City fixes how it handles citizen complaints 9.9.10

The Indianapolis Star

Last year, The Indianapolis Star examined how long it took the city to address the four most common categories of complaints made to the Mayor's Action Center: abandoned vehicles, animals, potholes and trash.

What The Star found was that people who live in affluent neighborhoods received much faster attention to complaints about potholes and trash than those who live in poorer neighborhoods.

The difference was significant -- and city officials vowed to close that gap, noting that some important efforts already were under way.

So, 18 months later, has the city made good on its promise? Were those efforts a success? For the most part, yes.

The Star recently crunched the data from more than 40,000 reports in 2009-10 obtained through public-records requests. What we found is that the city is resolving complaints about potholes and trash faster than it did in 2007-08. And it has erased the gap in response times to affluent and poor neighborhoods.

But it's not all good news.

When all four categories are measured, the time it takes the city to resolve complaints is 14 percent longer than it was -- the average resolution time increasing from 16 days in 2007-08 to a little more than 18 days in 2009-10. But even there, progress is being made because the overall delay was fueled, in great part, by a huge increase in response times to animal calls in 2009 that has since turned around after the city hired a new animal control director.

The Star's re-examination was based on reports from the second and fourth quarters of 2009 and the second quarter of 2010. The initial Star examination looked at MAC records from the second and fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008.

More specifically, here's what the most recent examination uncovered:

Pothole complaints were resolved in an average of about 29 days, down from 38.

Trash complaints were settled an average of one week faster -- in 19 days, rather than 26.

The resolution for animal complaints jumped from an average of three days to 13, driven by problems in 2009 that stretched the average response time then to nearly three weeks.

It took three times as long -- an average of 18 days, compared with six -- to close abandoned vehicle complaints.

A smaller percentage of complaints were fixed in less than one day, but a smaller percentage of complaints went unresolved for 90 days or longer.

Mayor Greg Ballard credited the positive changes to his commitment to improve services to constituents, which led to the application of a Six Sigma "continuous improvement" management strategy to city departments.

The pothole issue, he said, was one of the first areas where the city implemented the approach popular in business, nonprofit and educational settings.

"I am pleased with the improvements we've made," Ballard said, "and we will continue to try to do even better."

Sarah Taylor, the city's director of constituent services, said the new results come as the call volume at the MAC is growing.

Still, she said, those calls are being answered faster, with fewer people hanging up in frustration. Some of the increase in calls, she said, is probably due to the economy, and some is repeat business from people who have called before and seen results.

"One of the things we say here is: 'Fix it, and they will call some more,' " Taylor said.

Potholes

The improvement in the time required to address potholes is not by accident.

At the end of 2008, the city implemented a new approach where workers fix all potholes in the immediate area surrounding a reported problem instead of fixing only those reported to the MAC.

"Applying a new business process," Taylor said, "really made a difference for us."

Marcia Caudill, Indianapolis, was impressed when a pothole she reported in April was fixed the same day she called the MAC.

"It was the first time I had called," she said, "and I was very pleased with the response."

But some city residents still wait weeks -- and sometimes, much longer.

Cliff Bradley, 52, is among that group. It took 383 days to fix a pothole he reported in an alley behind his home in May 2009, and 74 days to fix one he reported in the same area in April.

"It's a really bad situation," he said. "They just filled it with a dirt and gravel mix."

Taylor said calls about alleys are assigned a different priority level than those in major thoroughfares that carry large volumes of traffic. And in some cases, she said, the conditions are so bad that they can't be easily remedied with a temporary patch.

Animals

Animal complaints are typically the No. 1 source of calls to the MAC -- and they largely account for the increase in overall resolution times.

Teri Kendrick, administrator of Animal Care and Control, said the delays found by The Star might be a reflection of a staffing shortage. A different philosophy by her predecessor, Doug Rae, also may have been a factor.

During his tenure in 2008-09, Rae shifted at least two animal control officers off the street and into kennel staff positions -- prompting complaints about long wait times that ultimately contributed to his dismissal.

Since then, the department has struggled to restore its staff of officers on the streets. While ACC is supposed to have 20 officers on the street, Kendrick said it has operated for much of the past year with just 13. She said five additional officers were recently hired and have completed training.

"We have seen an improvement in response time since they were added," she said.

The officers also are getting new in-vehicle computers, Kendrick said, that should help expedite responses.

"We are trying to get better and faster," she explained.

The fruits of those efforts showed up in data from the second quarter of 2010, when animal complaint resolution times dropped from 20 days in 2009 to six days. And about 95 percent of animal complaints were resolved in less than a month in the second quarter of 2010, compared with only about 66 percent during the same period in 2009.

Abandoned vehicles

Taylor said the increase in the average time to resolve abandoned vehicle complaints is likely the result of shifting who responds to those reports from the Department of Public Works to the Department of Code Enforcement.

She said there also may be another unexpected -- and, one might think, unrelated -- reason: There has been an explosion in complaints about weeds because of abandoned homes.

That matters because Code Enforcement also handles those complaints.

Rick Powers, the department director, said he wasn't surprised by the findings. He explained that the department picked up more responsibilities without getting any additional staffing.

"We have to strike a balance with our resources, using them strategically," Powers said.

He said the staff shortage would change with the addition of about seven field workers next year.

"I understand the public's concern," he said, "but I'm not overly concerned."

Trash

Taylor said the long wait The Star found for 2007-08 trash complaints -- which included a startling 42-day disparity in response times between the city's most affluent and poorest neighborhoods -- was an anomaly.

That anomaly, she said, was explained by a delay in obtaining and distributing new trash containers in Center Township, which includes some of the city's lowest-income neighborhoods.

The new data, she said, is more reflective of actual service.

Not only are trash complaints being resolved, on average, seven days sooner than before, but the gap in resolution times between affluent and poor neighborhoods has been closed.

Now the difference is less than two days -- and the slightly longer waits are now in the wealthiest parts of the city.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100909/LOCAL18/9090417/City-fixes-how-it-handles-citizen-complaints