[TRU Research] Fwd: Discrepencies between Budget Archives and Open Data

[Katie Wilson]

Budget office director to the rescue, kind of...

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: "Noble, Ben" <Ben.Noble at seattle.gov>
> Subject: RE: Discrepencies between Budget Archives and Open Data
> Date: June 9, 2020 at 5:31:02 PM PDT
> To: Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org>
> 
> Katie – long and painful story here, but the Open Data site is not accurate.  I am frankly embarrassed by that reality.  Short-term we may take down the site, but obviously that is not a positive step in terms of transparency.  It was something that got set up in a rush a few years back and has been neglected since (and frankly has not been a priority in the last few months).  I say that by way of explanation not excuse.  In the term, the Budget Archives, while clunky, are the right source.  Based on your flagging of the issue, I have just asked the team whether we can get something else up in the near-term.  I will keep you posted. 
>  
> -ben.
>  
> From: Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org <mailto:katie at transitriders.org>> 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 4:29 PM
> To: Noble, Ben <Ben.Noble at seattle.gov <mailto:Ben.Noble at seattle.gov>>
> Subject: Discrepencies between Budget Archives and Open Data
>  
> CAUTION: External Email
> Hi Ben, 
>  
> Sorry to bother you with this, but I emailed the Open Data people first and they told me to ask the City Budget Office. I’m wondering why there are significant discrepencies between the Budget Archives <https://www.seattle.gov/city-budget-office/budget-archives> and the budget numbers on the Open Data site <https://openbudget.seattle.gov/#!/year/default>. 
>  
> To give one timely example, this Open Data page <https://openbudget.seattle.gov/#!/year/2020/operating/0/department/Police/0/service?vis=barChart> puts the 2020 SPD budget at ~$357m, whereas the number in the 2020 adopted budget <https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/FinanceDepartment/20adoptedbudget/SPD.pdf> and reported in various news articles <https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/after-days-of-seattle-protests-city-will-withdraw-request-to-remove-police-force-from-federal-oversight/> is $400m+. I have been digging around and making graphs and there are a lot of discrepencies like this. I understand that proposed and adopted and actual budgets are all different, but that doesn’t seem to account for it.
>  
> Please feel free to direct me elsewhere if there’s someone else I should be asking about this.
>  
> Thanks!
> Katie
>  
> Katie Wilson
> General Secretary
> Transit Riders Union
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>  
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