Office of the Mayor

City of Seattle

Bruce Harrell, Mayor

Executive Order 2023-08: One Seattle Data Strategy

An Executive Order directing all City Departments to enact the One Seattle Data Strategy, a strategic data plan that includes the adoption of data use and governance standards, skills training, and shared best practices for purposes of collaboration, capacity-building, applied analytics, equity analysis, improved transparency, and community engagement. This approach will increase the City's capacity to communicate data in a way that is accessible, relevant, and usable for the public by strategically re-imagining Seattle's open data resources. By taking a user-centered approach to design Seattle's external and internal data sharing platforms, we will make Seattle's vast data resources more useful for both the public and City staff.

WHEREAS, the future of work in our economy is data-oriented, transparent, and collaborative. By advancing the way we collect, share, and leverage data, we can better address the multi-dimensional problems facing the City; and

WHEREAS, Executive Order 2016-01 directed departments to comply with an Open Data Policy that enables public use of data while protecting privacy and making City-generated data open by preference. Since the policy was enacted in 2016, technology and data use has evolved and there are new opportunities to meet public needs for accurate, easy to access data sources; and

WHEREAS, in 2015, Council Resolution 31613 created the Demographic Data Task Force to recommend strategies to standardize and disaggregate demographic data used by City departments in allocating resources and developing City policies, programs, and services; and

WHEREAS, in 2022 and in 2023, What Works Cities recognized Seattle with Gold Certification for the City's exceptional use of data to inform policy decisions, allocate funding, improve services, evaluate the effectiveness of programs, and engage residents. The Gold Certification status signifies cities who are "great at understanding data, tracking progress, and using data and evidence to make decisions"; and

WHEREAS, much of the data collected by the City are stored in ways which impede the ability to analyze and synthesize data to better allocate public resources. The availability of data is crucial to evaluating equity outcomes and improving the City's relationship with underserved communities; and

WHEREAS, the ability to share data among City departments and partner agencies is crucial to improving the provisioning, efficiency, and coordination of government services; and

WHEREAS, although Seattle is already a national leader on many data best practices, the City can institutionalize and expand this good work by building shared best practices and guidelines across departments to better serve residents, drive innovation, and enable fundamental change; and

WHEREAS, Mayor Harrell's collaborative One Seattle approach to data has also resulted in the City's inclusion in the City Data Alliance, a Bloomberg Philanthropies program, which helps local governments improve and expand their data use. Through this partnership, Seattle has developed a robust data strategy aligned with the One Seattle approach that includes formalizing demographic data collection standards, and citywide data governance standard; and

WHEREAS, the One Seattle Data Strategy is a three-year vision and action plan to advance our use of data, scale data excellence across the City, and achieve better and more equitable outcomes;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Bruce A. Harrell, Mayor of Seattle, hereby direct all the following actions:

1. All departments shall join the Mayor's three-year vision of a One Seattle Data Strategy to advance data literacy, governance, and shared best practices through the collective goals of improving effectiveness of City services, reducing inefficiencies, increasing data transparency, using data to address complex challenges, and to identify disparities and equity issues.

2. By December 31, 2024, in alignment with the One Seattle Data Strategy, all departments shall develop an implementation plan that addresses: 1) How they will use data to get better results for residents both today and in the future, 2) Who governs and can access their data, 3) Who will use their data and what skills and training do they need, 4) How will they communicate internally and externally using data, and 5) How will they ensure data accuracy, security, privacy, and appropriate disaggregation for greater data transparency.

3. The City shall form an interdepartmental work group for Demographic Data Standards to develop and refine guidelines and minimum standards for collecting data on race and ethnicity, and other demographic information. The process shall build upon previous work and include engaging departments; considering federal standards anticipated to be updated in 2024, researching standards that other jurisdictions and organizations have developed; and connecting with residents to get input, refine recommendations, and understand impact to communities to inform improvements to City programs and service delivery including budgetary recommendations and performance tracking.

4. An Executive Data Governance Board, reporting to the Mayor's IT Subcabinet, shall be established to set data policy and standards and make decisions that impact City departments broadly, such as data strategy and data sharing. All City Departments will designate a Data Governance Champion to participate in the board.

Questions about the implementation of this Executive Order should be directed to the Acting Director of Innovation & Performance, Madeliene Hernandez at Madeliene.Hernandez@seattle.gov.

Dated this 14th day of December, 2023.

Bruce A. Harrell

Mayor of Seattle