On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law, including the appropriation of more than $130 billion to the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, for making payments to metropolitan cities, counties, and other units of local government to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the public health emergency. Hennepin County expects to receive direct payments from the U.S. Treasury totaling more than $220 million, and received the first-half payment of $122.9 million in May of 2021.

The American Rescue Plan Act provides that money from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund may only be used to cover certain costs incurred between March 3, 2021, and December 31, 2024, including costs to respond to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) or its negative economic impacts. Under the available Treasury guidance, eligible costs in this category could include costs to establish or enhance public health data systems or to improve the efficacy of programs addressing the COVID-19 pandemic or its negative economic impacts, through use of data analysis, improvements to data or technology infrastructure, or impact evaluations. The Federal Pandemic Funds may also be used for eligible costs for the provision of government services to the extent of any reduction in revenue due to COVID-19, and such government services may include maintenance or pay-go funded building of infrastructure, or modernization of cybersecurity, including hardware, software, and protection of critical infrastructure, etc.

This board action request aligns with Hennepin County disparity reduction efforts. Investing in an enterprise integrated data system will provide strategic data insights that will positively impact all disparity reduction domains. A better understanding of the intersections between county services and impact of the covid-19 pandemic will provide key insights into the extent to which disparities exist and the ways in which county services could serve to effectively reduce those disparities. An enterprise integrated data system that enables a holistic understanding of county services and their impacts would greatly facilitate more effective and nimble approaches to provide assistance to residents, households, small business, and nonprofits. 

This request seeks $4,000,000 in federal funding to develop the technical and analytical infrastructure to create an enterprise integrated data system. A mixture of limited duration and existing staff would be hired and/or assigned to develop the underlying data infrastructure, data integration processes, robust safe-handling and security measures, and a governance model. In addition, these staff would be assigned to provide strategic summary insights based on analyses of these data that are tightly linked with the county’s covid-19 response efforts and other key strategic efforts. This work will be comprised of the following key components:

Integrated data infrastructure: Under the direction of the Chief Data Officer, hire up to three data engineers and/or contract with external vendors and coordinate with existing IT and data related staff to develop the technical infrastructure required to safely and securely integrate county data and modernize county data systems. This work would leverage modern data infrastructure tools to effectively and iteratively bring county data together in ways that meaningfully support ongoing reporting and analytics to support the county’s ability to respond to the covid-19 pandemic, its disparity reduction efforts, and other enterprise initiatives.  

Analytics: Under the direction of the Chief Data Officer, hire up to four analytics professionals and/or contract with external vendors and coordinate with the analytics team in CIE to transition to an enterprise analytics team. This team would work closely with the data engineers and relevant IT staff to develop a variety of summary reports that provide ongoing and holistic insights into county services. Analyses would focus on the county’s ability to rapidly respond to the covid-19 pandemic and its negative impacts; the ways in which residents navigate county services across lines of business; the impact of county services on the well-being of residents, and on county disparity reduction efforts among others.  

Framework for data use: In addition to the creation of reports and analyses, support for how data can be used for decision making will also be provided. This will include the creation of a framework for the development of analytics as a core part of how the county does business along with other efforts to ensure the effective use of data as a part of county business processes.

Governance and security: Develop a robust and transparent governance structure that supports the development of an enterprise integrated data system and the development of robust strategic data insights while ensuring data security, privacy, and the ethical use of data. In conjunction with the county’s chief data officer, this structure would provide a mechanism to prioritize enterprise data efforts and maximize the impact of county data. This work will be done in coordination with existing data governance activities including the county’s responsible authorities, legal counsel, and other IT and data security staff.