Update: Project was moved to the 2024 City budget.
Original story
An idea brought to city council in 2018 about the idea of an open data system is back on the table for Mondays’ meeting with more than a $175,000 price tag.
The price includes a full-time data analyst position with benefits at $121,540, $45,000 for the cost of development and implementation and $10,000 per year for the open source, portal, subscription costs.
The bottom line is that the City is concerned with data that it is putting online and the legalities that surround the data being open to the public.
The concern is the storage of the information on specific servers, that open data can pose security risks and managing who interacts with the information.
If the initiative passed at council, it will not be implemented this year and will appear for the 2024 budget.
even if we accept the shaky premise that this is a good thing we should invest six figures in…
go shop around for quotes in Ontario and you will find that 40K barely buys an agency website from any domestic shop, but somebody promised to build an ambiguous open data portal at this price point???!?
either this was estimated by a greenhorn without oversight, or it’s a deliberate “ask for forgiveness, not permission” approach to get it moving and hit us with the real costs a few months down the line. we didn’t foresee XYZ dev/support costs, we need another $200,000. oops haha.
maybe we can learn a thing or two from Canada’s experience with ArriveCAN and start asking questions if the funding seems to be going to 1 or 2 guys who subcontract at insane margins?
What happened to all those new councilors who promised fiscal restraint? I guess they have attended the city mandatory course on SHEEP FOLLOWING.
$175,000 here $175,000 there another $1.4 million for the downtown fiasco.
When is the CAO and his spendthrift team going slowdown.
Citizens can’t print money like government.
PLEASE give us a break.
Mayor and council take charge!!!
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