Bellevue to post data with hopes of innovation

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Bellevue Mayor Claudia Balducci announced plans for the city to post large quantities of city information online.

"It will just make data more easily available to the public to know what's going on in the city," said Balducci.

The city of Bellevue was selected to be a part of the "What Works Cities" initiative, by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to enhance the use of data and evidence in the public sector.

The city will get extra support and guidance for the open data push Balducci says the city was already embracing.

"This award will let us take that to the next level and do an even better job of providing service to our citizens," Balducci said.

The city believes the open data portal will help with transparency, posting information on budgets, spending, and projects. It will also boost efficiency, for example, using 911 call data to increase police and fire staffing just during peak hours of 911 calls.

Leaders hope to take advantage of the innovative minds in the area, who could use the data to create apps.

"We're really excited to see what residents come up with," said Sabra Schneider, who is in charge of information technology for the city of Bellevue.

Instead of posting a finished report, the city will also post the raw data.

"Folks will be able to manipulate that data themselves instead of having to rely on us to provide them that report," said Schneider.

Managing the information will make the city run more efficiently.

"Knowing what is happening in smaller parts of the city will help us deploy resources so much more effectively where they're needed as opposed to deploying them citywide," said Balducci.

For example, Balducci said if they could determine if one neighborhood was using the most water, they could target the message of conservation to that particular part of the city.

Tacoma also announced on Thursday it is part of the "What Works Cities" initiative. Seattle joined in August.

Bellevue plans to post the first batch of data in early 2016.  When asked what information might be posted first, KIRO-7 was given the following list.

Bellevue demographic data

•             Bellevue jobs by sector, cluster and major employment center

•             Demographic characteristics

•             Social characteristics

•             Economic characteristics

•             Housing characteristics

Business and finance data

•             Budget

•             Operating expenditures

•             Revenues

•             Expenditures by fund and CIP Projects

•             Payments by vendor

•             Awarded contract amount by vendor

•             CIP Projects

Other data

•             311 requests

•             Crime incidents

KIRO