Project – Chapel Hill, NC

Last Updated: January 9, 2020

Goal

Ensure the Town of Chapel Hill follows its Open Data policy and publishes data that is “open by default” and “consistent with relevant public records law.”

Quick facts

The Town of Chapel Hill has a population of ~60,000 and ~970 employees. The Town maintains an open data portal that hosts 63 public data sets. 

The question, “Why is Town employee salary data not available on the Open Data portal?” was asked over 500 days ago. The Town has still not answered this question.

Town Council was petitioned on October 2nd, 2019 to follow its existing open data policy. Though directed to do so by council, Town staff have yet to respond to the petition.  

Employee salary data remains absent from the portal. However, it will be hosted on OpenGovernment.io until further notice.

Why this project?

It is important that the custodians of public information are not the gatekeepers of information. As the Sunlight Foundation puts it, “disproportionate access to information is power.” In this sense, we aim to empower the public.

Why salary data?

This data set is frequently requested and is sometimes viewed by government staff as sensitive. This is also the same data set that will be requested in future projects to gauge response time for public records requests.

Where can I download the latest Chapel Hill employee salary data?

Right here, in CSV format.