Columbia Mayor Brian Treece introduced the Citizen Transparency portal Friday morning in the Council Chambers. The portal makes public data easier to access.
The portal logs the city’s financial data, including revenues, expenditures and employee payrolls.
“It’s an online portal that’s going to give taxpayers unprecedented access to financial data from the city,” Treece said. “Just like Columbia families sit down and look at their own checkbook to identify maybe errors or opportunities for savings, now for the first time Columbia families are going to be able to look at the city’s checkbook.”
Treece said he first requested this portal be made following his election in April 2016. He said an “open, honest and transparent government” has been a priority while mayor.
Instead of filing requests for data, people can now access information on the portal.
“It’s important to remember that under the Sunshine law, all of this information was already public record,” Treece said. “It’s just now going to be available in a more easily searchable, online, accessible format.”
Columbia’s Community Relations Director Steven Sapp demonstrated the portal at the press conference. It includes graphs and opportunities to sort data by date, demographic, amount, or other criteria.
The portal operates through Tyler Technologies and will be updated every Friday afternoon, Treece said.
The portal can be found on the City of Columbia’s website or here: http://transparency.tylertech.com/columbia/pages/default.aspx?PageView=Shared