BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 573
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Date of Hearing: July 1, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW
Rudy Salas, Chair
SB
573 (Pan) - As Amended June 23, 2015
SENATE VOTE: 28-11
SUBJECT: Statewide open data portal.
SUMMARY: Establishes the position of Chief Data Officer (CDO)
in state government and requires the CDO to create a
publically-accessible statewide open data portal (statewide
portal) by January 1, 2017. Specifically, this bill:
1)Creates the CDO to be appointed by the Governor on or before
June 1, 2016, and makes the CDO reportable to the Secretary of
Government Operations.
2)Directs the CDO to create an inventory of all available public
data in the state by October 1, 2016.
3)Requires the CDO to work with the Department of Technology
(CalTech) to set up a publically-accessible statewide portal
by January 1, 2017. Authorizes the CDO to use the existing
data.ca.gov. portal to satisfy this requirement.
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4)Requires the CDO to publish a listing of all data that may be
provided to the public, subject to any state or federal
privacy laws or regulations, as specified.
5)Directs the CDO to create a "statewide open data roadmap," as
defined, after each agency assesses its data inventory, and to
publish the open data roadmap on the statewide portal.
6)Requires the CDO ensure that at least 150 data sets have been
published on the statewide portal by June 1, 2017.
7)Requires the statewide portal to include a link to the website
of any agency that publishes its data on that site, as
specified.
8)Directs the CDO to make the statewide portal available to any
local agency interested in using the site for publishing its
data.
9)Requires the CDO to publish an annual progress report for open
data within the state, beginning on or before January 1, 2018,
that includes an assessment of outcomes, innovations, and
state agency collaboration, and identifies whether there have
been resulting cost-savings.
10)Directs the CDO, in consultation with the Attorney General,
to publish a specified set of guidelines for use by each
agency by January 1, 2017.
11)Requires the CDO to convene an open data working group,
comprised of state agencies' data coordinators, by October 1,
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2016. Requires the working group to meet at least quarterly
to assess progress, discuss and recommend policies and
guidelines, share best practices, and coordinate data sharing.
12)Requires state agencies identified by the CDO to appoint a
data coordinator by August 1, 2016.
13)Directs each agency to identify any data set within the
agency and transmit the inventory to the CDO by October 1,
2016.
14)Directs each agency to create a plan for published inventory
by November 1, 2016, and requires the published inventory to
comply with all state and federal privacy laws and
regulations, as specified.
15)Authorizes agencies to apply for and accept public, private,
and non-profit funding for the purposes of developing,
implementing, or managing the statewide portal infrastructure
and software, and specifies that such funds would be expended
upon appropriation by the Legislature.
16)Defines various terms for purposes of this bill.
EXISTING LAW enacts the California Public Records Act which
expressly declares that "access to information concerning the
conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary
right of every person in this state" and generally requires
governmental records to be disclosed to the public, upon
request, unless an agency is exempted from doing so for a
specific reason.
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FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)Annual staffing costs of approximately $293,000 annually for
an appointed Chief Data Officer and one data liaison.
(General Fund)
2)Costs to create a statewide portal could be as low as $125,000
to update the existing data.ca.gov website, or approximately
$234,000 for CalTech to create the portal (General Fund).
Ongoing costs for maintenance and hosting could be in the
range of $500,000 to $1 million annually. These operating
costs could eventually be spread to participating agencies
through the Office of Technology Services rate structure, but
would initially be from the General Fund.
3)Unknown costs, potentially in the low millions, for over 200
state entities to appoint a data coordinator, identify data
sets, and create a plan for data publication. Additional cost
pressures, potentially in the millions, for over 200 agencies
to post available data. Actual costs, upon full
implementation, would vary among state agencies depending on
each entity's function and inventory of public data. For
illustrative purposes, the Office of Statewide Planning and
Development will spend approximately $220,000 this year on its
open data project. Smaller state entities with limited public
data sets would likely incur expenditures in the tens of
thousands annually, while larger agencies are likely to incur
costs in the hundreds of thousands annually. (General
Fund/Special Funds)
COMMENTS: According to the author, despite being the home of
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some of the most innovative technology ideas in the world,
California has not established itself as a leader in developing
a unified open statewide data policy. While some agencies
continue to develop their own databases, the author maintains
that California lacks a cohesive state policy that standardizes
this data and makes it readable across multiple platforms. The
author asserts that a state CDO would make one individual
responsible for making massive amounts of state-collected data
accessible to the public and that open data from state agencies
will ensure that California government is transparent,
efficient, and accountable.
California has an existing centralized data portal at
data.ca.gov. This portal contains more than 100 million
government data records from various state agencies, some of
which is in raw formats that can be reformatted and reused in
different ways. This bill allows the CDO to use the existing
data.ca.gov website as the statewide portal required in the
bill.
This bill also specifies various timelines by which the CDO
would be required to ensure data sets have been published on the
statewide portal, report on annual progress of open data efforts
within the state, and publish guidelines for each agency to use
when posting data.
A number of state entities, including four departments within
the Health and Human Services Agency and the State Controller's
Office, have already created their own open data portals.
Agencies that post their data sets on their own websites would
be required to publish their inventories on the statewide portal
and include a link to the portal on their own web sites.
RELATED LEGISLATION: SB 1215 (Ting) would have established the
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California Open Data Act and would have created the position of
the CDO to work with state agencies and experts to formulate a
California Open Data Standard and a centralized Internet Web
portal for public access to data from state agencies. SB 1215
was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
DOUBLE-REFERRAL: Should this bill pass this committee, it will
be referred to the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer
Protection.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Accela
City of Los Angeles
Data Transparency Coalition
Green, Renewable, Organic and Water Holdings, LLC
Health Officers Association of California
Los Angeles County Business Federation
Milken Institute California Center
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Socrata, Inc.
Sunlight Foundation
Urban Strategies Council
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Cassie Royce / A. & A.R. / (916)
319-3600