City government's most obscure commission assembled for the third time in its 25-year history Thursday. A data-transparency panel, it gathered on less than two days' notice, but plans on getting together more often.

Public Advocate Letitia James convened the Commission on Public Information and Communication for the first time since her predecessor Bill de Blasio did in May 2012. All but one member of the incomplete committee was new to COPIC, making it a fresh start for the body, which was written into the City Charter in 1989 to improve dissemination of public data.

Chaired by Ms. James and made up of members including Manhattan City Councilman Ben Kallos (who was elected Wednesday afternoon by his colleagues to serve on the committee), the city'snewly named chief analytics officer, Amen Ra Mashariki, and representatives from city agencies such as the Department of Records and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, COPIC's re-entry into the public was made cautiously.

Ms. James opened the meeting by enumerating the panel's possibilities, stressing its role of "balancing between privacy and the public’s right to know" and pointing to examples like how it can push for more searchable data on city websites and the future application of body cameras worn by police officers.