U.S. City Open Data Census
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A complete suite of lobbying data should include information about registration and activity — who is paying lobbyists and, ideally, how much and where money is spent.
For the purposes of the U.S. City Open Data Census, lobbyist activity data should include structured information from the registration and activity reports that lobbyists are required to file: lobbyist information, client information, and descriptions of lobbying activity. Public access to this data is essential for the public to gain insight into the world of municipal influence.
Note: In some cities lobbyist registration data will be seperate from lobbyist activity data.
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| Question | Answer | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Openly licensed | No | No license attached |
| Available in bulk | No | You can get all registrations by year, allowing for a pretty easy bulk scrape. |
| Up-to-date | Yes | |
| Available free online | Yes | |
| Available free of charge | Yes | |
| In an open format | HTML, JSON | |
| findable | 4 | |
| findable_steps | I searched google for "new york city lobbying" | |
| Collected by government | Yes | |
| usability | 3 | |
| collector_name | Office of the City Clerk | |
| characteristics | Lobbyist registration information — including name, contact information, and date of registration, Client information — including name and contact information of the individual or firm paying for the lobbyist’s time | There is detail on the lobbying subjects covered, but not nearly that level of granular detail on the activity and contacts. |
| location | https://bmp.nyc.gov/elobbyist/search - Search of all lobbying reports filed with the city |