The Data Governance Committee was formed in 2020 to align shared expectations on how to manage data as an asset, improve data management, and integrate data use into the culture of City government. Its role is to carry out data governance tasks associated with the management of data and production of open data to meet the city’s 2014 Open Data Ordinance (Pittsburgh Code of Ordinances I.VII §162). The outcomes required from the Open Data Ordinance are outputs of high-quality data management practices:

• Designate Open Data Coordinators to lead inventorying, serve on Open Data Committee and make inputs to policy.
• Produce an Open Data Catalogue (comprehensive department-wide inventory of data).
• Produce an annual Open Data Report.

The mission of the data governance committee is to:

• confirm that all datasets are accounted for, inventoried, and organized in a transparent fashion
• guarantee that all data are of the highest quality possible, securely stored, and have clearly documented data access policies
• establish a data-centric culture around decision making and empower our stakeholders to utilize city data creatively and effectively
• ensure that our usage of data does not in any way infringe upon the privacy or civil liberties of citizens, and that we maintain accountable and bias-free utilization of computational algorithms

In 2022 the Data Governance committee was established as a subcommittee to the Technology Leadership Council, chaired by CIO Heidi Norman, and comprised of the Chief Data Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Business Technology Senior Managers, Data Services Team, GIS Team and Department Data Coordinators. The committee meets quarterly to review policy and provide updates on data catalog efforts and data initiatives, such as: open data releases, the Data Justice Project, training opportunities, and other shared projects.

The Data Governance committee sought nominations from City departments for Data Coordinators to participate in the committee, lead data inventorying, contribute to data policies, and communicate on data initiatives. To prepare Data Coordinators for their role on the committee, the Chief Data Officer led trainings on data coordinator procedures relating to inventorying, data management, and completion of regular updates. These trainings occurred regularly 2022-24, and occur on an as-needed basis to refresh skills and onboard new Data Coordinators.