ChattaData Is A Real Advance For The City

  • Monday, September 22, 2014

This past Tuesday, the city of Chattanooga's new performance management tool called ChattaData was unveiled. As the chairman of the City Council’s Budget & Finance Committee, I am excited to witness the city putting this important information online in a way that is accessible and transparent to all taxpayers.

This approach shines light on how we as a city prioritize our needs and budget funds to address those priorities. It clearly spells out goals and allows citizens to see if we are on track, need improvement, or outright failing.  

The website does more than just display flashy graphs and charts. Instead, it allows citizens to review complete, raw data with a single click. You can see exactly how many shootings occurred last month versus the month prior or how many of our young people took advantage of the opportunity to improve their reading skills using our YFD centers’ Lexia literacy software over the course of the summer. This ready access to performance information gives citizens the tools to hold city government accountable for spending tax dollars wisely on what works. 

As importantly, ChattaData gives department heads a tool to measure progress in their departments and become more efficient.  Several years ago, I was the administrator of what was then called Parks, Recreation, Arts and Culture for the city. As I review this ChattaData site, and think through how far we’ve come as a government and as a community, I realize how the decisions I made as a city administrator would have benefited from having this kind of detailed information at my fingertips.  

I’ve heard from my constituents that the kind of transparency afforded by initiatives like ChattaData are innovative and positive for our city. I agree. Of course, there will be some who say it’s not enough or find imperfections. But I would encourage us all not to forget where we started and where we are today. We are one of just a handful of cities putting this kind of data out to the world, to be scrutinized and poured through. Let’s not allow perfection to be the enemy of the good. As my colleague, Councilman Chip Henderson likes to say, imperfect action moves us forward while planning for perfection doesn't. Let’s keep working and keep holding ourselves and our elected officials accountable.  

I applaud Mayor Berke's administration for taking this bold step forward, and I encourage our citizens to see for themselves at https://performance.chattanooga.gov. I hope this administration will continue to refine our data and keep finding innovative ways to make local government more open and accessible to our citizens.  With ChattaData, we’ve made great progress in the right direction.  

Jerry Mitchell
City Council, District 2 
Chairman, City Council Budget & Finance Committee

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