GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
                        EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR




                            Open Government Report 2014


   To institutionalize a culture of transparent and open government, accountability, and to
   expand opportunities for resident participation and collaboration, this Report describes
   how Mayor Gray’s Office has and will continue to develop and enhance transparency,
   public participation, and collaboration. In accordance with Mayor’s Order 2014-170, this
   report addresses the following topics:

1) Transparency

   Mayor Gray strongly believes in an open and transparent government. From the start of his
   administration, he has worked tirelessly to ensure that his administration is as transparent,
   collaborative, and accountable as possible. The Open Government Initiative, envisioned
   by Mayor Gray and led by the Executive Office of the Mayor (EOM), is a multifaceted
   approach to lead the District Government towards openness and transparency by using
   technology to make key government records easily accessible online. The overall goal is
   keep the public better informed about the functioning of their government.

   Mayor Gray has been a leader in Open Government. At the start of his administration he
   issued Mayor’s Memorandum 2011-01 that set the tone for open government efforts in the
   Gray Administration. It affirmatively set forth standards to be used in the interpretation of,
   and compliance with, the Freedom of Information Act and indicated the direction to be
   taken for further open government and transparency efforts.

   In July 2014, Mayor Gray issued the Open Government and Open Data Directive, which
   details concrete steps the District government must take to better institutionalize a culture
   of transparency, accountability, and public participation in the District government. The
   Directive:

         Requires agencies to publish up to 15 different categories of government
          information online on agency open government and FOIA pages, create annual
          open government reports, and identify and publish datasets online

         Establishes a common web portal that will serve as the source for District-wide and
          agency activities related to this transparency, open government, and open data
         Convenes an Open Government Advisory Group to assist the Mayor in creating
          open government policy

         Designates a Chief Data Officer to coordinate implementation, compliance, and
          expansion of the District’s Open Data Program



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Since the announcement of the Directive, all agencies have created Open Government and
FOIA webpages with key information on agency expenditures, organizational charts,
policies, budget and more. Furthermore, the Executive Office of the Mayor partnered with
Office of the Chief Technology Officer to create the new central open government website,
open.dc.gov, which provides a large quantity of government information and makes it
easier for the public to locate information that would otherwise be difficult to find of even
know is published on individual agency webpages.

In addition, FOIAXpress, the District’s first-ever city-wide FOIA processing system,
successfully launched in July 2014 with over 50 District agencies using the system. Since
the launch, members of the media and public have submitted over 600 FOIA requests and
appeals through the online public FOIA portal. FOIAXpress has an internal component
where FOIA Officers track and respond to FOIA requests and a public component that
allows agencies to publish documents to a reading room for frequently requested public
records. There are currently 56 frequently requested public records in the reading room.
FOIA requesters also have the ability to check the status of their requests in FOIAXpress
which gives them a better understanding of the workings of the government.

Also, the Executive Office of the Mayor works hard to ensure District residents are
informed of key issues, projects, initiatives, and announcements of the District government.
Methods the Executive Office of the Mayor uses to share information with the public
include:

      The Mayor’s Office of Communications published over 400 press releases in FY
       2014 alone.

      The Mayor’s twitter account has tweeted over 10,100 tweets and has 24,800
       followers. Just a year ago, it had 18,400 followers.

      The Mayor’s YouTube account, dcmayorsoffice, has uploaded over 100 videos in
       FY 2014 alone.

      The Mayor’s Office of Communications distributes The Mayor Gray Report, an e-
       newsletter summarizing Mayor Gray’s announcements and activities, is distributed
       roughly once a week to well over 8,600 District residents, community leaders, and
       other key stakeholders. To date, 68 editions of the e-newsletter have been issued.

      The Executive Office of the Mayor has a new Open Government and FOIA
       webpage which includes information on EOM’s budget, regulations, expenditures,
       organizational chart, employee salary information, and frequently requested public
       records.

      The Mayor’s Office of the General Counsel has published all decisions of appeals
       of agency FOIA productions online and in the DC Register. The webpage on which
       appeals decisions are published now includes reformatted indices that make
       decisions more accessible and searchable.


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         The Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances has entered into an MOU
          with the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) to update dcregs.org, the
          online portal for the DC Register, DCMR, Mayor’s Orders, and Mayor’s
          Memorandums to add functionality, searchability, and other enhancements
          designed to improve performance and the ability of users to conduct advanced
          searches.

   Moving forward, the Executive Office of the Mayor will take steps to increase public
   access to information including:

         Publishing additional documents to our FOIAXpress reading room (there are
          currently ten documents published there now).

         Updating our open government and FOIA webpage regularly

         Improving the accessibility of FOIA appeals decisions by providing the public the
          ability to download entire years of opinions in machine readable word and text
          format

   The Executive Office of the Mayor is also working closely with the Office of the City
   Administrator (OCA) and the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) to identify
   government datasets that OCA and OCTO expect to publish online later this year. In the
   future, requirements for open data reporting will be provided by the Chief Data Officer.


2) Public Engagement and Participation

   In order to better capture resident feedback about District government performance, in
   June 2012, the Executive Office of the Mayor led the implementation and management of
   grade.dc.gov, an online grading tool that harnesses innovative analytical technology to
   improve customer care. Feedback from the public is collected from the online surveys
   and combined with data from comments posted on social media sites like Twitter,
   Facebook, Foursquare, and Yelp. This aggregated data is used by an independent
   company to develop a grade for each participating District government agency. The goal
   is to make it possible for District residents to easily offer actionable feedback and help
   DC government agencies improve their customer care. Grade.dc.gov has been an integral
   part in improving performance of District government services, and in FY 14 alone,
   members of the public submitted 36,445 reviews through it.

   In addition, during the formulation of the Open Government Initiative, the Executive
   Office of the Mayor solicited public participation in the formulation of the District’s
   transparency and open government policies by inviting the submission of comments,
   ideas and proposals to increase openness and transparency in government. The Executive
   Office of the Mayor received approximately a dozen comments, including detailed
   comments from the Sunlight Foundation, DC Open Government Coalition, Socrata and


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Code for DC. Many of the public’s suggestions have been incorporated into the Open
Government Initiative. Comments can still be submitted through the open.dc.gov website.

Mayor Gray also solicits feedback and shares information through a wide variety of other
platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and the Ask the Mayor feature on the
mayor.dc.gov website that allows members of the public to submit questions directly to
the Mayor’s Office. When correspondence is submitted through the Ask the Mayor
feature it is entered in to the Intranet Quorum (IQ) system, a database that houses and
tracks the Mayor’s incoming mail to ensure that it is responded to promptly.

In addition, Mayor Gray believes there is no substitute for live public engagement and
prioritizes face to face interaction with District residents and community leaders to keep
them informed and engaged. Below are a few ways that Mayor Gray has engaged
District residents in the past year:

      Mayor Gray holds biweekly press briefings to update the media about the District
       government’s latest accomplishments, goals, and projects. He also takes questions
       from the press on any topic. In addition, every month Mayor Gray appears on
       NewsTalk on News Channel 8 where he discusses his administration’s plans for
       advancing the city and takes phone calls from the public.

       Every year Mayor Gray conducts a series of Budget Town Hall Meetings,
       including one in every ward, to brief residents about his proposed budget. In
       2014, he held 11 town hall meetings. Residents are able to provide the mayor and
       his cabinet with feedback in person during the town hall or through email at
       budgetquestions@dc.gov.

      Mayor Gray holds quarterly meetings with Advisory Neighborhood Commission
       (ANC) Chairs and Boards and Commissions Chairs to keep key community
       leaders informed of important issues and projects in which the District
       government is engaged.

      Each year Mayor Gray delivers a State of the District Address to report on the
       status of the city and outline his agenda and priorities for the year. In 2014, Mayor
       Gray delivered his State of the District Address at Kelly Miller Middle School
       with hundreds of District residents in attendance.

      On the mayor’s behalf, the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs (MOCA) shares
       information with the public live and through a number of ways including listservs,
       newsletters, community meetings, websites, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
       MOCA maintains constant contact with stakeholders and invites the public to
       participate in government sponsored events and forums.
Perhaps most importantly, the Mayor maintains a breathtaking public schedule which
includes regular participation in community meetings to keep residents informed of
important issues and projects in which the District government is engaged and to listen to


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   residents and stakeholders. Mayor Gray is dedicated to serving the residents of the
   District of Columbia and works hard to ensure their needs are heard and met.


3) Collaboration

   Mayor Gray strongly believes in collaboration, and during his administration, multiagency
   collaborative efforts have proven to be the most effective. Mayor Gray holds monthly
   cabinet meetings to ensure that agency directors are aware of different agencies’ projects
   and goals and have an opportunity to partner with other agencies. It is important to Mayor
   Gray to break down the silo mentality and promote agency partnerships. The Deputy
   Mayor structure in the Gray Administration also accomplishes this by convening cluster
   meetings that allow agencies with generally similar areas of focus to communicate and
   work together to tackle issues with the Deputy Mayors able to coordinate work across
   clusters.

   The partnership with the Executive Office of the Mayor (EOM) and Office of the Chief
   Technology Officer (OCTO) has been vital to the success of the Open Government
   Initiative. OCTO was a key partner in helping EOM with the creation of the new central
   open government website, open.dc.gov, which provides a large quantity of government
   information and makes it easier for the public to locate information that could have
   otherwise been hard to find on individual agency webpages. In addition, with the help of
   OCTO, EOM collaborated with all district agencies to create new and uniformed agency
   Open Government and FOIA webpages that contain much more agency specific
   information than ever before.

   Furthermore, Mayor Gray understands that our Open Government Initiative must solicit
   and incorporate feedback from the public, nonprofit entities, and private entities to reach
   its full potential. To aid in the advancement of the initiative, the Mayor will soon appoint
   an Open Government Advisory Group that includes key representatives of the District
   government as well as representatives of the DC Open Government Coalition, Code for
   DC, and the Urban Institute. He will task this group with ensuring that the District
   government is a leader in Open Government and Open Data and making specific
   recommendations for improving the openness and transparency of the District government.

   Mayor Gray believes in working collaboratively—both inside and outside District
   government—to achieve the common goal of advancing the District of Columbia. He
   understands that this can only be achieved when District government leaders have the
   opportunity to learn from and partner with each other. The Mayor’s Sustainability
   Challenge, a grant competition among District agencies to test forward-thinking
   sustainability initiatives, is one tactic Mayor Gray uses to foster agency partnerships within
   the District government. In FY 13, Mayor Gray allocated $6.85 million to date to support
   it. In FY 14, after a large number of collaborative projects were submitted, four District
   agencies and other partnering agencies were selected to receive funding totaling $2.35
   million for seven innovative projects.



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