Ross DiBello 2021 Mayoral Candidate Technology and Open Data Questionnaire

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All questions were open-ended unless specified.
Question 1: What is your general view on government open data as it relates to government transparency, accountability, and public participation in Cleveland?
Everything belongs to the taxpayers; everything should be public as long as it does not disclose someone's health information or intellectual property that is being produced for the good of the city; the awareness that records belong to and will be seen by the public will naturally create a check and balance on actors.
Question 2: Do you support making city open data sets available in the most standard, non-proprietary, reusable, and machine readable format possible the default policy? * For example, making public datasets available as CSV files rather than PDFs. Feel free to use the "Other" option to add comments. Yes, No, and Other were options
Yes
Question 3: In your opinion, does the City of Cleveland currently provide enough open, standardized data in a digital format? What kinds of government information or specific data sets would you like to see made more available to residents? *
No; Budgeting information; public records requests and the responses thereto; incident reports; traffic information; important contacts and educational information; use of force incident information (but anonymity should be prioritized); who is licensed for what purposes; social service provider information; environmental and utility information; tax collection and billing information; surveys and survey results
Question 4: Many data sets controlled by the city are comprised exclusively of data that by law should be accessible to the public. Would you commit to making such datasets publicly available online in your first year in office? (Yes, no, or other, with option to free paragraph)
Yes
Question 5: How would you approach balancing privacy, safety, and budget concerns in implementing technologies like Spotshotter and surveillance cameras ? What would you prioritize?
Gather input from interested community groups; See what we have in place currently; Look at how other cities are and aren't using those technologies. I would prioritize accountability. with somewhat of a cushion and deliberation period to consider privacy and safety concerns. I would need access to financial information before contemplating the budget concerns. I believe we need more cameras and need to publicize the fact that we will have more cameras.
Question 6: What are your views on the use of facial recognition technology by police? Would you support its prohibition? Do you believe that residents should be required to share footage from their security video cameras (like residents' doorbells, e.g. Ring)? *
We may want to wait for a Federal policy before we implement this new technology and wait for Court rulings as well. I do not know enough about this equipment and how its success rate is or if there is any bias involved. I liken it to self-driving cars at this time. I think that a subpoena should be subject to a high form of scrutiny and a property owner should be able to defend their right to their property at this time.
Question 7: Do you believe every Northeast Ohio resident must have affordable access to universal high-speed internet of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) (aka broadband) where they live, work or play?" If so, how would you address this?
I do. Prioritize devoting the funding and operation of getting every street wired, providing equipment and access to trainers and troubleshooters beginning in January. Scrutinize who we are partnering with and demand ARPA funds be used for this purpose.
Question 8: We understand that working to implement an open data policy across multiple departments and agencies can be a significant management challenge. If elected, how will you implement a municipal open data policy that you envision and have described in your responses above?
Do a thorough hiring job starting during the transition period; devote at least one cabinet spot to this arena and its implementation. Listen to groups like Open Cleveland and mimic other cities like maybe Kansas City or wherever implementation was done successfully.
Question 9: What else should we know for your plans around increasing government transparency, open data, and digital equality ?
Much of my personal growth and success has come from internet access, skills and the ability to scour records. I think genuine accountability attacks the root and lessens the number of future problems.
Question 10: As a gesture of your commitment to open data, would you be willing to release your campaign's financial disclosure statement in a machine-readable format (e.g. CSV, XML, EXCEL etc) on your campaign website? (yes, no, other)
would be willing, but I am largely a 1-man operation in a very large city so I do not think I would devote any time towards this before election day(s). Anybody is more than welcome to do this for me.