Case Study: City of Topeka wins stakeholder support and boosts budget transparency with Socrata's Open Budget

Topeka: A Lesson in Gaining Stakeholder Support

The City of Topeka partnered with Socrata to create an open budget portal that would make a complex, 200‑page budget understandable and win buy-in from diverse stakeholders — city leaders, department directors, council members, media and citizens. The primary challenge was transforming technical fund and program data into a simple, citizen-focused format that demonstrated value and built confidence in the investment.

To address this, Topeka built a pilot on Socrata’s Open Budget using the approved 2015 budget, re-categorized into citizen-centric topics and showcased via demos, a training video and targeted media show-and-tells. The interactive, drill-down portal quickly earned leadership and council approval, generated positive media coverage, encouraged collaboration with economic development groups, and paved the way for a broader open data rollout with overwhelmingly positive feedback.

City of Topeka

Sherry Schoonover

Deputy IT Director, City of Topeka