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City IT outlines Esri-based performance dashboard to increase transparency
Summary
Roanoke's CIO proposed an Esri-based city performance dashboard to pull existing department data (public safety, permits, finance) into public and internal views; council endorsed the concept and asked about data sources, access and staffing, with a preliminary Nov. 1 timeline referenced.
Vanessa Boer, the city’s chief information officer, and Jared Anthony, an applications IT manager, presented a proposal to create a city performance dashboard using the city’s existing Esri license to display metrics like public-safety response times, permit activity and budget-to-expenditure comparisons.
Boer said dashboards can be public-facing or internal and emphasized that much of the required data (public safety, permits, finance) is already captured in city systems. Jared showed examples used by other cities (Arlington, Tempe) to demonstrate visibility into goals and trend history. "So as long as the department is already inputting it into their system, we would not have them enter it again," Jared said, describing data pulls from existing back-end systems.
Council members asked where the dashboard would be hosted, who would have access, whether Virginia localities use similar tools and how much staff time is required. Boer said the primary resource cost would be staff time to consolidate and maintain data; because the city already has the Esri license the upfront software cost is limited. A Nov. 1 target was mentioned as a deadline for initial metrics.
Council expressed support for transparency and asked staff to develop a proposed list of public-facing and internal measures; staff said they will work with council leadership to determine the initial metric set.
