Oxon Hill, MD - Yesterday, County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III was one of the key panelists that participated in the Socrata Connect 2017 Conference at the Gaylord Hotel at National Harbor. Economic Development Corporation President Jim Coleman was also on hand at the Conference and served as the moderator for a lively discussion on how the use of data can make government initiatives work more effectively and create life-changing results for residents during the "Lead with Performance Data" panel at the conference. County Executive Baker highlighted how the County's Transforming Neighborhoods Initiative (TNI) used data to focus government resources to help improve conditions in some of the County's most challenged neighborhoods.
"Our Transforming Neighborhood Initiative has relied heavily on data from the very beginning," said County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III. "In addition, using our senior level management team to interact and respond in real-time to community concerns on a variety of issues helped to ensure that the program was treated as a top priority for all departments in the government. This structure showed that this Administration was fully committed to making Prince George's County better for every community."
Mr. Coleman kicked off the panel by sharing an overview of Prince George's County with the Socrata audience. Attendees seemed impressed that the County is one of the wealthiest counties in the country, the wealthiest majority-minority county in the United States, is home to NASA Goddard, Joint Base Andrews and MGM National Harbor, and recently increased its household income to nearly $77,000 with a highly educated population.
"As a result of County Executive Baker's use of data, crime has been reduced by 50%, home values have increased by 14%, high school graduation rates have increased to 81% and our household median income has increased to nearly $77,000" said Coleman. "In the economic development world, we have seen consistent and significant growth through business attraction and expand and more than 7,000 jobs being created within the last year. Not only are our neighborhoods being transformed, but so are the lives of our hardworking residents. It's morning again in Prince George's County!"
Coleman then led the panelists through a series of questions that emphasized how the data driven policies of the Baker Administration have transformed the County over the last seven year. Panelists included local community liaison Charles Brown, and the CEO of Be Clean Cleaning Services, Carla Truitt.
Socrata is a cloud-based data software company based in Seattle, Washington that provides a software-as-a service data platform and cloud applications exclusively for city, county, state and federal government organizations. This allows government data to be more discoverable, usable and actionable for government knowledge workers and the citizens they serve.
Prince George's County Rushern L. Baker, III's Data Dazzles Technology Conference