Purpose of the committee
Data governance is the policies and practices that enable and maintain data usability, integrity, and privacy within an organization. Data governance efforts in the City of Portland support improving meaningful access to information for and about our communities.
The City of Portland collects and generates data about our communities, services, and impacts. Community members need to understand how their data is going to be used, where the data lives and who has access to it so they can make informed decisions about participating in City programs and accessing services.
Good data governance saves money for organizations by enabling more efficient workflows and reducing duplicative efforts.
Background and charter
The City Data Governance Committee has voting members from most of the City’s bureaus and offices. The Committee meets monthly to make decisions about the direction of data governance work. Data governance projects will typically seek out the involvement of other city staff who are not on the official committee. See the Committee’s Charter for more information:
Opportunities for the Portland community members to get involved and to provide feedback will be posted on this site and advertised on the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability’s social media.
Goals and timeline
Key project goals for the City Data Governance Committee:
- City wide demographic data standards
- City wide minimum metadata requirements
- Data catalog
- Best practices for data collection
- Best practices for data sharing
This project has dedicated funding through December 2024.
Public engagement
The City Data Governance Committee’s goal for public engagement is to create meaningful opportunities for community members to provide input on decisions and to share updates on committee activities. As of summer 2024, public engagement efforts have focused on 1:1 meetings with external stakeholders or small focus groups to share, discuss, and iterate on demographic data standards. While our goal is to build collaboration and not just do information sharing, we have received feedback that more engagements and updates could still be helpful as City data governance is developing. Please email the Data Services Team and let us know if you are interested in this and would like to be added to our engagement stakeholder list.
Please also see our monthly agendas and quarterly news posts for activity updates.
Meeting agendas
View the Committee meeting agendas for more detailed information on Committee actions and activities.