About CityData

CityData on the Socrata platform is the City of Mesa's central source for city-, department-, and program-level performance measures, datasets, maps, charts, and other data assets for use by all city employees.  The portal features pages that bring together information about department missions, desired outcomes, measures and visualizations in one place to provide context and tell department performance stories. 

The CityData portal holds more than 500 comprehensive raw datasets, available for download, that enable real-time visualizations and drill-down analysis for identifying actionable data insights. Performance measure data are connected to original data sources reducing the need for re-entering data, and improving the timeliness and reliability of performance reporting.  Managers, supervisors, and analysts have direct access to the data so that good and timely decisions can be made.  

Below is more information about what you'll find on the CityData portal. 

For questions or assistance, contact data@mesaaz.gov

The Citydata Portal is designed with a common screen layout and consistent navigation throughout the application.   
Navigating the Home Screen 
Upon successful initial login to the CityData portal, you’ll reach your personal profile page. You can use the Top Navigation Bar to get to the home page and to move around the portal.
Top Navigation  Top Navigation is located along the top of the screen near the left side.  The links on the toolbar do not change and are available throughout the CityData portal.   
CityData Portal takes you to the home page.

Data Catalog takes you to a list of all the Public and Internal (all employee) assets on the portal.  Within the Data Catalog, you can use the filters on the left side to quickly get to Department’s assets.   

Create provides access to create new assets.  This feature is limited to, and depends upon, permissions. If you want to create a New Measure for display on the CityData portal, or create a new Story Page, contact performanceexcellence@mesaaz.gov  for assistance. 

City Employee Menu is a drop down list of other sites related to working and/using data in the City of Mesa, such as the Public Data Portal, the Center for Data and Performance sharepoint site, and the DoIT Data Services sharepoint site.

Top Navigation --  top right side of the page include: 
Notifications (bell) and product updates directly from the Socrata support team. 
Gear – access is limited by permissions.  This feature contains various administrative functions.  However, you can access a list of assets. Click on Assets in the drop own box to access a list of assets—data sets, measures, story pages, visualizations, maps, etc.—with filtering options.
  • In the filter panel on the right side of the page, enter a department name in the Category box to get a list of assets associated with that department.  You also can filter by each of the Asset types.  
Search – keyword search the entire Portal for any asset available 
Your Profile (picture) – access training documents made available by Socrata. PLEASE DO NOT Submit Support tickets directly to Socrata.  Contact Evan Allred, Chief Data Officer, if you need assistance with any Socrata Platform issue.
CityData Performance Measures
Glossary of Terms
Audience is the level of permission granted to the user for viewing and using assets on the CityData portal.  The permission level is noted on the Top Navigation Bar for each asset.
     1. Private - available only to designated individuals and groups
     2. Internal - available to all City Employees
     3. Public - available to all City Employees and to the Public
Business Objective refers to an element of the department's operational plan that aligns with one or more City County Strategic Initiative.  It defines where the organization allocates its resources and creates a union of missions, desired outcomes, and expected performance for core business processes. These are documented on a Department's Home Page.
Core Business Process is a collection of related inputs and outputs for producing a specific service or product that are directed toward achieving a common purpose and outcomes.  A department may have multiple Core Business Processes.  Each Core Business Process will have a specific Story Page that contains a Mission Statement, Desired Outcomes to be achieved, and related Performance Measures.  Related content might include companion measures and visualizations to tell the performance story.  
Data Classification Level - Confidential indicates that some portion of a dataset contains information that is confidential and not accessible for viewing or downloading except by explicitly defined access. This data may be limited to department staff or specific team members only. Examples include Personal Health Information (PHI), Personally Identifiable Information (PII), etc.
Data Classification Level - Sensitive indicates that some portion of dataset contains sensitive information that is only accessible for view or downloading by City of Mesa staff, although it may legally be Public data. Note: Use of this classification requires City Attorney and City Manager approval. Information classified as Sensitive can be requested via the Request for Public Records process.  
Data Catalog takes you to a list of all the assets on the portal. Within the Data Catalog, you can use the filters on the left side to quickly get specific types of assets. 
Data Coordinators are individuals designated by the department director as the primary point of contact for data in the department.   
Data Dictionary explains the fields in terms of their definition, type, size, and any other pertinent information that describes the dataset.  
Data Stewards are individuals in departments that regularly work with databases, datasets or information systems.   

Filtered Views are views that can be created within a specific dataset to see only the data you are interested in.  By creating and saving a view you can return to that view at any time

Machine-Readable Format means a structured format that can automatically be read and processed by a computer, such as comma-separated values (CSV), extensible markup language (XML) , or Microsoft Excel (XLS). "Machine-readable format" does not include portable document format (PDF).

Metadata is descriptive information about a dataset, such as row labels, source links, tags and keywords, that are crucial to ensuring the proper usage and understanding of the data.  
Metric Card a quick and easy way to review the most current performance data.  
Story Pages are web pages with unique URLs that contain a department’s operational plan elements, and other supporting information. Story pages can contain performance measures, visualizations, maps, text, photos, data tables, and other multimedia.