by his approach but also appreciative of his educational and child development philosophy. He has offered a specific critique of the prevailing dogma around education reform and No Child Left Behind that I and many parents also share.

A "budget address" by the MCPS superintendent is, for some reason, a very big affair. Hundreds of MCPS stakeholders gather to hear a presentation that feels sort of like a (government) version of Steve Jobs unveiling the next iPhone. I wonder if the County Executive has ever thought about doing something like that. The benefit of the address is it gives the chief executive the chance to explain the values, mission and strategy of the organization. The county government could use an exercise like that.

Theatrics aside, the new MCPS budget is a constructive proposal and one that I hope will get all parties working together in the right frame of mind. There are very modest compensation increases for MCPS employees, who have gone 3 years now without a raise. My hope is that the increase can be generally matched for county agencies (i.e., Department of Transportation, HHS, Libraries, and so on).

I don't know if we can afford any improvements yet because we don't know how much money we will have to work with. Nevertheless, the proposal is certainly reasonable and provides a good basis for discussion going forward.

One issue that we will have to work on is the $26 million state aid penalty resulting from the council's reduction in per-pupil local spending. The reduction was necessary to bring spending down from levels that were sustained only by revenues from a real estate and financial markets bubble. If the state does not waive the penalty, the council will have to examine ways to offset it. At the same time, competing priorities such as police, fire service, parks, libraries and more - which also have taken heavy hits during the recession - will need adequate funding. So we will have a lot on our plate in coming months! Please keep in touch as we put together our budget.

Daily Journal, 11-14-11

First thing this morning I was briefed by council policy experts on the draft of their report on MCPS "category 12" expenditures. You'll recall this as the debate from earlier in the year where the council reduced funding on health spending for MCPS and recommended that MCPS absorb the cut by reducing the share MCPS pays for health premiums by 5% (from 95% to 90% for HMO's, for example). MCPS did not implement the council's recommendation and instead absorbed the cut in funding by tapping a large surplus in the benefit fund that the council was not fully aware of. The council will receive the final report at the end of November.

Then into a Gov Ops committee for several hours of nuts and bolts discussion on technology and the county cable plan. The cable discussion was particularly interesting. I worked hard last year to find several million dollars in savings in the cable plan in order to fund other critical priorities in the county, such as public safety, libraries, parks, and health services.

The county collects 5% of the revenue that telecomm companies (Verizon, Comcast, RCN) earn from using our right of way (i.e, wires on our streets, etc). The question is, how should we use this money?

One of my first priorities, consistent with the Open Government agenda that the Gov Ops committee has been developing, is transparency in government. Today, not all council committee work sessions are recorded on video, and I think they should be.

What principles do you think should guide these discussions? What do you know about our cable operations today and what suggestions do you have?

The outcome of the committee meeting was potentially profound, as one of the managers for the MCPS cable operations, Dick Lipsky, stated that we need to stop focusing so much on what cable has been in the past and start asking ourselves, if we were going to build it today, what would it be?

That is exactly the right kind of thinking and it is what we are going to pursue.

Question for you

Is there something you'd like me to write about here at this blog? My
reasoning for doing this journal is to promote openness and
transparency --- so residents can learn more about what I do on a
daily basis. I hope this will demystify the Council to some degree and
encourage more people to get involved.

I am not planning to write extensively about particular issues here
but if you want me to address something, send a note to
Councilmember.Riemer(at)montgomerycountymd.gov and I will do my best.

Daily journal, 10-03-11

First up, breakfast with my friend and now member of the Montgomery
County Planning Commission, Casey Anderson. I first met Casey when I
knocked on his door in 2005 during my campaign for council, district
5. He was involved with a few local officials (Raskin) and advocacy
campaigns. We had a pretty involved discussion about county issues
right there on his door step and we've never stopped talking. Funny
enough he was in Clarksburg with Commission Chair Francoise Carrier
while I was there with Parks Director Mary Bradford on Friday. We
decided to tour together in the upcounty to mull over planning issues.

Then a meeting with Roger Berliner and Dan Hoffman to talk about
technology and OpenGov issues. I relayed some of what I learned last
week talking with Bryan Sivak, Maryland's new Chief Innovation
Officer, who had a lot of great ideas about how to move forward.

Then into scheduling discussions and keeping up with the outstanding
legislative work by my team. We have a public hearing tomorrow on an
economic development bill I have sponsored.

Next, a committee meeting for T/E where we got a briefing on road
maintenance. I put my OpenGov learning into practice, requesting that
our DOT provide a map showing residents the condition and maintenance
schedule for county roads. We get so many inquiries on this issue that
I think there may be a big audience for the map. Our DOT does a superb
job with limited funds, making wise investments about how to maintain
the roads, in my view. But residents have to contact an official in
order to learn that kind of information and we could provide it
openly.

Last, some studying for tomorrow's vote on the new CR zone. I am
excited about the implications of this zone for our commercial areas.
I think it will improve our environmental impact, enhance resident
input into development and promote transparency, facilitate more
growth in the right places rather than in traffic-generating sprawl
locations, require developers to provide more community benefits, and
make for much better places to live.

Daily journal, 09-20-11

Today, two highlights: first, I shared a memo with my committee chair at the Government Operations committee, Nancy Navarro, and my other council colleagues, about some ideas I have for moving ahead on open government issues. I am excited that there is general interest to move ahead on this front and I think we are going to make some real waves. More on that soon.

Second, a briefing that I requested from council staff about the CR zone. I have been following developments at the Planning, Housing and Economic Development committee very closely. The committee members have been working hard on a commercial zone that can make for quality community life and strong economic development particularly in Takoma/Langley, Kensington and Wheaton, where we have master plans up for approval this year. Because these are complex issues and there are a lot of very smart people working on them, the debate has been very contentious. The council received recommendations from the Planning Board for the zone and the question before us now is how much to modify them. The primary issue at hand is that if we are going to spur quality development in these areas of the county that have not shared in the economic progress of, say, the 355 corridor, we have to make that development affordable or else nothing is going to happen.

We are trying to maximize the community benefits while minimizing the barriers to investment. Its tricky.

As always, please share your thoughts or questions and I'll try to respond.

Daily journal, 08-31-11

Today was busy with meetings. Starting with former County Executive Doug Duncan, whom I always get great stories from about councils and issues past. We talked about the curfew legislation. My thinking at this stage is that there are some changes that are needed and we'll see how that shapes up. My aide Adam Pagnucco is also doing some research on how effective curfews are in reducing crime. Then, a discussion that I convened with Patrick Lacefield and Leslie Hamm of 311 and leaders from Senior Montgomery to discuss seniors transportation issues, and particularly how seniors can access information about what options are available to them, from bus service to free rides by volunteers. I was very happy with the discussion and the 311 folks valued the input. We are going to get back together to talk about how to make seniors more aware that they can access transportation by calling 311. Additionally, several meetings relating to the "OpenGov" issues I am developing (which of course 311 is a key piece), including Sean Carr and Jeanne Ellinport. One thing I am concluding is that while Montgomery County wins "e" awards in the county competitions, we are boxing below our weight, as the saying goes. We should be measuring ourselves against big cities --- Boston, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, DC. The cities provide a range of services closer to what we provide for our residents, and many of them are ahead of us in providing services, information, engagement, transparency with digital. We need to move towards a more citizen-centered digital strategy for the county.

Daily journal, 08-17-11

Today I continued working on my open government project. I am trying to figure out how to tackle our county's digital strategy. My plan is to do a general review of what we are doing and then make some specific recommendations for improvement, working closely with our excellent Department of Technology Services. I also met with a police officer to talk about morale in the force. We have made some tough decisions affecting our police officers this year and while I am fully confident in all of my votes, I am concerned the rank-and-file officers are not hearing that their county government stands behind them. People who put their lives on the line shouldn't have to wonder if they are valued by the county government or, by implication, the residents they serve so well.

Daily journal, 08-16-11

Today I continued research on open government and technology issues,
coming across some interesting advocacy from Phil Ting, an official in
SF, and an ambitious report produced by New York City about their
roadmap for digital (sorry no links in this post, hopefully in the
future). I asked our county tech group to come up with new ideas for
311 on our county website. For example, we could have a 311
livechat... A wiki tool for answers that are knowledge based and a
rating service for service responses by the county, all published
openly...

Especially in a time of fiscal crisis, we should focus on making more
efficient use of our existing services.