Does Government GIS Data Belong to the People?

8 Feb, 2012 By: Bruce Joffe

A California court case showcases the importance of public access to tax-funded databases.

After nearly three years of legal wrangling, the Sierra Club and Orange County are now facing off in the California Supreme Court. The issue that brought the two organizations into conflict is one of great importance to GIS professionals and non-users alike: public access to government databases.

A Case History

After the California First Amendment Coalition won a California Public Records Act (PRA) lawsuit against Santa Clara County, in April 2009, Sierra Club filed a similar suit against Orange County. Sierra Club needed Orange County's parcel basemap in the GIS-compatible database format, but couldn't afford to pay the price Orange County was charging — $475,000 — and didn't believe that the County had the right to charge more than the cost of duplication, as prescribed under the PRA.

Orange County defended its data sales policy with the so-called "software exemption" of the PRA, which states that government agencies do not have to provide software for the cost of duplication, as they do for the data that they use to make public decisions. According to this part of the law, "'computer software' includes computer mapping systems, computer programs, and computer graphics systems." Sierra Club appealed the case, but the 4th District Court of Appeal affirmed the decision in support of Orange County. The County's logic was that GIS includes software and data (citing ESRI's definition of GIS as "a collection of software and data"), the County's landbase is a GIS, GIS is a type of computer mapping system, and CMS is excluded by PRA section 6254.9; therefore, the County's GIS landbase data is excluded.

Sierra Club's rebuttals — that "computer mapping system" means a system of software modules, which does not include data; that GIS-formatted data is necessary for the public to analyze the government's decisions using its GIS database; that "includes" means an illustrative example, not an expansion of the definition of software; and that the California Legislature did not intend to exclude data when it passed the software exemption — were unsuccessful.

Two public records lawsuits for the same kind of data had resulted in opposite opinions. Sierra Club requested that the Supreme Court hear the case, and the Court agreed to. Final briefs were filed February 6, 2012.

Transparent Government, Empowered Citizens

This court case is important to GIS users and organizations primarily because as citizens of our democratically elected governments (local, state, and national), we must be able to oversee, review, and possibly challenge the actions of our government agencies. Government transparency is essential to democracy, and it requires that citizens have easy access to their governments' data. We need the ability to review the data by which governmental decisions are made, and perhaps challenge them if they seem to violate basic principles of fairness, equity, and good governance.

Of course, there are limitations to the goal of "easy access to government data"; we have to respect personal privacy and assure collective security. Most governmental data, however, does not fall under those limitations.

GIS analysts believe that 80% of our governments' decisions involve location-based data. So GIS-compatible databases are a large and integral part of government operations. While citizens have the right to obtain and review copies of this data, government agencies are not required to give them GIS software or to analyze the data for them. That is the role of experts — GIS professionals.

As trained professionals, we can help our fellow citizens review decisions that affect them by analyzing their governments' GIS data to answer questions such as:

"Is my property being taxed fairly?"
"Are public works improvements being deployed equitably?"
"Are zoning variance decisions being made impartially?"

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About the Author: Bruce Joffe

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Comments

Re: Does Government GIS Data Belong to the People?
by: raj
on: February 8, 2012 - 8:25pm

This is an interesting development. It had always been a longstanding understanding that anything developed by a public utility using public funding belonged to those who had paid for it...the people. I do know that this is not specific to the US, but all over the world, developments made with public funding are now being charged for. I wonder how it would go if work was done for a company where the person/consultant then decided to licence the work to the company! After all, isn't this the same thing? The public have paid for the work to be done through taxes, and then they are asked to pay again when they want to access what they paid for. It is one thing to charge for the facilities and other costs of maintaining the data and making it accessible, but to charge for the data itself is a bit over the top.

Re: Does Government GIS Data Belong to the People?
by: Spjika
on: February 9, 2012 - 7:05pm

Bruce, it will be interesting to see how this new OpenGovernment law Leland Yee is putting forward will impact this case and this issue. SB1002 will require government agencies in California to make their public data available purely at cost. The precedent of most other counties and some statewide laws will hopefully push or mandate that every city/county makes parcel data available freely online in usable formats- just imagine the economic development that is possible from both small and large companies and from new startups!

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Re: Does Government GIS Data Belong to the People?	by: raj on: February 8, 2012 - 8:25pm
This is an interesting development. It had always been a longstanding understanding that anything developed by a public utility using public funding belonged to those who had paid for it...the people. I do know that this is not specific to the US, but all over the world, developments made with public funding are now being charged for. I wonder how it would go if work was done for a company where the person/consultant then decided to licence the work to the company! After all, isn't this the same thing? The public have paid for the work to be done through taxes, and then they are asked to pay again when they want to access what they paid for. It is one thing to charge for the facilities and other costs of maintaining the data and making it accessible, but to charge for the data itself is a bit over the top.

Re: Does Government GIS Data Belong to the People?	by: Spjika on: February 9, 2012 - 7:05pm
Bruce, it will be interesting to see how this new OpenGovernment law Leland Yee is putting forward will impact this case and this issue. SB1002 will require government agencies in California to make their public data available purely at cost. The precedent of most other counties and some statewide laws will hopefully push or mandate that every city/county makes parcel data available freely online in usable formats- just imagine the economic development that is possible from both small and large companies and from new startups!