Assuming the Long Beach City Council approves a recommendation from the technology and innovation department tonight (October 24), the city might get one step closer to improving its business licensing and permitting processes.

 

The technology and innovation department is recommending that the council approve a memorandum of understanding with John Hopkins University’s Center for Government Excellence to study the city’s management of business licensing and permitting data.

 

The effort would be funded by the Bloomberg Family Foundation, Inc. as an initiative of its What Works Cities Initiative. That initiative was launched in 2015 to help 100 mid-sized cities in the United States “enhance their use of data and evidence to improve services, inform local decision-making and engage residents,” according to a city staff report.

 

According to the agenda item, “The goal of this study is to improve and advance the city’s ability to treat data as a strategic asset, leveraging it more effectively for reliable insights and more efficient service provision, and deliver results by strengthening its performance analytics systems and processes.” Additionally, the hope is that it will promote a culture within the city to leverage data to support businesses.

 

The study would take about 120 days to complete.