Ottawa County committee approves GIS data‑sharing agreement with state amid privacy questions

The Ottawa County Finance Administration Committee voted to approve and forward to the board of commissioners a consolidated data‑sharing agreement with the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget to allow public download of county address points, road centerlines and tax parcels via the state open data portal.

County staff described the agreement as a consolidation of three previously approved data‑sharing arrangements and said the state will publish a stripped‑down public layer. "They don't take, like, ownership information and publish that out there. It's just going to be, like, the address and the parcel number," a county GIS staff member said, noting the state layer will not include ownership details.

A commissioner pressed staff on how much data the county would make available and whether the committee was choosing the more permissive option that allows bulk downloads. "...it just makes it a lot more easy ... for corporations or nefarious individuals to take the information and combine it with other information," a committee member said, voicing concern about county data being combined with other sources.

Staff responded that the county already publishes parcel information on its own open data portal and that the state's copy will be a more basic version of that layer; staff also said there are mechanisms for individuals to request limited public disclosure through the local assessor's office. The motion to forward the agreement to the board passed as recorded by roll call.