Saint Paul Data Practices Study

The Project Description and Consultant

Annually, the Saint Paul City Council Audit Committee selected and awarded Wilder Research a professional services agreement to conduct up to two (2) research and evaluation projects annually beyond those that Council or City staff can provide to examine program and financial evaluations designed to improve the timing of delivery of services with the goal of building greater public trust and satisfaction with city services and to provide reports with recommendations to the city for improvements to city services and processes.

Wilder Research is a nationally respected nonprofit research and evaluation group. The organization work with nonprofits, community leaders, government agencies, foundations and policymakers throughout Minnesota and the country to gather and interpret facts and trends, help them uncover and understand issues affecting their communities and how best to address them, and inform action that improves lives and communities.

The Project Scope

The third study lead by Wilder Research will evaluate the City of Saint Paul’s data practices process and identify opportunities to improve the consistency, timeliness, and clarity of responses to public data requests across all City departments.

Additionally, the study will assess the City’s current data practices framework and identify actionable policy, technology, and procedural improvements, with input from community stakeholders and City staff. The areas of analysis will include:

Internal workflows and coordination between departments
Public-facing communication and response protocols
Compliance with the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA) and best practices from peer cities
Staffing resources and training needs
Strategies to reduce response times and strengthen public trust in the City’s data practices process.

Objective

As part of this evaluation, the scope of work will address the following four (4) key questions:

Question 1 - What are the current data practices and compliance processes?

How does the data practices and compliance process work now?
- Is it documented? Is the process centralized or decentralized?
What monitoring/reporting is in place to periodically validate the process is being followed?
What is the process for legal review if needed?
What is the process for requests that impact multiple departments?

Question 2 - What are potential risks of the current approach?

Has the approach been reviewed for compliance with the MN Data Practices Act?
- Is the City complying with state law when it comes to data practices/compliance?
Has the City’s response/lack of response led to litigation or other adverse consequences for the City?
Does the City run the risk of litigation?

Question 3 - What are the characteristics of the current requests?

Types of requests
Scale of requests
Volume received
Time to respond, timeliness of response
Hours of staff time to respond to typical request

Question 4 - What are the opportunities for improvement in the City’s approach?

How much staff time goes into the current process and how can it be more efficient?

Wilder's Approach

Document & Data Review: Policies, procedures, and process documentation & GovQA data and reporting for City of St. Paul.

Examination of literature, gray literature:

General literature search
Review of other municipality publicly available documentation

Key informant surveys: Council staff, city departments users, other municipality staff, and portal users

Recommendations: Based on the findings from the data collection & analysis and surveys, provide recommendations to make improve the process, technology tools, training and policy guidelines.

Deliverables:

A comprehensive report summarizing the findings, analysis, and recommendations from the data practices study.
Presentation of the report to the Audit Committee and City Council, including sharing the report with the Administration and city departments.
Any additional supporting documentation, data analysis, or visualizations as necessary.

Expand All

Identify actionable policy, technology, and procedural changes to improve the City’s data practices framework:
- Internal workflows and interdepartmental coordination;
- Public-facing communication and response protocols;
- Legal compliance with MGDPA and best practices from peer cities;
- Resource needs and staff training; and
- Opportunities to reduce response times and increase public trust; and

Team Background

Wilder Research Team

Expand All

Biography

Heather Britt joined Wilder in June of 2022. As executive director of Wilder Research, Heather’s role is to help ensure research and evaluation efforts yield insight and impact across Saint Paul, Ramsey County, and Minnesota. Prior to joining Wilder, Heather served in leadership positions at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Minnesota Hospital Association, and Allina Health. Heather also spent time at the Minnesota Department of Education and the Urban Coalition. Heather’s research interests range from understanding the environments where young people thrive, the most beneficial ways for systems and organizations to work together to support worker wellbeing, to the influence of systems on health equity. Her largest research study to date was focused on community health workers in late life care and ways healthcare systems can better support individuals and their families in their last few months and years of life. Heather will serve as a Project Lead on City of Saint Paul projects; coordinating partnership and communication with City and Audit Committee team members; working with the research team to implement work plans; participating in primary and secondary data collection and analyses; and partnering on report and dissemination efforts. Heather has her doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Minnesota, her Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina, and her Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. She lives in Saint Paul and has two children, both recent graduates of Central High School.

Biography
Audrey assists and supports multiple research projects with data collection, surveys and analysis. Her research interests include topics such as globalization, microfinance, privatization, as well as research that focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion, racial injustice, immigration, refugee health and education.
Audrey graduated from St. Catherine University with a major in economics and minors in statistics and finance where she conducted academic research involving conditional cash transfers, debt and its impact in developing countries, income disparities in the Twin Cities and women’s education in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has also conducted academic research through Research In Color Foundation, where she looked at school support programs. Audrey also served as the St. Catherine University Student Body President, engaging students and faculty in community settings.
Outside of work, Audrey enjoys exploring restaurants and cafes, spending time with loved ones, reading books, and binge watching movies.
Kingston Fellowship Award Winner: Audrey is a Research Associate and plans to use the Kingston Fellowship to pursue a Master’s degree in Finance. Her objective is to leverage the skills she will get in financial analysis to help in the evolving landscape of emerging projects that want support assessing their overall strategic direction, including looking at financial records to understand how expenditures could better align with strategic goals.

Saint Paul Data Practices Study

On This Page

The Project Description and Consultant

The Project Scope

Wilder's Approach

Identify Key findings

Team Background

Wilder Research Team

Dr. Heather Britt, Executive Director - Project Partner

Audrey Mutanhaurwa - Research Associate

Contact Us