BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1215
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Date of Hearing: April 21, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PRIVACY AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1215
(Ting) - As Amended March 26, 2015
SUBJECT: California Open Data Standard
SUMMARY: Establishes the California Open Data Act; requires the
Governor to appoint a Chief Data Officer (CDO); and requires the
CDO to work with state agencies and experts to create a
California Open Data Standard (CODS) and a centralized Internet
web portal for the public to access public data from state
agencies. Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines "public data" as all data collected by a state agency
that is subject to disclosure under the California Public
Records Act (PRA).
2)Creates a CDO, appointed by the Governor and serving under the
Secretary of the Government Operations Agency, and requires
the CDO to:
a) Inventory all available public data in the state;
b) Establish the CODS;
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c) Publish, by March 1, 2016, a technical standards manual
for state agencies; and
d) Establish, by July 1, 2016, a Data Working Group
comprised of a data coordinator from each major state
agency and two open data experts.
3)Specifies that the CODS must require:
a) A format that permits public notification of all
updates;
b) Updates as often as necessary to preserve the integrity
and usefulness of the data;
c) Availability of data without user registration or
licensing or other restrictions; and
d) Data to be searchable using external technology.
4)Specifies that the legal policies for the CODS must state that
information is provided for informational purposes only; that
the state does not warrant completeness, accuracy, content or
fitness of any particular purpose; that the state is not
liable for any deficiencies in the data; and that all data is
considered in the public domain for copyright purposes.
5)Requires each state agency to:
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a) Submit to the CDO by July 1, 2016, a strategic plan and
a strategic enterprise application plan, including:
i) A description of the agency's public data;
ii) A summary of the agency will use its budget,
capital expenditures, contracts, planned IT and
telecommunications projects, can be utilized to support
CODS;
iii) Details on savings and efficiencies.
iv) A prioritization of public data to be added to the
centralized Internet web portal by January 1, 2017, based
on the goals of increasing agency accountability and
responsiveness; improving public knowledge of the agency,
furthering the mission of the agency, creating economic
opportunity, responding to public demand for online data.
a) Release data to the public via the centralized Internet
web portal and report to the CDO if the agency is unable to
make data available, stating the reasons it is unable to do
so.
6)Permits local governments to adopt the CODS.
7)Makes various legislative findings.
EXISTING LAW:
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1)Establishes the Department of Technology (CalTech) within the
Government Operations Agency, supervised by the Director, who
also serves as the state's Chief Information Officer (CIO).
(Government Code (GC) Section 11545 and 12803.2)
2)Requires the Director, among other things, to produce an
annual IT strategic plan to guide the acquisition, management,
and use of information technology (IT). (GC 11545(c))
3)Requires CalTech to approve, monitor and oversee state agency
IT projects from start to finish. (Public Contract Code
Section 12100 et seq. and GC Section 11546 et seq.)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of this bill . This bill is intended to increase
government transparency by expanding public access to state
agency records and databases to the extent such records and
data are already required to be open to the public under the
PRA. The bill requires state agencies to make public data
available in electronic formats that are easy to access,
download, analyze and interpret. This measure is sponsored by
the Data Transparency Coalition.
2)Author's statement . According to the author, "Access to
public records is a cumbersome process for people and
organizations that use them. Many times requests are granted
with paper or PDF versions of data that is not easily used or
analyzed. The intent of public records is not to create a more
difficult process by having unusable data, but to increase
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access for public consumption."
"We know open data leads to more accountability and efficiency.
As the home of Silicon Valley, California should be an open
data leader. Data crunching technology is readily available
and inexpensive, making it easier than ever for citizens to
assess the performance of their government. We must seize the
potential of the next frontier in open government. State
agencies, including the California Health and Human Services
Agency and the State Controller's office have shown leadership
in the open data movement by easing access to digital, usable
data formats on their websites. We must develop our open data
portal - www.data.ca.gov - to its potential so that the public
can find information about the environment, corrections,
consumer affairs and more in a standard format for easy use.
"We have seen how open data works in communities across the
state. Local governments have also been champions of open
records and public meetings. According to the U.S. City Open
Data Census, a number of California cities are leading this
movement. San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento, Oakland, Los
Angeles, and many others are among the nation's leading cities
that have increased transparency in government with open
data."
3)California's existing open data portal . California has a
centralized data portal at Data.CA.gov. The portal contains
state government data in raw, machine-readable formats that
can be reformatted and reused in different ways. According to
the Data.CA.gov website, more than 100 million data records
are available through the portal including: vital statistics
such as population, birth, death, and marriage data; more than
50 million data records on education; California port
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import/export data; state highway traffic data; data on
vehicle accidents, fatalities, and injuries; tourism data;
water resource data; and geospatial data. And in 2010,
Data.CA.gov launched a search function for several of the
datasets, charts, and graphs. The Data.CA.gov datasets are
available in variety of open formats including CSV, XLS, KML,
TXT, and XML.
The California Health and Human Services Agency and the State
Controller's Office have been leaders among state agencies in
the effort to move toward open data standards for public data.
This bill seeks to require all state agencies to provide
centralized access to all public data in an open data format.
4)What is the role for the state CIO and CalTech ? The bill
requires the CDO to consult with subject matter experts from
"all state agencies," organizations specializing in technology
and innovation, the academic community, and other interested
groups. The bill also requires the CDO to establish a working
group with two open data experts and representatives from the
major state agencies: Business, Consumer Services, and Housing
Agency; Transportation Agency; California Environmental
Protection Agency; California Health and Human Services
Agency; Labor and Workforce Development Agency; Natural
Resources Agency; Government Operations Agency; and
Corrections and Rehabilitation Agency.
The author and the Committee may wish to consider whether the
bill should require the state CIO to serve on the Data Working
Group, which will develop the CODS, given that the state CIO
and CalTech have not only the expertise but also the ultimate
responsibility for the electronic data held by state agencies.
Alternatively, the author and the Committee may wish to
consider whether this bill should require the CDO to serve
under and report to the state CIO, who would then report to
the Secretary of the Government Operations Agency.
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5)Are the timelines feasible ? This bill requires the CDO to
publish a technical standards manual the CODS for state
agencies to use by March 1, 2016, i.e. within 60 days of the
effective date of this bill. The author and the Committee may
wish to consider whether a 60-day deadline for publishing a
technical manual is feasible given the need to first assess
the different types of public data held by state agencies and
then work collaboratively with state agencies and outside
experts on developing the technical manual.
This bill also requires state agencies to finish strategic
plans on implementing the CODS by July 1, 2016, i.e., 120 days
after the CODS technical manual should be published. The
author and the Committee may wish to consider whether a three
or even a six-month timeline for creating an agency-wide
strategic plan on CODS is feasible.
6)Privacy concerns . This bill only applies to data subject to
the PRA; however, the CDO and state agencies will need to be
extremely careful in establishing the methods of converting
agency databases - or database extracts - to an open data
standard and posting that data to the centralized Internet web
portal for public use. Many public records are forms or
applications that contain personally identifiable information
(PII), such as Social Security numbers, health information,
credit card information and more.
The author and the Committee may wish to consider whether the
bill should require state agencies to address in their
strategic plans the issue of identifying and redacting PII
from the public data before it is made available on the
centralized web portal.
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7)Arguments in support . The Data Transparency Coalition, the
bill's sponsor, states, "AB 1215 is a significant step into
making California one of the most data transparent states in
the nation?There are numerous examples of other states and
cities that have already implemented an open data portal to
report their data. San Francisco's access to real-time transit
information resulted in decreased 311 call volume, which saved
the city over $1 million a year?[O]ther states have saved
millions of dollars by reducing Freedom of Information Act
requests?Creating a state-wide open data portal will assist
citizens in becoming more engaged in government, as well as
third parties crating useful Apps which will pay huge
dividends by creating a data platform that has the potential
of becoming transformational."
8)Related legislation . SB 573 (Pan) would require the Governor,
on or before January 1, 2016, to appoint a CDO, who would
report to the Secretary of Government Operations. The bill
would require the CDO to create the statewide open data portal
to provide public access to data sets from agencies within the
state. The bill would require each agency, as defined, to
appoint a data coordinator, who would be responsible for
compliance with these provisions. The bill would require any
data published on the statewide open data portal or other open
data portal operated by an agency to comply with all state and
federal privacy laws and regulations. SB 573 is currently
pending in the Senate Governmental Organization Committee
where it will be heard on April 28, 2015.
9)Double-referral . This bill was double-referred to the
Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee,
where it was heard on April 15, 2015, and passed on a 9-0
vote.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Data Transparency Coalition
Opposition
None received.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennie Bretschneider/ P. & C.P. / (916)
319-2200