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Accountability is on the way: Nutter Admin. Embraces CitiStat
Submitted by VernAnastasio on Tue, 01/29/2008 - 10:26am.
Every morning, I wake up to the sound of WHYY radio. Today, the first words I heard as I opened my eyes were those of the City's new Managing Director, Camille Barnett. She was talking about making Philadelphia a model for efficiencey in the delivery of city services. She was talking about the highly effective marriage of a 311 non-emergencey telephone system to CitiStat, the computer program used by places like San Francisco and Baltimore to manage the way by which we handle service requests.
For quite some time, Councilman Jim Kenney has championed a 311 system. It was first brought to the public's attention by Mayoral candidate Sam Katz in his 2000 campaign. As Michael Nutter wrote several months ago, "Need information about a traffic closing? Call 311. Want to report a leaking fire hydrant? Call 311. Cat in a tree? Call 311. In Philadelphia, we only have the 911 system, which many people unfortunately use for nonemergencies. Nonemergency use of the 911 system takes away from valuable police resources that must be directed at fighting crime. The 311 system provides an all-purpose point of contact. I am committed to implementing this system here."
Well, he's keeping his promise. And more than that, he sees the critical importance of connecting 311 to the CitiStat system so the managing director can track the effectiveness of various city agencies.
In the summer of 2006, I wrote, "Imagine an effective and responsive city government. A government that gets the job done right and on time. A government accountable to all residents that transforms the way it does business by implementing software that stresses performance management. Software known as CitiStat." Much of what I learned about CitiStat came from the smart, innovative folks in San Francisco who worked on implementing there. And for quite some time, many of us have dreamed it would reach Philadelphia.
Well, we no longer have to dream. Within weeks, the software will be here in Philadelphia and we will finally take a customer service approach to the delivery of city services.
As Nutter wrote, "Just last month, I visited Baltimore and had the opportunity to see "Citistat," a program that gives government managers and citizens the ability to track the performance of city departments and to analyze responses to complaints and service requests. We need a similar system in Philadelphia, which will allow me and other government managers to measure government service delivery, creating a "real-time" report card for city services and workers." So, yes, we will have a system that help government perform its duties and, with luck, save taxpayers millions of dollars often caused by delay and duplication of tasks that complicate service delivery.
But more than that, CitiStat and 311 create another opportunity. By making government agencies more accountable, citizens can hope to rely less on their councilperson, who then must call someone with whom they have a relationship in a certain agencey, to untie the red tape that often stands in the way of effective service delivery. And with removing this step from the "government service equation", quality services can utlimately be delivered to everyone, regardless of who they know or what connections they have. And councilmembers can evolve from being important representatives who grease the tracks of government to being true legislators. This is the real value of CitiStat and 311.
Many things have excited me about this new day in Philadelphia. Rizzo's legislation banning nepotism and moonlighting; Green's legislation reforming the DROP program; Nutter's commitment to zoning reform; the City Planning Commission's bold new charge of creating comprehensive plans for our neighborhoods. But nothing makes a policy wonk happier than a plan to ease the delivery of basic city services with the goal of finally giving our taxpayers their money's worth.
******DISCLAIMER: I support Independent Democrat Joe Vignola for Pennsylvania State Senate in the First District and I am proud to work to make it happen****
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The 3-1-1
Thanks to Vern for the 'HYY plug. You can listen to the report here. (I find it helps if you have the latest version if Internet Explorer and Flash)
CitiStat rocks the house
Vern, I know has been a consistant proponent for many years of the CitiStat model of measuring performance and creating accountability in the delivery of city services. For those of you who have not yet caught the fever why this news is the BESTEST THING YET to come out of the New Day / New Way allow me to extoll for just a minute.
In Philadelphia there has been a political benefit at least in the minds of some members of City Council in having city services not working by default so that when you need the Streets Department or L&I to perform a basic service, you need to work through their office and then suddenly like Moses parting the Red Sea, the impenetrable walls of City of Philadelphia bureaucracy opens up and whatever department actually does its job. Some Council members are so fond of this ability to show constituents that they can magically "unstick" things, they actually prefer to make their getting their greasy fingerprints all over every minute detail of city government the prerequisite to City Government working at all. Just so you, the constituent, knows where the city services bread gets buttered come re-election, you now.
CitiStat is so much more than just a simple 311 non-emergency line. It makes quantifying where city government fails and where it delivers mapable, graphable information. Information that our elected officials can use to hold each division of each department accountable. Information that can show where we can better deploy our resources and sometimes information about where somebody's cousin Frank maybe has been not doing much of anything at all.
In Baltimore where the program was first developed results were dramatic:
Its the accountability that is key. I suggest everyone take a look at this short video explaining how the system works. Pay special attentions to the part where a local civic association / neighborhood activist type flat out says "We have learned to use the data to work through the city to get more services for our neighborhood." Let noone pooh-pooh this tool as the latest "good government" gadget. The public accountability feature of the CitiStat model has the potential to put neighborhoods in the driver's seat for demanding better, fairer, more efficient delivery of city services in a way that makes your average neighborhood organizer drool.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.
Quality control
A point that I forgot to mention is the system and the software will only be as good as the managers and agencey heads that follow up on it and monitor it. The system and, in many areas of our local government, the culture needs to change. We need to begin to operate with an eye toward quality control and the goal being customer service. This is the only way in which the software will be effective.
****DISCLAIMER: I support Joe Vignola, Independent Democrat for Pennsylvania State Senate in the first district and I am proud to work to make it happen.****
No insightful commentary
I just thought I would point out a good DN story comparing 311 systems, their set-up and operating costs from other cities.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.