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Council committee approves Johns Hopkins data‑sharing agreement after extended privacy and equity questions
Summary
The innovation committee approved Bill 4‑72 to share de‑identified permit data with Johns Hopkins GovEx for a summer data‑science project; council members pressed for privacy guarantees, equity analysis for small businesses and a clear deliverables timeline.
The city’s innovation and performance committee approved a resolution on May 13 authorizing a data‑sharing agreement with Johns Hopkins GovEx to analyze de‑identified building‑permit data as part of a summer student fellowship program.
Supporters said the work will help the city identify which permits and which communities experience the longest delays and could inform reforms to make permitting more equitable. "We’re going to strip the names out of the records ... so that you couldn’t tell who had submitted it," Chris Belasco, the chief data officer, told council members when outlining privacy safeguards. He said the project will provide a masked unique identifier for rows so researchers can trace a permit through the system without exposing personal information.
Why it matters: Council members pressed presenters on whether the de‑identification would be robust, how the city would prevent re‑identification, and what specific deliverables the short‑term engagement would produce. Councilwoman Gross said privacy protections passed in a prior resolution should guide the work and asked for a follow‑up briefing; presenters said contractual restrictions, data minimization and redaction will be required in the agreement.
What presenters said: Sylvia Harris, acting director of the Department of Innovation and Performance, and Ben Forstate of the mayor’s office framed the effort as a capacity boost for the city’s existing teams. Forstate said equity is central: "Equity is at the heart of this process," and the analysis will aim to reveal how delays fall across neighborhoods and demographic groups. City staff said the primary summer engagement will run through August with analysis and presentations to follow; Hopkins’ student work could be used for follow‑on projects for up to three years under the proposed terms.
Council questions and follow‑up: Members asked whether the data could be traced back to individuals despite redaction, whether the review would focus on small businesses and childcare openings, and whether contractor performance could be identified without violating privacy. City staff said de‑identification plus contractual controls and internal follow‑up on identified problems would be used to study barriers while preserving confidentiality. Staff also flagged a planned "pizza tracker" — a public workflow display in 1Stop PGH — as a complementary transparency tool to show where permits are in the review process.
Outcome and next steps: The committee voted to give an affirmative recommendation on Bill 4‑72. Staff said they will share more details about the contract’s privacy controls and the project’s scope when the RFP/contract language is finalized. The analysis is intended to support changes in intake and permitting that could reduce delays for small businesses and childcare providers.
Key quote: "We would de‑identify the data," Chris Belasco said. "That information is sufficient to do that work, and it minimizes the amount of identifying information that's being made available."
