GIS Steering Committee

“Where People Count” MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS 1000 Civic Center Drive, Niles, Illinois 60714 Telephone (847) 588-8000 Fax (847) 588-8050 GIS Steering Committee Meeting June 16, 2011 Co-Chairs: Andrew Przybylo – Trustee George Van Geem – Village Manager Persons in attendance: Robert Callero Mayor Mousa Nazzal Engineering Superintendent Bob Pilat Public Services Bill Shaw MIS Director George Van Geem Village Manager Andrew Vitale MIS – Sr. GIS Coordinator Rich Wlodarski Community Development The meeting was called to order at 8:01 a.m. Agenda Item #1 – Approval of Minutes The minutes of the April 14, 2011 meeting were approved. Agenda Item #2 – Old Business – Project Updates Atlas Training A.Vitale reported that he and B. Shaw completed Atlas training at Public Services. The department received Atlas very well, giving quick, positive feedback from which some changes have already been implemented. A.Vitale noted that Public Services and Community Development are the first two departments who call when Atlas is unavailable or when there is a problem, which proves that people are using it. The Fire Department and the Trustees are the last two groups to be trained. A. Vitale is waiting to hear from Fire Chief Steve Borkowski to schedule the training sessions. Maintenance Management System (MMS) A.Vitale reported that MMS configuration is still ongoing. While MIS has the most to do with it at this stage, GIS is still an active part of it. We have until June 30, 2011 to determine if this package will perform as expected; B.Shaw stated that, based on the progress so far, it will absolutely perform as expected. At this point, we are about half way through the process, and it is moving along quite well. Early next week he will contact Bob Pilat for additional information regarding labor and vehicles. Call him if you are interested in seeing it before it “goes live.” Agenda Item #3 – New Business GIS Consortium Data Sharing A.Vitale reported that he received a call from his counterparts in the GIS Consortium regarding access to our data set of Address Points, to be used for NSECC dispatch purposes. As part of the same conversation, it was suggested that the Consortium communities and the Village of Niles begin a more comprehensive data sharing initiative. A. Vitale believes the Consortium is essentially trying to fill out their online maps with Niles’ information they don’t have (streets, buildings, road edges, curbs, etc.) They brought it to their board, where it was not very well received. They will continue to try to convince their board that this is a good idea. A.Vitale will keep this committee informed. B.Shaw suggested that their board may be reluctant to share data because, while sharing data may make sense, they don’t want to give away what they have to pay so much for. Automated Generation of Atlas Map Books (PDFs) A.Vitale reported that he has completed a process that allows him to automatically generate, on a nightly basis, Atlas PDFs. The PDFs are being generated whether there are changes or not. But when there are changes to the water and sewer atlases, these map books will be published to the M drive and will be available the following day. He can also run the process as needed. Within 24 to 48 hours, these PDFs should reflect the data in Atlas. Cook County Assessor Data – Removal of “Taxpayer Name” A.Vitale received new information from Cook County a few months ago that includes new planimetric information, new parcels, new Assessor’s tables, etc. He noticed that “Taxpayer Name” has been removed from the Assessor’s table, so we will no longer be provided with the name of the owner of a particular parcel based on the most recent tax bills. Confused by this change, he asked the Assessor’s office what happened. They responded that the Treasurer’s office asked them to stop sharing this information. This information is, however, available on the Treasurer’s website. In reaction to this, because “taxpayer name” soon won’t be available on Atlas, we can use the owner information we have in CityView, NNS, Utility Billing, and other owner-information sources. These sources, however, will not be the official owners of record according to the County. G. Van Geem suggested that if we have a contact name in any of our systems, we should bring it in and use it. B.Shaw stated that we have held off making the move to the new county data until we brought it before this committee because it will change Atlas and will change our search capabilities and 2 what is displayed in several areas under property information. He doesn’t want to rip out “taxpayer name” because the county may reverse this decision. In the meantime, we will have to temporarily disable that feature. He suggests using our information that we have for owner, put it in place and rely on that until “taxpayer name” returns. A.Vitale suggested flagging the information with the most recent date of the information and its source. R. Wlodarski urged caution: Erroneous information is worse than no information. He would rather just go to the Treasurer’s site. A.Vitale has already drafted an email to other GIS analysts in Cook County to ask if they are willing to join in on an open letter to the Treasurer’s office that will ask for the rationale behind this decision and will ask them to reconsider. B. Shaw added that we will come to the next meeting with a solution in place and will give everyone a chance to work with it. We can always adjust it if we need to. B. Shaw continued that Atlas training for the Trustees has been delayed because of this development, which will cause such a significant change to Atlas. We would rather have a more stable version in place before we teach them how to use it. Those who have already received Atlas training will be notified of this change. GPS / Snow Plow Tracking B. Shaw reported that at previous meetings, Public Services has expressed interest in tracking snow plows, thereby improving efficiency and establishing better controls. B. Pilat has shared a list of vendors who had helped a neighboring county achieve this type of control. In the last two months, MIS contacted Compass Com (software) and Feeney Wireless (communications) – two of the big players in this technology - and learned what the current technologies are. Once Maintenance Management is up, we plan to assemble a team with Public Services to define and prioritize the goals and establish the phases. GPS vehicle tracking requires Internet access to the vehicle, where the GPS transmits its location back to us. That Internet access is very similar to what we will need for in-vehicle communications to MMS, using laptops or handhelds. We want to make sure we build the correct infrastructure in order to support both in-vehicle communications and GPS tracking. We have money in this year’s budget for in-vehicle communications. We plan to meet with Public Services in late summer so that when we begin the budget process in the fall, we will have specific needs outlined to put in the next fiscal year budget. B. Shaw added that the use of this technology can be broadened to include other tasks and functions of the Village 365 days a year, with the potential to save gas, time and labor. A.Vitale stated that both of these companies support a “phased-in” approach – starting with GPS tracking, moving to telematics (when vehicles are moving), then moving into vehicle controls such as blade up/blade down, salt or beet juice, etc. These are expensive options, but worth investigating. There may be EPA grants available. 3 Agenda Item #4 – Departmental Projects MIS Audit A.Vitale distributed copies of selected portions of the 2011 MIS Department Audit conducted by Crowe Consulting. GIS was not a direct subject of the audit, but was peripherally involved. He reviewed some of the points made in the audit as they relate to current GIS tasks and plans for the near future, as well as its comments about benchmarking Niles’ GIS as compared to other communities and the Consortium. The following observations were made:
As compared to nine other neighboring communities, Niles ranks fourth in GIS spending. (pg 38)
The GIS costs for two of the communities listed (Downers Grove and Northbrook) may be understated. (pg 39)
Because of outsourcing, Glenview’s costs are the highest. (pg 41)
Because each community reported their expenses differently, some of the costs may be understated, making it difficult to make accurate comparisons. (pg 45)
Without a true representation of real costs, it is difficult to draw any real conclusions.
GIS was not the main focus of the audit, so perhaps the auditor did not spend a lot of time gathering all pertinent information.
This section of the report is for informational purposes only. No management decisions can be made based on this GIS data.
One result of the audit is that it would cost us more to outsource. A.Vitale reported that the GIS-specific projects (pg 122-123, 127-128) are highlighted in blue if they are complete, close to completion or in maintenance phase; and are highlighted in yellow if they are ongoing or have been initiated. There is a wide variety of near- and long-term projects that were based on the input from this committee, conversations with department heads, or with general direction that the technology has taken. A.Vitale feels that he could do a lot of these smaller data-building projects listed in the audit with the help of an unpaid intern. He would like to investigate what kind of talent and skills are out there. Community Development Department Intern A.Vitale reported that the Community Development Department has an intern who is working on a bike route plan and the Niles 2030 Comprehensive Plan. A.Vitale will support his efforts with data and technical assistance. 4 General Government – Nicor Address Audit A.Vitale received a Nicor address audit from G. Van Geem. It has been completed. Police Incident Mapping A.Vitale received a request from Chris Kobeski (Records - Police Department), Fire Chief Dean Strzelecki and Division Commander Joe Penze regarding crime mapping capabilities of GEAC incident reports. He and S. Cusick are working on how to automate that mapping process, not only to scatter-plot various points, but to put in some hot-spot mapping to see where these spots trend over time. This is a long-term project, but we do feel it is feasible. A.Vitale announced he will be going to the Users Conference in California in July. He has a list of things he would like to learn and a list of people to talk to. He is working with our regional ESRI office in Minneapolis about what sessions are best to attend; they are lining up people for him to meet regarding issues of concern. If there are any topics you would like him to investigate, please let him know. Agenda Item #5 – Schedule Next Meeting (recommended date: July 21, 2011) The next meeting will be Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 8:00 a.m. in the 2nd floor conference room 218. The meeting was adjourned at 8:52 a.m. Steering Committee Members Andrew Przybylo Trustee atp@vniles.com 847-588-8003 George Van Geem Village Manager gvg@vniles.com 847-588-8002 Bill Shaw MIS Director wfs@vniles.com 847-588-8015 Andrew Vitale MIS – Sr. GIS Coordinator ajv@vniles.com 847-588-8022 Steve Cusick MIS src@vniles.com 847-588-8018 Moses Nazzal Engineering Superintendent mhn@vniles.com 847-588-7924 Scott Jochim Public Services Director snj@vniles.com 847-588-7901 Bob Pilat Public Services rmp@vniles.com 847-588-7926 Rich Wlordarski Community Development rjw@vniles.com 847-588-8085 5