Minneapolis to post city spending, financial data online

The city of Minneapolis will provide detailed city spending information online starting later this year.

The City Council's Ways & Means Committee has signed off on a $50,000 contract with OpenGov, a firm that's built similar websites for cities around the country.

The new site will feature tools to analyze data and show residents how the city operates so they can come up with ideas to improve it, City Council Member Andrew Johnson said. "This is just a great step in terms of increasing transparency, increasing citizen participation and education."

Minneapolis already publishes department-level budgets and financial reports online. But the city hasn't published line-item spending information such as overtime costs. Because of that, the U.S. Public Interest research Group gave Minneapolis a D-minus last year for financial transparency.

Scott County and Richfield already use OpenGov to publish financial data.

Chris Regis, Richfield's finance manager, estimates its site has been visited about 400 times since it launched nearly a year ago.