Mayoral candidate Greg Fischer announced his transparency plan in for Metro Louisville government, Tuesday.
The Democrat said he would parlay his experience with his ice/beverage dispenser company to create an online portal, LouieStat, for citizens to both access and report information to the city.
The campaign of Republican opponent Hal Heiner responded, saying that Fischer has co-opted Heiner's ideas, and cited several proposals Heiner previously released regarding transparency and online tools for citizens.
Both Fischer and Heiner, for instance, are calling for a smartphone app that could be used by citizens to report potholes to the city.
Fischer Campaign:
Greg Fischer pledged today to make his administration the most open, honest and transparent in the nation in part by implementing LouieStat, a data-driven management and accountability tool, which will be used to make city government more responsive, efficient, and cost effective.
The program would also publicize service delivery statistics online so citizens can see exactly how tax dollars are being spent and when services are coming to their neighborhood.
Fischer, sitting behind his desk in the Yorktown neighborhood off National Turnpike to unveil his plans, said he would also bring government to every neighborhood by putting more city services online and having flexible hours for city government, including nights and weekends.
"This is the people's government, and they deserve to know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent," Fischer said.
Fischer said citizens should not have to come to City Hall to do most city business, and he pledged to move everything online. He said the current city website, louisvilleky.gov, already recognized as one of the best in the nation, can be improved even further.
He pledged to create iPhone and smart phone apps so the public can have access to government, including a feature in which people can snap pictures of neighborhood problems then e-mail them, with geocoding, to the city.
A citizen, for example, could snap a picture of a broken sidewalk, a burned out spotlight or a pothole and send that information in for repair.
Fischer also announced that a new initiative, LouieStat, will combine existing data and resources to provide information about response times for service requests, and city services available in your neighborhood. LouieStat will further open up the city's finances for public review, and will help departments and managers make more informed decisions on resource allocation and operations, creating greater efficiencies and cost-savings in government. The information from LouieStat will be available to the public via the city's website.
Citizens could log onto LouieStat, for example, to know when their street is scheduled for repaving or when the grass is going to be cut in their neighborhood park. They can also access information about response times and spending on a range of city services, including pothole repair, remediation of vacant housing, permitting, and trash collection.
LouieStat is a natural extension of the work that Fischer has done in the private sector.
SerVend, the ice/beverage dispenser company Fischer co-founded in the early 1980s, won the USA Today Quality Cup because of the use of data and employee and customer involvement.
The company was able to increase the speed of product delivery over 100%.
"You can see how this type of performance increase could apply to expediting building permits or filling potholes," Fischer said. "Involving the entire community in the improvement process and allows a quick, meaningful interaction between the citizens and their government."
Fischer also pledged to budget hearings in neighborhoods to get citizen input on how the city's money should be spent before the mayor puts together the budget.
Currently, there is little to no citizen input when the mayor builds the budget. And, once it is presented to the Metro Council, all budget hearings are held downtown, at City Hall.
"My administration will be a fresh start, and I want to hear from all of our citizens about their priorities and build the city budget around them," Fischer said.
Four-point plan for open, honest government:
Create Louisville Statistics, or LouieStat – a program that will publicize statistics online so citizens can see exactly how tax dollars are being spent and when services are coming to their neighborhood. Citizens could log onto LouieStat to know when their street is scheduled for repaving; when the grass will be cut in their neighborhood park; or when sidewalks and street lights will be repaired. They can also access information about response times and spending on a range of city services, including pothole repair, remediation of vacant housing, permitting, and trash collection.
Put more city services online and creating iPhone and smart phone apps so the public can have access to government information, including a feature in which people can snap pictures of neighborhood problems then e-mail them, with geocoding, to the city. A citizen, for example, could snap a picture of a broken sidewalk or a pothole and send that information in for repair. And, on LouieStat, you could track the progress of your request.
Provide flexible hours for city government, including nights and weekends. Citizens should not have to come to City Hall during the day to do most city business.
Hold budget hearing in neighborhoods. Currently, there is little to no citizen input when the mayor builds the budget – that will change as Greg asks citizens for their input on what should be funded. And, once the budget is presented to the Metro Council, Greg will encourage the council to hold hearings in neighborhoods, not just downtown at City Hall, as currently happens.
Heiner Campaign:
In a familiar trend Greg Fischer has once again co-opted Hal's policy as his own and expanded government services without any explanation of how he'll pay for them. For someone who claims to be an inventor Greg has had tremendous difficulty inventing his own policy. Louisville deserves a mayor with ideas and Hal Heiner is the only candidate with those original ideas.