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Policy committee signals support for audit of city data practices over housing development review
Summary
The council’s Policy Committee discussed two audit topics — the city’s data practices process and the housing development process — and indicated unanimous support for prioritizing a data practices review in the audit committee’s upcoming decision.
The St. Paul City Council Policy Committee heard competing proposals for the audit committee’s next review and signaled support for prioritizing a study of the city’s data practices process.
Audit committee staff member Nia Vang presented two candidate topics: (1) the data practices process, prompted by increased data request volume, recent court findings of noncompliance, and staff interest in improved procedures; and (2) revisiting a 2022 review of the housing development process to assess whether prior recommendations had been implemented and to examine departmental coordination for developers.
"The first is the data practices process, and the second is revisiting the housing development process," Vang said when introducing the two options. She noted the 2020 implementation of a data management tool under the city clerk’s office and said the number and cost of data requests and related staff time have risen.
Why this matters: Council members said a data practices audit could reduce liability and staff burden, increase public transparency, and respond to recent judicial rulings and administrative concerns. The housing development review remains important to some members but was viewed as potentially better coordinated with ongoing and planned economic-development work.
Committee discussion and outcome
Council members, including Johnson, Podkotsky and Jones, discussed the relative urgency of the two topics. Several members said the data practices topic affects all departments and residents and could therefore produce systemwide benefits; others reaffirmed the long-standing need to simplify the development process for new and smaller developers. Council President Baker summarized the committee’s sense of direction: “I’m hearing strong support for the data practices process.”
No formal roll-call vote was recorded in the transcript; committee members asked staff to forward the committee’s input to the audit committee for its July meeting and decision. Vang described available inputs the audit committee will use, including a rubric comparing candidate topics by risk, feasibility and likely impact.
Background details
- The data practices topic traces to a 2020 data management implementation and to recent concerns following Ramsey County judicial findings that the city had been noncompliant in responding to data requests. Vang also noted two personnel requests related to data practices that had been submitted for the council’s consideration.
- The 2022 housing development review was performed with consultant Baker Tilly; staff said the earlier study did not fully achieve its intended outcomes and that the 2025 revisit could include additional departments and community input.
Next steps
The audit committee will take the Policy Committee’s input into account and is expected to select a topic at its July meeting. Policy Committee members said they expect the committee to proceed with a data practices review as the next audit topic, and staff will provide the audit committee with the additional context requested by members.
Ending
Policy Committee members said both topics remain valid audit candidates; several members asked that the housing development process be reconsidered soon after the data practices review or in coordination with other economic-development studies.
