There is a lack of data transparency, accessibility, and properly working systems such as policies, processes, broken website links, website links to meetings, documents, historic content, minutes and video resulting in significant impediments to residents’ ability to view, research, and participate in County activities in a transparent way.
- County appears to lack data transparency and accessibility.
- County website redesign and associated problems make it harder for residents to find information.
- Public-facing County systems are released with significant errors appear to cause impediments for resident participation.
- County policies are not easily accessible or viewable to the public.
- County appears to delay or not fully utilize technology resources to provide greater transparency.
County appears to lack data transparency and accessibility.
FOIA Concerns raised over Open Data Portal.
FOIA Concerns raised over Open Data Portal639 and the County’s Award as a “Digital Leader” are denied and dismissed by County Manager, who provided misleading evidence, and is later called out.640
In 2017, a former Arlington County Commissioner noticed that Arlington County won an award for The Top 5 Counties for Digital Government — Arlington, VA #4.641, 642 However, this seemed wholly inappropriate given the state of the Open Data Portal and access to even the most basic data. She wrote to the County Board and provided a few suggestions on improving it. County Manager Mark Schwartz replied to those suggestions denying almost all the issues that were shared and ignored the suggestions. She replied back to Mr. Schwartz with details outlining how his reply was not only inappropriate for not acknowledging the suggestions, but bordered on negligent for providing misleading screenshots of data categories, which in actuality had little to no data associated with them as evidence that the County had a functioning and relatively complete Open Data Portal.643
639 https://data.arlingtonva.us/home
640 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-toakP1lXLgZqMThlW5y45-10wfrIu3XETjFNP2jKXI/edit?usp=sharing
641 https://www.arlingtonva.us/About-Arlington/News/Articles/2017/Arlington-Named-Top-Digital-County-for-2017
642 https://www.arlingtonva.us/About-Arlington/News/Articles/2021/Arlington-Receives-Top-Digital-Counties-Award-for-2021
643 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-toakP1lXLgZqMThlW5y45-10wfrIu3XETjFNP2jKXI/edit?usp=sharing
The Open Data Advisory Group (ODAG) appears to have been effectively eliminated.
The Open Data Advisory Group644 (ODAG) was a County Manager Advisory Group created in 2017 to enable the Arlington community to help inform government policy development and decision making through the use of data-driven analysis. However, this group has not met since 2019. All member appointment terms have expired.645, 646
The County Manager is no longer receiving feedback to inform government policy development and decision-making through the use of data-driven analysis. Additionally, the privacy impact considerations are no longer being performed.
For information on the creation and purpose of ODAG, please refer here
644 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Commissions-and-Advisory-Groups/ODAG
645 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Commissions-and-Advisory-Groups/ODAG
646 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Commissions-and-Advisory-Groups/ODAG/Members
Board financial disclosure and conflict of interest documents are not available via the Open Data Portal.
Though on file in the County Board Clerk’s office, the Board’s financial disclosure documents647, 648, 649, should be available in the Open Data portal. “Publishing these documents online would increase the ability of citizens and other interested parties to research and understand potential conflicts of interest in a timely manner.”650, 651, 652, 653
Additionally, while each Board Member is required to disclose conflicts of interest654, 655, 656, 657, disclosure information is rare658 and hard to find. These disclosures should be easily accessible to the public and stated during meetings.
647 http://ethics.dls.virginia.gov/2017 2.0 FDS FINALa.pdf
648 https://arlington.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&meta_id=168015
649 https://www.insidenova.com/news/politics/more-transparency-sought-for-arlington-financial-disclosure- filings/article_57767a46-68b7-11eb-9330-a7e521c292af.html
650 https://www.arlnow.com/2020/01/09/the-hurtt-locker-resolutions-for-arlington-county-government/
651 https://wjla.com/news/local/arlingtons-christian-dorsey-addresses-controversy-after-resigning-from-the- metro-board
652 https://www.arlnow.com/2019/12/20/exclusive-dorsey-says-he-should-have-revealed-bankruptcy-earlier/
653 https://www.arlnow.com/2020/02/13/county-board-considering-next-appropriate-steps-for-christian-dorsey/
654 https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/state-and-local-government-conflict-of-interests-act/
655 http://ethics.dls.virginia.gov/conflict-of-interest.asp
656 http://ethics.dls.virginia.gov/2018%20SLSOEI%20_Sample.pdf
657 http://ethicssearch.dls.virginia.gov/#tabs1-conflict
658 https://arlington.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3655&meta_id=188502
The County Manager, Staff, contractors, and consultants should also disclose conflicts of interest in a publicly transparent manner.
It is unclear whether the County Manager, staff, consultants, and contractors are required to make financial659, 660 and conflict of interest661 disclosures. Such disclosures do not appear to reach the public. Commissioners are required to make such disclosures to the public verbally during meetings. At minimum, such disclosures should be made during public meetings and in reports. This open disclosure and transparency will increase public trust.
659 https://arlington.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&meta_id=168015
660 https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title2.2/chapter31/section2.2-3115/
661 https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/state-and-local-government-conflict-of-interests-act/
Meeting minutes and associated links are not available.
The County does not consistently post meeting minutes and the associated audio and video links for County Board and Advisory Group meetings. Additionally, there can be significant delays in posting the information and meeting link errors may prevent public participation. Even when information is posted, the document may not contain the associated content or minutes.662 The below screenshot was captured October 2022.663
See also here
662 http://arlington.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3793
663 http://arlington.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2
County website redesign and associated problems make it harder for residents to find information.
Arlington County migrated their website October 2021. At one point, the County was working to fix their estimate of 6,634 links broken after the website redesign. Additionally, ArlNow reported that “The changeover to the new site caused links from both search engines and websites like ARLnow to break. As of [November 16, 2021], one link-checking website listed nearly 900,000 broken links to arlingtonva.us pages.”664 Many historic links remain broken as of September 2022. In fact, a quick check using the same broken links tool665 on October 17, 2022 resulted in the tool finding nearly 30,000 broken links on the arlingtonva.us site alone. Staff and vendor did not appear to utilize available tools commonly used for other large website migrations. Information previously available is no longer accessible. Staff appears to be relying on public to search for topics, such as the Columbia Pike Multimodal, Washington Boulevard Bike Trail, or previous Form Based Code approved projects. While some of the links have been fixed, it seems others are now broken. This is violation of Arlington’s published Open Data Principals and various efforts on transparency.666, 667, 668, 669
It is difficult for the community to find historic and other information. Additionally, links in county documents and historic articles remain broken and continue to break. This makes it more difficult for the community to find information and conduct the research required for county projects. The challenges make it more likely that the public will need to file a Freedom of Information Act request for the information670. One resident wrote that “This revamp of the county website has been akin to the burning down of a library with half of the books still inside,” she wrote. “In this case, the ‘books’ still exist — the community simply has no access to them.”671
There has been a significant reduction in broken links to the site. It is unclear if that is due to correctly the problem or simply creating an error page.672, 673, 674, 675, 676, 677, 678, 679 The error/redirect page only disguises underlying problems that prevent the public from finding information.
665 https://ahrefs.com/broken-link-checker
666 https://www.arlnow.com/2021/11/16/broken-links-on-countys-new-website-still-frustrating-some-residents/
667 https://www.arlnow.com/2021/11/17/county-manager-apologizes-for-thousands-of-broken-links-on-new-website/
668 http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2021/nov/10/letter-website-broken-arlington/
669 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Topics/Policy
670 http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2021/nov/10/letter-website-broken-arlington/
671 https://www.arlnow.com/2021/11/16/broken-links-on-countys-new-website-still-frustrating-some-residents/
672 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Programs/Recycling/wp- content/uploads/sites/8/2021/07/HowToCompost_sp.pdf
673 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Programs/Recycling/locations/trades-recycling-drop-center/
674 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Transportation/parking/parking-day/
675 https://www.arlingtonva.us/County-Board/open-door-mondays/
676 http://news.arlingtonva.us/releases/arlington-county-to-regulate-pub-crawls-through-special-events-policy
677 https://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Proposed-Signage-Flagpole- Entrance.pdf
678 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments//wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2021/02/ArlingtonPolicePracticeGroup.Subcommittee.Report..FINAL_.2.15.21.pdf
Public-facing County systems are released with significant errors appear to cause impediments for resident participation.
Summer camp registration and residential parking systems appeared to have system and process errors as well as a lack of historic data required for transactions.
The summer camp registration systems are often released without adequate testing and/or correction of errors. Additionally, the new residential parking system was built and released in a manner that did not adequately import prior RPP records and permit information.
The community was unable to register and/or use the systems as needed to conduct County transactions. The result is that the community wasted significant time and effort unsuccessfully trying to conduct basic county/community business. The County lost revenue due to the payment timeframe and inability to enforce parking due to County delays.
681 https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VAARLINGTON/bulletins/3258914
County policies are not easily accessible or viewable to the public.
The County has not published all County policies, made them accessible or made them easy for the community to understand.
Those policies that are published are not easily searchable. Policies often conflict. The public is held to providing input on policies. The Board creates policies,682 Staff implements policies, and the Board is tasked with monitoring the implementation of policies. However, it is not easy for the community to find policies, which are often buried in a lot of miscellaneous documents, mostly without indication of County Board approval required per Board Member Responsibilities. 683, 684, 685, 686, 687, 688, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693
It is difficult for the community to locate and understand County policies, which is required in order to provide issue input and feedback to the County. It is difficult for the Board and Staff to know and understand policies in place and/or missing. It is difficult for Staff to implement policies when they do not have a definitive source of all policies. It is hard for the Board to monitor the implementation of policies when policies are not understood.694
682 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/County-Board/About-the-County-Board
683 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/County-Board/About-the-County-Board
684 https://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/31/2017/03/Overall-plan-updated-February-25-2017.pdf
685 https://www.arlingtonva.us/About-Arlington/News/Articles/2020/Arlington-Updates-Green-Building-Incentive-Policy
686 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Topics/Cable-Television-Policy-Administration
687 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments/Fire/Fire-Prevention-Office
688 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments/Parks-Recreation/About/Inclement-Weather/Inclement-Weather-Policy
689 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Programs/Housing/Tenant-Assistance-Fund-TAF-Policy
690 https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/Building/Documents/Administrative-Regulation-4.1.pdf
691 https://www.arlingtonva.us/About-Arlington/News/Articles/2018/County-Board-Adopts-Four-Mile-Run-Valley-Policy-Framework
692 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments/County-Board/Strengthening-Legitimacy-with-our-Community-with-a-new-Trust-Policy
693 https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments/CMO/Privacy-Policy/Managing-Privacy
694 https://www.arlnow.com/2021/12/15/peters-take-arlington-county-a-nine-year-perspective-on-the-future/
County appears to delay or not fully utilize technology resources to provide greater transparency.
The County has limited resources for livestreaming and YouTube, which appears to limit transparency and accessibility.
Staff and others use unofficial resources because the County has extremely limited streaming licenses. According to one source, the County is only able to live stream one event or meeting at a time. Furthermore, recorded videos sometimes have delays of multiple months prior to being posted for the public. Rather than using the Arlington County Official YouTube Account 695, unofficial County and Staff accounts are being used for official business, for example: YouTube account: kurtlarrick1 (Assistant Director of the Dept of Human Services) 696
This results in lack of transparency, accountability, sunshine and timely notification of County meeting proceedings. It is difficult for County and community resources to find all of the relevant meeting material when it is not kept in an official location and easily searchable (public) rather than unlisted. It is difficult for the County to comply with FOIA requests for this information when it is dispersed. While Staff may have the best intention by recording and posting the meetings with personal resources, the County should post the content centrally. YouTube account: ArlingtonCoVA 697, 698, 699, 700
695 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa4MVjN_2slqln_Lu3rSHBA
696 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8TTpOPmf54
697 https://www.youtube.com/user/ArlingtonCoVA
698 https://youtu.be/GtmSZxpPwoo?t=2430