Post on 10-Jul-2020
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Community Officials Data Exchange(C.O.D.E.)
Helping NYS Local Government Make Technical andData Investments So That They Fight Blight Together
Winter Legislative Meeting
February 10th, 2020
Blight: Effects on Our Communities
“Vacant land was perceived to influencecommunity well-being by decreasing residents’control over neighborhood life, fracturing tiesamong neighbors, raising concerns aboutcrime and safety, and exerting a negativefinancial strain on the community. Vacant landwas described as overshadowing positiveaspects of neighborhood life and underminingattempts to improve the image or overallsuccess of the community”
- Study conducted in Philadelphia, PA with 50 interviews about impact of vacant land on community and individualhealth and safety (Garvin et al. 2012)
What National Experts Say
“Solving urban blight is dependent onDATA . If you don’t have good data —for example, about the properties, theowners, foreclosure status, etc. —you’re basically flying blind.”
-Alan Mallach, Urban Blight Forum, 2016
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Build a Shared Information Resource Among NYS Cities
C.O.D.E.
www.codedata.us
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A FOCUS ONCOLLECTING, MANAGING, USING, AND SHARING
DATA
Our Current Realities
•Currently there is limited to no access totimely and accurate data on properties,property owners and landlords as well asinformation on how critical programscarried out in within each jurisdiction.
•There is no way to SHARE thisinformation across jurisdictions so thatleaders can use it to inform decisionmaking.
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Data Pipeline
Information Use
Information Management
Information Collection
Information Standards
Information Sharing
Inherent Data Challenges
In order to interrupt the cycle of property blight, good, quality data is critical, butthere are inherent challenges:
• Not all local governments collect data on properties in a way that it can beeasily used and shared.
• Each local government has different processes by which they collect, store andmanage data (part paper, part electronic).
• When data is collected electronically, the accuracy, quality, completeness areconsiderations.
• Visualizations of wrong and bad data can result in less than optimal decisionand investment making.
Data Fitness For Use
• Are the datasets complete enough for the intended use?• Are the datasets timely enough given the intended use?• Does the data contain the necessary data elements to
answer the questions?• Are the datasets relevant to the intended use?• Is the data accurate, complete, and in the proper format for
the intended use?• If the answer is no, what is the cost, time, effort to make it fit
for use?• Are governments willing to pay the price? If no, are there
alternative data sources?CTG UAlbany, Open Data and Fitness for Use: A Realistic Look
https://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/opendata_fitness/
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This Is Hard Work
THE PROJECT
The Shared Code Enforcement InformationResource Pilot Project
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Two Main Project Goals
Build the organizational andtechnical capabilities of localgovernments to collect, manage,and use data while carrying outtheir property and codeenforcement programs.
Build a Data Sharing Resource to:
•Identify problem property actors(owners, agents, LLCs)
•Perform analytics andvisualizations
•Share current and best practicesacross local governments
InnovationIsn’tEasy
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Two StatewideData SharingPlatforms Beganas Projects withCTG
NYS GISClearinghouse
Kids Well BeingIndicatorsClearinghouse(KWIC)
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Small Pilot
Large Pilot
Statewide
WHY INVEST IN?
Data Collection and Use?
Capabilities?
Technical Infrastructure?
Sharing Platforms?
Our People?
The General Costs of Blight
DIRECT COSTS: City worker time and salariesin codes, legal, engineering, financial, andmanagement in identifying, maintaining, andprocessing properties; fire and police calls;materials and contracting
INDIRECT COSTS: Uncollected taxes and utilities ondistressed properties; lost tax revenue due to lostvalue on adjacent properties
OPPORTUNITY COSTS: Lost economicdevelopment: business, residents, tourism
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Revenue Lost and Gained
LOSING REVENUE
•Duplicate investments
•Inefficient work processes
•Lost revenue
•More properties moving into blight
INCREASING REVENUE
•More efficient work processes
•Increased ability to get resolution from problem actors
•Revenue – vacant housing fees and fines
Blighted Property: What it Costs
As part of an initial investigation the team,looked at one city, and added up all thedirect indirect costs and found:
“A single property slated for demolition can,on average, generate expenses for amunicipality in excess of $64,000 over thecourse of 5 years direct and indirect costs.”
When this estimated amount is multipliedby the number of vacant properties, it canbe in the millions of dollars.
DIRECT COSTS: City worker timeand salaries in codes, legal,engineering, financial, andmanagement in identifying,maintaining, and processingproperties; fire and police calls;materials and contracting
INDIRECT COSTS: Uncollected taxesand utilities on distressed properties;lost tax revenue due to lost value onadjacent properties
Investing in Technical and DataInfrastructure
• City of Schenectady carries out approximately 60 inspections per day with 12code enforcement officers.
• Using the enterprise property system (Muncity5)and mobile technology,they can save 30 minutes per inspection because: No travel is necessary to the office in between visits
Auto fill all pertinent information about the owner and property in office and infield
Can print in field using mobile printers
Savings
• It is estimated that there are savings of 2 hours per day per officer todedicate to additional inspections (department-wide, it’s about 7,500hours a year).
• Anticipated saving 109,000 miles driven in city-owned vehicles (savingsin asset maintenance and gasoline).
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Investing in Technical and DataInfrastructure
Access to Real Time Data
•Engineering
•Assessment
•Development
•Fire
•Police
•Water
•Finance
•Law
•Neighborhood Revitalization
More Efficient Processes•Fire chiefs typically have to wait to gain access
to property information while at a fire. Now,they get owner, agent, and propertyinformation on the way to fire- no calling andwaiting.
•Neighborhood revitalizations teams are out inthe neighborhood, they can immediately accessthe system to check and see if there is a switchin ownership. This saves time on the researchtime going back to the office and doing theviolation- everything done in site
•All data in one location instead of separatesystems and spreadsheets- which allows foreasier access and integration with otherdatasets
Investing in Technical Infrastructure,Data Collection, and Use
Vacant Property Management
•Enterprise system to collect, manage, use, and share all data onvacant properties.
•Sharing current practices (and fee and fine structure) fromneighboring cities to inform own operations.
•Since 2016, the City of Gloversville, NY has had a:Reduction of 152 blighted properties (365 to 213)Approx. $130K collected for vacant properties
Investing in Data Sharing AcrossNYS Local Governments
Searching for Owner Information
Currently corporation counsel in municipal law departments spendapproximately 5 hours (per property) manually searching for ownerinformation (and many times still do not find the information).
•To quantify a dollar amount on how much this information searching costs.:• Taking the US average salary of a corporation counsel lawyer, multiplied by number of hours
spent searching per property. If you take 400 properties, times 5 hours each, at a nationwideaverage salary, many cities are spending an estimated $145K a year in searching for information.
•Even if the number of hours of searching for information was cut in half (2.5 hoursper property), that would reduce the cost about $72K.
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Investing in Data Sharing AcrossNYS Local Governments
Preventing More Blight (i.e. costs)
•Many cities sell properties in auctions.
•Some prospective buyers are owners of properties in other cities and havelet them become blighted.
•Learning more about who is buying the properties and informing thatdecision making can prevent future expenses and lost revenue onproperties (approx. $64K per property over the course of 5 years).
Habitat for Humanity (https://habitatspringfieldmo.org/our-programs/neighborhood-revitalization/
Investments Can Make A Difference
MANY Studies
StudiesBut Not as Many
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Small Study: Urban Innovation JointExperiential Learning Course
•Looked at small set of properties (10) managedby the land bank on Eastern Avenue in City ofSchenectady.
•Found that each of the 10 properties thatmoved from blighted to non-blighted increasedin property value by approximately 123%.
•Given the number of land bank properties inthat neighborhood, the estimated averageincrease in property values for the othersurrounding properties was 5% per property.
THE COMMUNITY OFFICIALS DATA EXCHANGE
C.O.D.E.
C.O.D.E.
www.codedata.us
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Mission
The C.O.D.E is a data sharing resource for local government leaders sothat they can better inform their blight prevention, mitigation, andresolution strategies.
The C.O.D.E provides local government leaders the ability to:• Search and link properties and actors (owners, individuals, LLC,
agents, landlords) from across NYS.• Perform analytics and create visualizations• Learn how code enforcement processes are carried out in local
governments
Data
Current Data in the C.O.D.E.
•All data collected through Municity5 from each of the original cities
•NYS LLC Data (from NYS Open Data Portal)
•Google dataset
Future Data Sets• New Members of the C.O.D.E.
• Other State’s LLC Data
• CAPS net data
Data Elements
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Standardizing
Code Violation/Complaint Categories
• Electrical (system hazards, electrical equipment, installation, receptacles,wiring, etc.)
• Exterior Property (handrails, guardrails, decks, premise identity,sanitation, grading, drainage, etc.)
• Exterior Structure
• Heat
• Illegal Burning/Fire Pits
• Infestation (rats, mice, bugs, etc.)
• Interior Structure
• Junk Vehicle
• Life Safety (fire safety, means of egress, etc.)
• Livestock/Animals
• Mechanical (safety controls, energy conservation devices, mechanicalappliances, etc.)
Permit Categories
• Building Residential
• Building Commercial
• Demolition
• Electrical
• Equipment
• Generators
• Hazmat/Mercantile
• Heating/Appliance/HVAC
• Junk Vehicle
• New Commercial
• New Single Family
• Plumbing
• Public Assembly
Main Functions
Knowledge Sharing
What• General business
processes• Forms• Fee and fine schedules• Best Practices• Definitions of common
termsWhy
• Develop better strategiesacross all programs ofwork and at theoperational level
Search and Links
Problem Actors
What:• Search and link name or
address of problem actors
Why
• To make more informeddecisions when selling city-owned property
• Proactively engage propertyowners with outstandingviolations
• Share information with othermunicipalities about problemactors
Analytics, Reporting andVisualizations
What• Perform analysis across jurisdictions• See visualizations of specific data
elements across jurisdictions• Run pre-set reports of elements
across jurisdictionsWhy• To compare and contrast across a
region• To see impact across a region• To inform own decision making and
strategy development
C.O.D.E. Landing Page
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ResourcesInformation Sharing
Search and Link Actors
•To identify an actor (owner, agent, landlord, contractor ) in order to informan action. Can search:
•By Name (individual, LLC)•By Mailing address
•By Property address
•By Legal address
•Capability to link actors if it’s identified that they are the same orassociated with another owner, agent or LLC.
•Allows all users to exchange and share information on links created.
Searching Scenarios
Scenario # 1
•Your local government wants to search a name of an LLC or company namethat appears as the document of several properties. You want to knowwhat else do they own in other parts of the state? What is the state of theproperties? What violations do they have on other properties they own?
Scenario # 2
•Your local government has the name of a person that want to purchaseproperties in your local government? You would like to learn if they haveother properties associated to them and what state they are in before anydecision making.
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Scenario # 1
Scenario # 1
Scenario # 1
Violation History
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Scenario # 1
Scenario # 1
Scenario # 1
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Scenario # 2
Scenario # 2Your local governmenthas the name of aperson that want topurchase properties inyour local government?You would like to learn ifthey have otherproperties associated tothem and what statethey are in before anydecision making.
Scenario # 2
Scenario # 2
Found aname linkedto the firstnamesearched
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Scenario # 2
Propertiesassociatedwith thenew name
Scenario # 2
Scenario # 2
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Save Searches and Links
•You can save a search so that you and other local governmentscan see your search and links to help inform their informationgathering and decision making.
•Start to build a more comprehensive picture of actors (owners,LLC, agents).
Analytics, Reporting andVisualizations
Across all C.O.D.E. Members:
• Heat maps of violations byproperty and individual
• Pin points of properties byindividual
• Vacant property trends
• Property violation trends
• Comparisons across localities (e.g.violations, vacant properties,fees/fines)
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C.O.D.E Governance
• Executive Board Members. Three from the original cities:Schenectady, Amsterdam, and Gloversville. One from the large pilot:Binghamton. The final member will be added after statewidedeployment.
• Officers (Chair and Secretary). The Chair will serve a 3 year termwith the potential to continue to serve another 3 year term ifdesired and confirmed by the Board.
• Ex-Officio Member. A representative from the NYS Department ofState will hold one unlimited term seat.
• Data and Technology Subcommittee. The subcommittee will bemade up of the chair, other board members as well as arepresentative from SCA and a representative from General Code.
This is not a decision making committee.
Documents
•Inter-municipalAgreement
•Data SharingAgreement
•C.O.D.E. Charter
•MembershipOffering
Funding and Operations
Development Funded Through:
•NYS Department of State’s Local Government EfficiencyGrant
•NYS Department of State’s Municipal Restructuring Fund
Long Term Operations Funded Through:
•Local Government Memberships
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C.O.D.E.
www.codedata.us
Community Officials Data Exchange(C.O.D.E.)
Helping NYS Local Government Make Technical andData Investments So That They Fight Blight Together
Winter Legislative Meeting
February 10th, 2020