GIS Cooperative Meeting Notes
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
In Attendance: Dave Koss, Steve Smith, Chris Kelleher, Jim Ebert, Jack Avis (Town of Marana), Andrew Acuff (Pima County DSD), Mary Szczepanski, Donald Ijams, Vickey Bagley, Melisa Hadinger (Tucson Water), Jack Lloyd (Pima County Technical Services), John Dickinson (Pima County Technical Services), Daniel Casey, Teri Schultz, Autumn Figueroa, Leticia Bermudez, Cheryl Van De Beuken, Bryn Enright, Laura Pinnas (TEP) and Ron Platt.
We did not have the scheduled presentation "Mapping the Aspen Fire" due to technical difficulties. This presentation will likely be seen in September with the consent of Jack Lloyd from Pima County. Instead we discussed inter-departmental mapping/GIS requests.
Interdepartmental Mapping/GIS Analysis Requests
Four departments reported they receive requests from outside departments for mapping or data analysis using GIS tools. Finance, Comprehensive Planning Task Force, DNR and Transportation all prepare maps, and perform GIS analysis for outside departments. Sometimes the requesting department even has their own staff that can handle the request. Transportation, by far, receives the majority external requests, mostly from Ward Offices and Rio Nuevo. The issue presented was to see if certain map requests could be better distributed among all GIS-capable departments.
Of course everyone indicated that they were already too busy to take on additional work. An emphasis was made that Transportation should not be the only department that makes map products that anyone in the City could produce so long as they have access to a plotter. Another example was the "Neighborhood Association" maps. Transportation staff routinely gets requests to plot several of these maps at odd times. The point was made that the file required to plot the maps (HOA_CITY.SHP) is available to all city staff via MARS. In a thorough debate it was evident that all departments need to be more willing to say "no" to requests, or to at least schedule the requests at times more consistent in allowing internal departmental projects to be completed.
The point was made that GIS and mapping requests are on the rise and the challenge to meet all city requests will become problematic for everyone in the near future. The demand for Transportation staff time has already reached a critical point. It did not seem there was any other department able to assist with citywide requests at this time. Tucson Water did indicate that in about a year or so they might be in a better position to assist. The question whether Tucson Water could assist with "non enterprise" work projects was raised and the Cooperative will be hearing back from a representative from Tucson Water on this issue.
Our discussion turned to getting a full time GIS Analyst to handle all generic requests that originate in departments with no mapping capabilities. It was pointed out that we tried for a position two years ago (Spatial Data Coordinator) which was denied due to budget constraints. That should not mean we stop trying to establish a position. We then explored the possibility of hiring a second intern with Cooperative funds to begin handling general mapping requests. I will be exploring this possibility with IT staff and our budget representative in IT.
In the meantime we came up with the concept of requesting clients outside of our respective departments fill out a form for all 1) Mapping requests, and 2) Requests that require data analysis using GIS tools. Intra-department requests are that department's issue to deal with. But the outside requests are directly relevant to the need for a full time "citywide" GIS person. It was noted that the City of Tucson does not have a Civil Service classification for a GIS person of any type. This item should become an active GIS Cooperative issue in the near future.
Regarding the form, Dave Koss and Jim Ebert will be sending me a draft of one they have started and it will be circulated throughout the Cooperative. Once we agree on the form I will draft a "pleasant" cover letter to include with the form explaining the reasons we need to request a form. After a few months, we may be able to fully document the number of requests and need for a new position.
Laura Pinnas, formally with the Town of Oro Valley is now working for TEP. Laura indicated she favored working with the Cooperative to further regional GIS participation, something I have been pushing this year. Data sharing and its finer points was discussed. Welcome to the Cooperative, Laura, and we at the Cooperative hope to build a solid GIS working relationship with TEP.
Additional ArcView Licenses Needed
The Comprehensive Planning task Force has requested one additional ArcView 3.x license (to work with their CommunityViz software) and two ArcView GIS 8.x licenses. The possibility of securing former Water Dept. ArcView 3.x copies was discussed. The Finance Department requested one ArcView 8.x license. The total for these expenditures would be approx. $5000. I will be contacting these departments for justification of the requests. If approved, I will ask David Hochede at IT to process the requests so that the licenses can be properly added to the ESRI maintenance contract. We can no longer purchase software without provisions for maintenance agreements.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003 / 3:00 P.M / City I.T. Pueblo Room
