USER EXPERIENCE TASK FORCE
Meeting Minutes
Date: December 6, 2013
Time: 10:30 AM
Place: Larson Building, Room 116
Next Meeting: December 18, 2013
Place: Larson Building, Room 116
Task force members attending:
Appointed by Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater
Charles Ghini, Chief Information Officer, Department of Financial Services (Vice
Chair)
Appointed by Senate President Don Gaetz
Barbara A. Petersen, President, First Amendment Foundation – via telephone
Appointed by Speaker of the House Will Weatherford
Jordan Raynor, Co-founder and Partnerships Director, Citizinvestor – via telephone
Meeting began at 10:30 A.M.
1. Call to Order Vice Chair Ghini began the meeting by welcoming all User Experience Task
Force members and all members of the public in attendance.
2. Roll Call The Administrative Assistant called the roll. All Task Force members except for
Chair Allison were in attendance.
Agenda item #2 was closed.
3. Chairman’s Opening Remarks Vice Chair Ghini stated that the primary purpose for the meeting is to hear
presentations from the subject matter experts (SMEs) for the in-scope websites for the
purposes of Chapter 3 of the work plan.
Agenda item 3 was closed.
4. Discussion of Completed Tasks From Last Meeting
Vice Chair Ghini addressed the document containing all action items from the last
meeting. He stated that all items but one are completed and that one is pending. He asked
if any of the members had any questions or issues with the action items document. No
one had any issues.
Vice Chair Ghini then stated that the purpose of this meeting was the result of #7
of the action items. He stated that if all members were ok, they would get started with the
SME presentations. No issues.
Agenda item #4 was closed.
5. Subject Matter Expert and Technical Manager Presentations with Q/A A. Mike Jones from Systems Design and Development spoke regarding
transparencyfl.com and the Florida fiscal portal. Vice Chair Ghini stated that all
documents to be discussed were posted to the UETF website.
i. Transparencyfl.com was developed in 2009 in response to Senator Alexander’s
wish to provide the public with certain data. Site details:
− Run audits every day on the data received from all systems.
− Original design had personnel data broken down to individual.
− Rolled up at the request of Senate President Atwater prior to
FloridaHasARightToKnow.
− Still maintaining the rolled up data.
Mr. Jones recommended that any consolidated system needs to be aware of
intended audience. He described the difference between the accounting data located on
transparencyfl.com (shown in the year appropriated) and on the CFO’s transparency
website (shown in the current year).
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked Mr. Jones about who decides what goes on
transparencyfl.com.
A: Mr. Jones stated that the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee meets with him
once per year regarding the website, and most requests for addition of information comes
from House Appropriations, Senate Appropriations, or the [Governor’s] Office of Policy
& Budget, trying to tie appropriations data with accounting data.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if it would be a fair assessment to say that someone
would need a bit of knowledge in order to understand the website.
A: Mr. Jones stated that somebody would have to have at least a basic knowledge
of state accounting and budgeting as it is a complex process.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked how the website could be improved.
A: Mr. Jones stated that they have a video tutorial, glossary and user’s manual,
but they could write up a more descriptive document about how the state does budgeting
and accounting, that would be helpful. They tried to make the language as plain as they
could without losing do much detail that it would not be if use to the analysts using the
information.
Q: Do you manipulate or clean the data in any way?
A: Yes, especially LAS/PBS data, FLAIR data. We do not put raw data out there;
we put it in usable terms.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if Mr. Jones were to start today, what would he do
differently?
A: Mr. Jones stated that he doesn’t know that it can be made easier without losing
the detail. He has recently hired someone with no budget experience to enhance the user
experience.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if Mr. Jones would have a problem reconciling both
legs of his website.
A: Mr. Jones answered that he would not. He is planning two views of the
website, one from public and one from analyst perspective.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if Mr. Jones has a suggestion box/way for public to
provide feedback for his website.
A: Mr. Jones answered that he does. Theresa Brosay stated that she has received
questions/suggestions from a student in California. A few questions/suggestions from
analysts in other agencies.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if there is a disclaimer on the website.
A: Mr. Jones stated that there is a disclaimer that states that the numbers are not
for audit purposes. If someone is looking to audit spend amounts, they should go to the
source. They also provide a contact list.
ii. The task force moved on to discussing the Florida Fiscal Portal. All documents
are static and in .pdf format. Prior to the creation of this website, documents were
scattered throughout the Senate, House, agencies, and Governor’s Office. Now, .pdf’s
are stored in LAS/PBS and replicated on Florida Fiscal Portal. Date back to 2000/2001.
LBC and Mid-year budget amendments are not located on this website. They are located
on transprencyFL.com. Not operating budget, house bill, senate bill, and GAA.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if the website has a disclaimer stating that it does not
contain operating budget.
A: Mr. Jones stated that they may need to take a look at it and possibly add that
wording.
Q: Jordan Raynor asked what the background of the person Mr. Jones had hired
was, graphic design or user experience design.
A: Mr. Jones stated that she is a student at Florida State University and her focus
is on graphic design.
Mr. Jones then discussed one question from the Task Force, “what would you do
differently?” Mr. Jones stated that they are working to incorporate a search function on
the website. As of now, the individual .pdfs are searchable, but there is no functionality to
search within the website. Example: search all of Governor’s recommendations for
“Everglades.”
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if the initiative to change this was his own initiative of
from another source.
A: Mr. Jones stated that statutory changes made in 2013 require the Florida Fiscal
portal to be searchable.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if they have thought about how to size that search
engine.
A: Mr. Jones stated that, using the statistics from both websites, he is confident
that it will not be a problem. The websites run on back end Oracle server and the front
end Microsoft Windows 2008 (2) servers.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked, in the spirit of de-duplication, if Mr. Jones’ website
could absorb any existing transparency information.
A: Mr. Jones answered that FloridaHasARightToKnow could easily be absorbed
as transparencyfl.com already has the information in a rolled-up format. As far as FLAIR
vs. transparencyfl.com, the audiences are different, so the numbers are different. He
doesn’t know if they could be combined without really confusing people.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini explained that the purpose of the Task Force is to create
uniform presentation of the data. He asked if Mr. Jones saw any data that could be
presented or linked instead of brought in.
A: Mr. Jones explained that the GPS website that OPAGGA shows is an example
of his data being pushed other places.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if Mr. Jones struggles with general information vs.
program area information.
A: Mr. Jones stated that he does recognize the difference, and program area
information is not included at a granular level on his website.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if he deals with commodity codes.
A: Mr. Jones answered no.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if M. Jones or staff get calls from analysts asking why
his numbers and FLAIR numbers don’t match.
A: Theresa Brosay stated that once she explains the way the numbers are figured
(within the year appropriated), the questions are answered.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if any statutory changes would be needed to open up
the data on the websites to another transparency site.
A: Mr. Jones explained that the statutes do not get into the minutia, as long as he
was not asked to remove data, he does not foresee problems. Example: if he was told not
to show vetoes anymore, changes would be needed.
B. Michael Johnston from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
(DACS) spoke regarding the DACS transparency website. The audience is Floridians in
general and the functionality and design are partially based on the CFO’s transparency
website (FACTS).
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if they have the ability to receive public comment.
A: CIO Johnston stated that they have vehicles within the website for the public to
ask questions and provide feedback. While they do get significant traffic, CIO
Johnston stated that he has not yet seen any questions or feedback.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked about the source of the data for the DACS
transparency website and how much they manipulate or clean the data.
A: CIO Johnston deferred the question to his developer, Steven Lang. The data
source is the internal purchasing program, and once the contract goes through the
internal approvals and receives final approval, it is immediately available on the
website. They also receive a nightly download from FLAIR to reconcile payment
data. The data is, for all intents and purposes, real time. The data is approved raw
data relating to the contracts that they have.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked where they get their commodity codes and if they
manipulate them at all, how they are being displayed, etc.
A: Mr. Lang stated that they get them from FLAIR, but the process is external to
the transparency website; it is part of the purchasing process. Also deferred to
business analyst, Scott (unable to hear last name). Scott stated that they are standard
commodity codes either provided by FLAIR or state purchasing.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if they do any validation/checking of the data.
A: Mr. Lang stated that the validation of the data is done during the procurement
process.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if they post images of any sort.
A: Mr. Lang stated that they post final contract documents after they have been
reviewed for redaction.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if there are any planned improvements to the website.
A: CIO Johnston stated that they are looking at automating the redaction process,
but other than that, no plans.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if they link to other divisions’ program-related data.
A: On other parts of the website, there is division-specific information and also an
aggregated annual report, but no specific application that aggregates the information.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if they have a glossary of terms or some way to
educate the public about what is on their transparency website.
A: CIO Johnston and Mr. Lang stated that they did not, and that they have had no
discussions about any disclaimers related to the data presented. CIO Johnston agreed
that it would be helpful. However, they have not garnered feedback from constituents.
Vice Chair Ghini stated that the Task Force is wrestling with how to get public
feedback. Barbara Petersen stated that she was using the DACS website, and
suggested a list of vendors and an explanation of some of the terms. CIO Johnston
stated that a drop-down list of vendors may be less helpful as it would be extensive.
Vice Chair Ghini moved to go to lunch and return to the meeting at 1pm.
The Meeting resumed at 1pm.
The present Task Force members discussed the previous presentations. Barbara
Petersen stressed the importance of consistent look and feel of all sites linked to a
portal, if that is the recommendation made by the Task Force. The present Task Force
members discussed the distinction between transparency and access to public records.
Christina Smith from the Department of Financial Services, Division of
Accounting and Auditing presented the CFO’s transparency website to the Task
Force. She discussed the continually evolving nature of transparency in the State of
Florida and particularly in the Department. She broke the responses into different
portions of the CFO’s transparency website. Director Smith stated that her group
struggles with how to present the information on the website in a meaningful way.
Example: Vendor Payments are cleaned up to represent a “checkbook” like look for
easier understanding. She also explained the differences between the ways the
different groups look at budget (echoing Mike Jones’ comment). Her websites have a
lot of footnotes, but she’s not sure the public knows enough about the budget process
to understand the difference.
Director Smith also stressed the use of PIRG scorecards in deciding what changes
should be made to the website. She recognizes that other states do this well. She also
recognizes that program areas should retain the detail on their websites because there
is a point when the higher level website cannot provide the detail. Examples:
Department of Economic Opportunity and Department of Transportation.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if the CFO’s office is planning any improvements in
the future.
A: Director Smith explained that her data availability is limited to the age of the
accounting system. As the accounting system is updated, the data possibilities can be
improved. She stated that the numbers of visits are so low, she assumes they are not
hitting the mark.
She went on to discuss the other sites they reported on, beginning with “Where
State Dollars Go: Your Money Matters” and she again explained that usage numbers
are low.
FACTS is a hybrid between transparency and access as it allows improvement of
business processes while placing the information on the website for public
consumption.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked Director Smith how important she views legislative
changes to the process.
A: Director Smith stated that the statutes are there to ensure usage and to give the
CFO’s office the authority to maintain data consistency. It took 5 months to develop
consistency for the website.
Vice Chair Ghini and Director Smith reiterated the two-fold nature of the FACTS
website.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked about the source of the data.
A: Director Smith stated that they receive files daily (usually through ftp). She
also stated that the images must be redacted before moving images into the system.
Bigger agencies work with them to automate loading the data.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked how much more legislation is needed to reach the
transparency goals.
A: Director Smith stated that the main goal of the legislation is to give someone
the authority to implement any changes needed and to drive the data consistency.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if it would have happened without legislation changes.
A: Director Smith stated that they may have eventually gotten to the current
website due to business need, but it definitely speeds it along. She discussed longterm plans for updates to the Vendor Payments page coming from US-PIRG related
to high-level payment information, search capabilities, and download capabilities.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked Director Smith to discuss the source of the data in her
website.
A: Director Smith stated that FLAIR is the source of data for all but FACTS and
the Local Budget portions. She confirmed that state agencies feed FLAIR information
as they are all required to use FLAIR as the central accounting system of the State of
Florida. The system is so old, it doesn’t have as many fields as they would like.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if they get information from Mike Jones/LASPBS.
A: Director Smith stated that they get the end result of budget changes as they are
responsible for keeping up with the spend of the budget. LAS/PAB owns budget,
payments are owned by Christina’s group.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked how much clean-up of the data is performed before it
is placed on the website.
A: Director Smith stated that her group performs a lot of clean-up of the raw data.
The data is filled with confusing internal movement (journal transfers, cost allocation,
etc.) and they present the information more usefully on the website.
Director Smith stated that one area they are missing is a common request from
reporters – to have the data broken down by county. Technology is not available to
break it down.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if the agencies would know better.
A: Director Smith stated that they would not necessarily. The Department of
Education (DOE) has to do it due to a federal requirement, and they had to go through
extensive “gyrations” to produce the required data. The DOE places this information
on their websites, but partially because it is so difficult to produce and because of its
value.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked Director Smith if she knows of any duplication of data
on the different transparency sites and how many times FLAIR data is replicated on
other sites and how much data from other websites is replicated on the CFO’s
website. .
A: Director Smith stated that she and Mike Jones share lots of information for
their websites. She also stated that many non-state groups roll out their own websites
with state information through public records requests. Expenditure and payroll
information is most common.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked Director Smith to list 3-5 improvements that could be
made to the data on the CFO’s transparency website.
A: Director Smith‘s first improvement was “the rollup.” Other states have done
this well. Presenting data in a simple fashion will return higher usage and be more
meaningful.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini stated that the DACS has a real-time feed for its contract
website. He asked Director Smith if she sees a big need to improve the real-time
aspect.
A: Director Smith stated, “In some areas.” She is working on a Chart of Accounts
project so that all agencies can report at the same time. They are as real-time as they
can be due to the technology, but other data (local budgets) may be improved. They
are talking about whether there is a need to have it real-time.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked what showstoppers she deals with in when trying to
get her information out there.
A: Director Smith stated that technology functionality, search engines, glossary of
terms, and disclaimers are all key factors in a successful transparency website.
Disclaimers should be consistent. The glossary took 7-8 months, significant resources
- lot of effort.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked how the data is validated.
A: Director Smith stated that they check balances, but they are spreadsheet
people. She would have gone to a non-accountant now to get a different view.
She stated that public outreach is most vocal through PIRG.
Action Item: Director Smith will get the Task Force Members the latest PIRG
report.
Barbara Petersen expressed her pleasure at hearing that the Vendor Payments tab
would be improved to include object codes to identify items included in payments.
Director Smith restated that Transparency continues to evolve. The more
transparent the state is, the increase in accountability. It does not take the place of the
public records request. Detailed records are available through public records, and
giving the public an easy way to get a quick turnaround on requests is also important.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if Director Smith has seen an across-the-board surge in
costs or requests for money to increase transparency.
A: Director Smith stated that she had not because the movement is centralized.
Local governments mention costs, but it depends on where the data is housed.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked what impact the chart of accounts project would have
on transparency.
A: Director Smith stated that the recommendation is due in January.
Recommendation is that revenue would be collected monthly, and balance sheet
would be done annually. Annual reporting costs less, but policy makers have the
ultimate decision. Often the data is raw, and reporting agencies have a hard time
reporting non-cleaned data. She stated that policy decisions should be made using
annual reports, not the raw data.
The Task Force moved on to discuss the questionnaires received but not available
for presentation. Vice Chair Ghini stated that the EDR and Auditor General’s
websites are sites that should be pointed to as links as they are very specific and
static. Vice Chair Ghini stated that “FloridaHasARightToKnow” is also specific and
comprehensive. Barbara Petersen stated that State Payroll information is very
specific, and they agreed that the payroll information should be consolidated.
The Task Force moved on the Senate and House submissions. Jordan Raynor
discussed the analytics data and how little Senate Salaries are searched. Susan Wilson
(Senate) explained the use of the contract and salary information and how it related to
the spirit of the legislation and initiatives happening elsewhere. Eliza Hawkins
(House) explained that all information is updated quarterly on both House and Senate
websites.
Q: Vice Chair Ghini asked if there are any thoughts of changing the data to be
more real-time.
A: Neither Ms. Hawkins nor Ms. Wilson knew of any movement. They also could
not answer any policy questions relating to the websites.
Barbara Petersen stated that the salary and contract information is regularly
requested by her customers. Vice Chair Ghini discussed the possibility of linking the
House and Senate salary websites to FloridaHasARightToKnow.
Agenda item #5 was closed.
6. Other Discussion
Action Item: The Task Force asked if the House could provide more general
information on analytics for the entire House website.
Agenda item 6 was closed.
7. Public Comment No public comment.
Agenda item 7 was closed.
8. Adjourn Vice-Chair Ghini adjourned the meeting at 2:45pm.