Estimated read time: 10-11 minutes
Editor's note: The following story was reported by the Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with KSL.com.
SALT LAKE CITY — For the past decade, Drew Mingl helped build Utah's Open Data Catalog into a model of transparency for state governments across the country. The data portal posted thousands of datasets online in useful formats for all to see from agency heads and lawmakers to journalists and the public at large.
In 2017, the state was ranked No. 1 by the Centers for Data Innovation for E-government innovation and was ranked No. 6 overall for best data innovation.
But beginning in the fall of 2023, Mingl found himself clashing with his new boss, Chief Technology Officer Chris Williamson, who wanted the award-winning site to scrub all public data that came from federal sources — even data that lawmakers and agency heads had previously asked Mingl to put on the site. Mingl estimated that might be as much as half of all the data on the site.
"How is the public being harmed by providing this Utah open data that people keep asking me for — like water & fire data or healthcare cost data that is a priority of Governor Cox?" Mingl asked in an Oct. 23, 2023, email to Williamson.
"The more public open data I can make available to Legislators & other policy makers the better more 'data informed' public policy decisions can be created. Is that not a good thing?"
Williamson would not budge, and a few months later in February, Mingl was terminated. Immediately prior to the termination, Williamson complained to the state Division of Human Resources Management that Mingl "refused to take down content as directed" and that "his communication has been sparse and at times disrespectful."
The Utah Division of Technology Services would not speak directly to the reasons behind Mingl's termination since it was a personnel matter. The Utah Investigative Journalism Project, however, requested email records from the agency during the months before the termination. The Utah Division of Technology Services refused to provide the records in an easy-to-review electronic format; instead the division printed out 861 double-sided pages of emails — in color ink.
These emails show disagreements about Mingl's in-person attendance at the office (Mingl maintains he has been a completely remote worker since the pandemic), but also showed repeated clashes over the removal of public data. The emails also showed that staff in the office challenged the effectiveness of the data portal without letting Mingl respond to the findings of an internal audit.
'Pretty disgusting numbers'
In 2011, lawmakers had sought to gut Utah's open records law — the Government Records Access and Management Act — leading to public outcry. When the controversial law was abruptly repealed in the face of public outrage, the Utah Legislature also moved to make more records publicly available by just posting them online so fewer people would even have to file public requests in the first place.
This push led in 2014 to the hiring of Mingl to gather government datasets, curate them and make them available to the public on the Open Data Catalog. Citizens can view over 7,000 datasets and numerous user friendly data dashboards. They can view 3-D crime maps, check water consumption data, and see what starting salaries Utahns can expect based on what college degrees they receive. Members of the public could examine data on opioid prescription deaths by ZIP code or see where vehicle thefts happen in Salt Lake City or neighborhoods targeted by burglars in South Jordan.
Under the supervision of previous Chief Technology Officer David Fletcher, Mingl had been directed to bring in numerous federal datasets to the portal and to also help local government agencies.
But when Williamson took over the job in September 2023, he made a hard pivot and demanded public federal data be removed from the site. Williamson also initiated an internal audit of the open data portal.
In December, Mingl wrote a lengthy email to Utah Division of Technology Services staff conducting the audit raising his concerns. Williamson had interpreted state code defining "public information" to mean only information from state and local sources. Mingl explained that removing federal data would undo years of work.
He noted how a database showing Utahns how much student debt they would accrue at local universities would no longer be available.
"It has been downloaded by citizens of Utah over 3,000 times — all gone now because it came from the (Department of Education) — wrong database apparently," Mingl wrote.
The same went for data on most common prescriptions because it came from Medicaid or for numbers of opioid prescriptions by physicians.
Mingl noted that Williamson believed this information was protected medical information under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, despite the fact that the information is already put out by federal agencies.
"(By Williamson's) interpretation, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid has been violating HIPAA by publishing this public data for the last 15 years," Mingl wrote the auditors.
As the internal audit progressed, emails showed Mingl was becoming concerned that he was not being allowed to respond to the review findings.
Indeed, one email presented to Williamson by the auditors had not been shown to Mingl until after his termination and the Utah Investigative Journalism Project told him about it.
In December, the auditors reported to Williamson that the Open Data Catalog datasets had only 45,697 views and 849 dataset downloads. According to the auditors, that meant the expense of the portal over the past nine years amounted to a cost of $43.62 per view or $2,347.70 per download.
Williamson called the metrics "pretty disgusting numbers."
Mingl — who is limited in what he can speak about regarding his former employment — did, however, note those metrics were not representative of the whole site. He pointed to official presentations to the Utah Transperency Board in 2018 that showed that by that time alone, the portal had received over 9 million page views.
Utah Division of Technology Services spokesperson Stephanie Weteling said site metrics from the internal audit were accurate and verified. "We have not been able to verify the numbers that (Mingl) provided in 2018," Weteling said.
Mingl provided the Utah Investigative Journalism Project a spreadsheet that he had also provided to the internal auditor showing the site had actually received almost 14 million views from 2014 to 2020. He notes that only he was able to pull metrics on the site and thus challenges where the auditor found the contradictory metrics. He also noted that under the previous chief technology officer, all metrics had to be approved with backup documentation.
But Mingl was never allowed to challenge the auditors' final numbers while he was still employed at Utah Division of Technology Services despite asking to see their findings on multiple occasions. To this day he says he's never seen the results of the audit.
Williamson also clashed with Mingl about not being in the office enough. While Mingl notes he was made a full-time remote employee during the pandemic, Weteling noted that policy changed in 2023 and employees were required to be in the office two days a week.
But according to the records, most of Mingl's absences were related to health concerns. He had developed issues with his prostate health and had told Williamson about it. Williamson, in separate emails, complained to state human resources staff that Mingl was not appropriately requesting medical leave. These issues resulted in Mingl being put on a performance improvement plan.
But at the end of January, just days before Williamson told human resources that Mingl was not taking direction and the termination had to go through, he had another disagreement with Mingl over public data.
Mingl had just used federal public health data to create a health care shopping tool that would allow Utahns to comparison shop different procedures at different local hospitals with recent federal data. A new law required hospitals to post the data, but Mingl said the data was not clearly posted on their websites and was put in user-unfriendly file formats.
Mingl found the data and put it in a pilot dashboard, made it public and showed it to Williamson and other state officials for feedback.
"Consumers in Utah can now shop around to get the best price for their healthcare dollars which supports Gov. Cox's priorities of tackling healthcare costs," Mingl wrote proudly in a Jan. 24 email.
While other recipients showed excitement about the idea, Williamson's immediate feedback was to tell Mingl to take it off the website so the public could not view it and instructed him to focus on other tasks first.
Under review
Williamson, who resigned in April from his position as chief technology officer, according to Wateling, was contacted by phone but refused to answer any questions, instead referring questions to the Division of Technology Services. His position and Mingl's remain unfilled.
Weteling couldn't speak to Mingl's departure. She said an internal audit was started, but she doesn't know if it was finished or where auditors got the metrics about the Open Data Catalog.
She said the office was still reviewing what data would be made available on the portal, but she said the office was focusing on how the state code defines "public information," the same position taken by Williamson.
"Utah code requires us to have state, local government and independent entities data on the site," Weteling said. "So that's what we're really focusing on."
Jeff Hunt is an attorney at Parr, Brown, Gee & Loveless and member of the Utah Media Coalition that advocates for open government. He notes the section of code referenced doesn't mention federal data and doesn't prohibit it from being posted publicly.
"It appears the statute is focused on providing public access to information concerning state and local government operations, not the federal government," Hunt said. "At the same time, if the federal data is available, providing it to the public through the Open Data Catalog will only improve government transparency and accountability."
Federal data also appears not to be stricken from other state agency sites. The Utah Tax Commission posts federal tax return data, the state auditors use federal data on the Transparent Utah site. The Public Lands Policy Coordination Office uses federal data for mapping of public lands in Utah, and the Department of Workforce Services has federal wage data on its site.
Daniel Castro is the director of the Center for Data Innovation, a think tank that studies the intersection between data technology and public policy. His organization has highlighted Utah's data portal multiple times over the years as "an early adopter" in the data portal field.
He notes that most portals focus on their own state's data, but some have benefitted from blending data from multiple sources, including the federal government, to provide benefits to users. He points to some of the Utah portal's sites on crime, policing and education where Utah is excelling at bringing different data sources into useful resources for the public.
"That's the concept of saying, 'We're going to take certain datasets and make them available in ways they weren't before,'" Castro said.
But some of those innovations, like giving students data to assess how much their degree is worth and how much debt to expect, are now on hold and under review while Utah Division of Technology Services continues to reevaluate its mission — and tries to hire new leadership.
According to emails, Mingl was criticized for making health care cost data public before receiving Williamson's approval. But the division decided to remove the federal data without apparently consulting different lawmakers who had requested federal data for the portal.
Weteling said lawmakers and other agencies hadn't been consulted yet.
"Not at the moment, it's under review," Weteling said. "But, yes, we are going to include different parties to make sure we are getting it right."
While the division has stripped huge amounts of data from the portal for the first time in a decade, ultimately, she said, the end result will be better after the portal's revamping.
"All these things are meant to be positive, so the public can get the data they need," Weteling said.
