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1. Call to Order
Chairperson Arbeit called the meeting to order at 8:35 a.m. The meeting was held at the Earle Brown Conference
Center in St. Paul.
Members Present: State: David Arbeit (LMIC); County: Pat O'Connor and Alternate Gary Caswell (Hennepin),
Alternate Jane Harper for Virginia Erdahl (Washington), Jim Hentges (Scott), Gary Stevenson, (Dakota), Dave Drealan
(Carver); Metropolitan: Richard Johnson (Metropolitan Council); Academics: Will Craig (CURA); GIS Consultants: Larry
Charboneau (The Lawrence Group); Cities: Brad Henry (City of Minneapolis); Dennis Welsch (City of Roseville); Federal:
Ron Wencl (USGS); Watersheds: Cliff Aichinger (RamseyWashingtonMetro Watershed District); Schools: Alternate Dick
Carlstrom for Jim Sydow (TIES); Utilities: Alan Srock (NSP)
Members Absent: Business Geographics: Tim Nuteson, (Dayton Hudson Corporation); Counties: Margo LaBau (Anoka),
David Claypool (Ramsey); Metropolitan: Rick Gelbmann (Metropolitan Council), Economic Development Partnerships: Scott
Beckman (Dakota County Partnership)
Support Staff: Randall Johnson, Heidi Welsch, Mark Kotz
Visitors: John Carpenter, The Lawrence Group
2. Acceptance of Agenda
Chairperson Arbeit requested moving item 6A to the last item under Action and Discussion Items to accommodate
Members Johnson and LaBau who would be arriving late.
MOTION: Member Charboneau moved and Vice Chairperson Henry seconded to accepted the agenda as revised. The
motion carried unanimously.
3. Acceptance of the Meeting Summary
Member Caswell stated that he did not recall moving approval of Item 5g at the October 24 meeting and
requested the minutes to be revised accordingly. The minutes were changed to: "It was moved and Member Henry
seconded..." Member Arbeit also noted a correction for page 6 (third line from the bottom of Item b) from "precisional"
to "positional".
MOTION: Member Aichinger moved and Member Henry seconded to approve the minutes of the October 24 meeting, as
revised. Motion passed unanimously.
4. Summary of the November 19 Policy Board Meetings
Chairperson Arbeit reported that the Addressing Guidelines endorsed by the Coordinating Committee on October
24th had been accepted by the Board and that there was some discussion by Board members whether the term 'standard'
would be more appropriate than 'guideline'. He also reported that the Policy Board discussed the interim solution for
the MCD/county jurisdictional boundaries information need; and progress on the soils data distribution policy advisory
team. Policy Board member Dennis Berg (Anoka County Commissioner) volunteered to serve on the soils team. Member
O'Connor suggested that in the future it may be better not to create working groups that include Policy Board members
on advisory teams
5. Consent Items
a. Operating Guidelines for the Coordinating Committee and Teams
Chairperson Arbeit explained that the Committee had discussed these guidelines at the October 24th meeting and
were now being presented for final approval. There was no discussion.
MOTION: Member Drealan moved and Member Henry seconded to accept the MetroGIS Operating Guidelines, dated
September 16, 1997 and to forward to them to the Policy Board for consideration.
6. Action and Discussion Item
b. MetroGIS Participant Evaluation Survey Randall Johnson explained Chairperson Reinhardt has asked for
discussion of MetroGIS financial and staff resource needs to be the primary topic of discussion at the January 28, 1998
Policy Board meeting. He explained to prepare for that discussion, a program satisfaction survey will be sent to
members of the Policy Board, Coordinating Committee, Advisory Teams, and ad hoc workgroups on January 2, 1998. The
purpose of the survey is to obtain feedback from participants on the MetroGIS work program, accomplishments to date,
the effectiveness of team leadership and staff, and the effectiveness of the MetroGIS WEB site and MetroGIS Newsletter
"Coordinates" as means of communicating with stakeholders. The Committee agreed there was no need for them to review
the survey before it is mailed.
c. Special Meeting for Integrated Socioeconomic Data Proposal
John Carpenter and Larry Charboneau, both of The Lawrence Group, reported on a concept they are developing to
integrate parcel, household, and dwelling unit data from both public and private sources at the blockface level. The
concept is being developed to address gaps in current data needed by public and private organizations to support
analysis and projections important to their particular business functions. School district census, utility connection,
county and state welfare, and state economic security data were cited as principle elements of the proposal. They
stated they believe it is important to seek input early in the process from MetroGIS concerning the concept,
pilots/demonstrations, and partnership opportunities and requested the Committee to consider setting a special meeting
at which a detailed explanation would be presented for discussion and comment.
Mr. Carpenter explained the proposed block face level of detail addresses data privacy concerns for sensitive
databases yet provides useful information for a number of analytical needs of public and private organizations which
often require data from several sources. He also explained that aggregation at the blockface would have the added
advantage of being able to "chained together" the blockface units for corridor analysis which is currently a complex
undertaking, at best.
Members Johnson and Craig arrived.
Mr. Carpenter reported that in preliminary discussions with a number of officials from public (mostly school
districts and cities) and private sector organizations (utilities, real estate, business geographics) he has found
significant interest for pursuing this concept and, consequently, discussions are in progress with perspective host
organizations for three pilot projects that would be used to refine various aspects of the concept.
Members Stevenson and Caswell noted that they are concerned if the concept involves sharing parcel data with
the private sector. There was discussion concerning whether it is appropriate for the Committee to consider this
proposal. Chairperson Arbeit reminded the group that the Policy Board has directed the Committee to investigate
collaborative opportunities with the private sector. Member Harper encouraged the group to accept the request for a
special meeting to learn more about the concept and acknowledged that one of the constraints that must be dealt with is
the desire to preserve current fee structures. Vice Chairperson Henry stated he supports learning more about the
concept because of gaps in this type of data currently available to Minneapolis, noting that he believes the proposed
data would add value to the City's data. Member Craig also supported looking closer at this proposal because
socioeconomic data are one of the priority information needs which outofdate census data can not adequate address.
Member Aichinger supported further review of the concept by the Committee as being consistent with the data sharing
principles of MetroGIS and an opportunity to enrich public sector data with private sector data.
The group agreed that there may be many issues associated with this proposal and that the requested special
meeting would be a useful venue to both learn more about the concept as well as to clarify concerns. Member Charboneau
and Mr. Carpenter agreed to mail out information on the proposal for review by Committee members in advance of the
meeting.
It was agreed that in addition to Coordinating Committee members, members of the Data Content Advisory Team
will be invited to the special meeting and that members of the Standards and Access Teams will receive a copy of the
letter of invitation but will not receive a packet of information prior to the meeting, unless they inform staff of
their interest. Coordinating Committee members were encouraged to invite appropriate staff to attend from their
organizations , keeping in mind that the room will hold a maximum of 3540 people.
MOTIONS: Member Aichinger moved and ViceChairperson Henry seconded to accept the request for a special meeting
of the Coordinating Committee to learn more about The Lawrence Group's concept of an integrated parcel, household,
dwelling unit database. Motion carried unanimously, with the understanding that details, including the data to be
sought, from whom, and the target users, will be mailed prior to the meeting.
Vice Chairperson Henry moved and Member Aichinger seconded to set the special meeting for January 22, 1998
from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Earle Brown Conference Center in St. Paul. Motion passed unanimously.
Member O'Connor noted, and the group agreed, that a county perspective should be included from the outset of
any discussion that involves or has the potential to involve data maintained by the counties. Staff concurred, noting
that this agenda item was scheduled following a single meeting with the proposers, to give persons representing County
and other perspectives an opportunity to discuss the appropriateness of giving further consideration to the concept.
d. Designate Liaison to Soils Data Distribution Team
Randall Johnson stated that the Soil Distribution Policy Advisory Team was created by the Committee at its
October 24th meeting to address policy issues associated with distributing a regional dataset with several owners.
Chairperson Arbeit noted that the work of this Team would likely have a significant impact on general data distribution
policy and asked members to seriously consider volunteering to serve as liaison to the Team from the Committee. No one
volunteered.
Member Aichinger observed that soils survey data is not accurate enough to be useful to watershed districts
and that this may be the wrong issue to use to frame general data distribution issues. Alternatively, to address the
soils dataset issues at hand, staff was asked to invite each of the stakeholders in the proposed regional dataset to a
meeting to assess if any of them would have a problem sharing the dataset with other public organizations with the
thought that the group of stakeholders may determine it is a nonissue. Staff agreed to develop a proposal for
distribution of the regional soils dataset to nongovernment organizations for discussion by the owners of the soils
data and to report back to the Committee, with the understanding that staff would not have much time available to work
on this matter until discussion in progress concerning MetroGIS budget matters is substantially complete. Staff was
also asked to inform Policy Boardmember Berg of the Committee's action.
e. Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines: Use by MetroGIS participants
Mark Kotz distributed a copy of the guidelines along with an example of metadata from the Metropolitan
Council's Land Use dataset. Chairperson Arbeit noted that review and comment by MetroGIS stakeholders was suggested at
the meeting of the Advisory Team Liaisons to maintain consistency with the Committee's past practice of requiring a
review period by MetroGIS stakeholders before acting on guidelines or standards for MetroGIS.
Member Stevenson suggested, and Alternate Member Caswell agreed , that since the Governor's Council on
Geographic Information (GCGI) has spent considerable time developing these guidelines that there is no compelling need
for MetroGIS to require additional review and comment. There was some discussion of whether or not to seek stakeholder
comments on these guidelines. Member Craig noted that adoption of these guidelines by GCGI does not apply per se to
local government and for this reason he had concurred with the suggestion for a review by MetroGIS participants. He
noted that he would be okay with passing on review by MetroGIS participants if the local government representatives on
the Coordinating Committee would be willing to speak for their various counter parts.
MOTIONS: Member Stevenson moved and Alternate Member Caswell seconded to defer to the GCGI's work on the
Metadata guidelines for the State and not to require additional review and comment by MetroGIS participants. Motion
carried unanimously.
Alternate Member Caswell moved and Member Craig seconded that the Coordinating Committee accept the Minnesota
Geographic Metadata Guidelines developed by the Governor's Council on Geographic Information and to recommend that the
MetroGIS Policy Board accept and promote them as the preferred method of documenting metadata by MetroGIS stakeholders.
Motion carried unanimously.
Staff was asked to send a letter to MetroGIS participants, following Board approval, announcing MetroGIS's
adoption of the GCGI's metadata guidelines along with the previously approved addressing guidelines. Staff was also
asked to state in the letter that the guidelines can be obtained via the MetroGIS WEB site and to give an alternative
phone number to receive a paper copy by the mail for organizations that do not have access to the internet.
a. MetroGIS Financial Resources and Needs
Randall Johnson explained that Board Chairperson Reinhardt has asked for the Policy Board's January 28th
meeting to be dedicated to discussing MetroGIS financial and staffing resources. Input from the Committee was requested
concerning the content of the proposed meeting agenda. There was some discussion of the types of perspectives that
should be illustrated to demonstrate the benefits of MetroGIS and collaboration. Member Aichinger suggested I-35W
Corridor Coalition as a good collaborative perspective. TIES' work with Lakeville school district was also suggested as
a good example of how much easier and cheaper GIS startup can be with institutionalization of MetroGIS principles.
Member O'Connor noted that county participation in MetroGIS will likely have to come from savings and inkind
services or staff, given the restrictions on use of their resources, and suggested that grants should be looked to as
the primary source of financing to complete work on the definition of the desired form and structure of MetroGIS.
Member Johnson noted that as MetroGIS continues to evolve and grow, the Metropolitan Council will continue to
contribute to the initiative but will also be looking to other benefiting organizations to assist with support of the
organization. Chairperson Arbeit encouraged Committee members to speak with their respective Policy Board members and
to encourage them to attend the January 28th Board meeting
7. Strategic Initiatives Updates
No discussion
8. Information Sharing / MetroGIS Related Activities
No discussion
9. Next Meeting
Member Craig moved and Vice Chairperson Henry seconded to schedule the next meeting as follows: Thursday,
February 26, 1998 8:30 a.m. 10:30 a.m. Earle Brown Center, University of Minnesota
10. Adjournment
Member Charboneau moved and Member Arbeit seconded to adjourn the meeting at 10:30 a.m. Motion passed
unanimously.
Prepared by Heidi Welsch and Randall Johnson, MetroGIS Support Staff
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