Office of Data and Performance

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“The City of Asheville is committed to making data-driven decisions to create equitable outcomes for everyone in our community.  The Office of Data and Performance strives to provide our community with accountability through data access and communication.”

Debra Campbell, Asheville City Manager

Mission Statement

The Office of Data and Performance (ODAP) empowers the community and City staff to use data for the creation of equitable outcomes, accountability, and communication.

Long Term Goals

There are three long term goals for the Office of Data & Performance:

  • People in the community understand what the City is doing and why, and are involved in defining success for its programs.
  • City staff use data to inform decision-making and communication, with a consistent focus on outcomes and impact.
  • IT and ODAP maintain systems and procedures to ensure data are accessible, accurate, up-to-date and do not cause unintentional harm.

What Are We Doing?

The Office of Data & Performance (ODAP) is currently engaged in a number of projects that advance the mission of the office to use data for equitable outcomes, accountability, and communication. Sign up for the Asheville Data News, our quarterly newsletter, to keep informed about what we’re doing.

Latest News

ODAP Celebrates Its First Year in Operation 

The Office of Data and Performance (ODAP) has been fully-staffed and operational for a full year.  During its first year of operation, ODAP has participated in a number of City projects that advance the office’s mission “to empower the community and City staff to use data for equitable outcomes, accountability, and communication.”  

ODAP has been involved with projects that are collaborative in nature, focusing on community accountability, focusing on outcomes and impacts.  Internally, the ODAP team has offered consulting and technical assistance for City departments utilizing the application of Results Based Accountability (RBA) to shape their processes, define success criteria, and assist in identifying key performance indicators.  

Externally, ODAP staff has been involved in Reparations planning and data support, the creation of the Point-in-Time (PIT) dashboard, and other City projects that have direct community impact.   ODAP has also been engaged in community conversations, hearing directly from community members and stakeholders to gather narrative baseline data around City Council priorities and their perceptions on community investment by the City.

In the coming months ODAP will build upon its internal work with City departments, focusing on collaborative efforts in information-sharing and technical support, as well as expanding our community engagement efforts. 

Additional detail on completed and ongoing projects may be found in the latest issue of the Asheville Data News newsletter.

 

ODAP Plans and Projects for 2022

In 2022 the Office of Data & Performance will continue to focus on advancing their work in the areas of using data for equitable outcomes, accountability, and communication with the community. ODAP will expand their efforts on internal and external reporting, as well as continuing to be a resource for data analysis

Reparations– ODAP will continue involvement in the City’s reparations efforts in 2022.  The office has created baseline data resources for the reparations commission and community. In 2022 we will continue to be a resource for data analysis, data visualization, GIS and web development and survey creation, as well as continuing to connect with data and research efforts in other organizations.

Reimagining Public Safety–The Office of Data & Performance will continue to collaborate with the Community and Economic Development department on improving reporting for our homelessness efforts. The first products are scheduled to go live in January, with significant updates in March and April.

ARPA Funding– ODAP’s role in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding process has focused on the development of objective evaluation rubrics.  The team built systems to automatically create, and then process and summarize the hundreds of individual evaluation rubrics used by the evaluation team. Going forward ODAP will work with the Finance Department to develop a solid reporting and performance management framework for working with the organizations, internal and external, that are awarded funds through the RFP process.

Employee Compensation– ODAP, in collaboration with the City’s Human Resources Department, will participate in tracking the impact of implementing the recommendations of the City’s Compensation Study on the areas of employee retention and organizational equity efforts.  

Public Performance Reporting–  An important part of accountability is making it easy for members of the community to see what progress we are making on the priorities we have identified, both short-term and long. We will be working with the departments of Communications and Public Engagement and Planning and Urban Design to develop an easy-to-navigate section of the website to show our progress on Council goals and on the Living Asheville Comprehensive Plan and to create a framework for consistently reporting progress in the future, including beginning the development of citywide and neighborhood-level quality-of-life indicators.

FY23 Budget Process– We will work with the Budget team as they build on last year’s efforts. Our primary effort will be on improved methods for prioritizing capital spending that accounts for equity along with other measures of urgency and impact. In addition, we will work with Budget to create a basic framework for reporting service performance and measuring the impact of service changes.

 


Frequently Asked Questions

What is ODAP? 

ODAP, also known as the Office of Data & Performance, works collaboratively with the City Manager’s Office, City departments and the community to operate better with data for better, more equitable outcomes for our community.

What tools and methodologies does ODAP use?

ODAP conducts its work by using the Results Based Accountability (RBA) methodology.  This framework starts with “ends”, or desired outcomes, and works backward, towards means. ODAP consults with departments and uses a scope document to methodically examine every aspect of the prospective project, setting expectations, and establishing deadlines.  Click here for more information on the RBA framework.

 

What are ODAP’s goals for 2022?

In 2022 the Office of Data & Performance will continue to support the top City Council priorities. In addition we will focus our efforts on expanding on our previous work of data accessibility through community engagement by doing the following:  

 

People in the community understand what the City is doing and why, and are involved in defining success for its programs.

ODAP will provide a clear way to learn about progress on City priorities,  and how the progress on those priorities  contributes to the City’s comprehensive plan. These avenues will  provide advocates, community groups and individuals access to data that answers their inquiries and aids in their capacity building. 

ODAP will create a framework for involving the community in defining success for City programs and initiatives, and encourage its adoption by stakeholders. 

 

City staff use data to inform decision-making and communication, with a consistent focus on outcomes and impact.

ODAP will provide opportunities to learn how to use  Results-Based Accountability (RBA) in program and project planning, and explore ways to integrate thinking about outcomes and performance into regular City processes.  The office will also provide support for individual departmental efforts to make better use of data in developing strategies and measuring outcomes.  

 

IT and ODAP maintain systems and procedures to ensure data are accessible, accurate, up-to-date and do not cause unintentional harm.

IT Services and ODAP will implement proactive measures to prevent inadvertent data disclosures and other potential harms.  ODAP plans to work towards making sure that information about City departments’ key datasets are available for the entire organization, and will continue to improve Bedrock to automate the maintenance for both data and metadata for strategic data assets.

 

 


Contact Information

ODAP Team Email


 

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