The 3-1-1 Citizens Service Center (CSC) has been receiving resident calls since September of 2008 and has answered 269,901 calls.  On any given month the call volumes fluctuated between 10,000 and 19,000 calls. 

The center was able to meet every performance goal or service level agreement during the fiscal year of 2010. July 2009-June 2010.  Next is a summary report for fiscal year 2010.

The 3-1-1 Service Center publicly announced it’s (311 or 413-736-3111) number in March of 2009.  Since that time the telephone number has received 32% of all the calls directed to city government offices.  The 311 number has become the most utilized number accessed by residents when looking for city government information.

Due to the 311 Service Center exceeding it’s goals in the first year after the launch of the department, the city would like to show you how responsive we can be to your service needs.  We have changed our performance goals to be more accountable to you. We want to answer the call and be more responsive to you in your daily inquiries.

 Our goal for fiscal year 2010 was to answer 75% of our calls within 45 seconds. In fiscal year 2011 it is our goal to answer 85% of the calls within 30 seconds. As a result we will be answering the phone 15 seconds faster than the prior year with an increased service greater than 10%.

Performance goals for fiscal year 2011

• PCA-Percentage of calls answered within 30 seconds       85%
• ASA-Average speed of answer                                       30 sec
• AAB-Caller hangs up before call in answered                  <5%
• Inquiries to calls                                                            85%

 3-1-1 is One call to City Hall.

For questions please contact 311 Director Donna Carney at dcarney@springfieldcityhall.com

In the month of April, CitiStat continued efforts to share City data on performance and quality of life with neighborhoods, presenting to the Indian Orchard Citizens Council and McKnight Neighborhood Council on April 14th and April 15th respectively.  Feedback was positive, with both councils expressing an interest in regularly receiving data and updates from the City.  A critical next step will be identifying ways to regularly share neighborhood data online so that it can be accessed “on demand.”

CitiStat meetings with neighborhoods will continue with the intention of providing reports to and meeting with every neighborhood by the end of 2010.  Below are links to the reports provided to Indian Orchard and McKnight.

Indian Orchard Neighborhood Report

McKnight Neighborhood Report

Since CitiStat’s inception in January of 2008, there has been a regular monthly meeting called NeighborhoodStat.  Bringing together representatives of the Mayor’s Office and the Police, Fire, Housing, Building, and Law departments, these meetings have focused on data-driven problem-solving for neighborhood quality of life issues.  In many cases this has meant targeting small areas of the City or even single streets for multi-departmental efforts.  Some examples of efforts emerging from NeighborhoodStat . . .

• In December inspectors from four departments went up and down five streets in the North End identiyfing and commencing action on all issues along those streets.
• The City implemented an ordinance requiring the registration of vacant and foreclosing properties in response to the high number of quality of life issues resulting from these properties.
• Prioritizing tax delinquent properties with high incidences of problems for expedited tax title taking.
• Pursuing receiverships on problem properties.

In its first two years, NeighborhoodStat was an entirely internal process among City departments.  In February of 2010 CitiStat held the first two of a series of meetings with neighborhood organizations to share data and information on quality of life issues in their neighborhoods and the City’s response.  These meetings have two goals: 1) to share data and information with residents; and, 2) to solicit feedback both on what the data means (from the perspective of neighborhood residents) and on what additional data neighborhoods would like to receive from the City.

Below you can access the NeighborhoodStat reports prepared for the February 9th meetings of the Maple-High/Six Corners and Pine Point neighborhood councils.

Maple-High Six Corners NeighborhoodStat Report

Pine Point NeighborhoodStat Report

Following is a summary of the 3-1-1 Citizen Service Center’s performance in the 4th quarter of 2009.  The Center was able to answer 36,602 calls and meet every performance goal during this quarter.  On any given day, call volumes fluctuated between 400 and 1,100 calls (which translates to between 40 and 110 calls per calltaker per day).

In June, the CitiStat Department released fact sheets on the progress of the CitiStat program and the 3-1-1 Citizen Service Center.  The fact sheets provide summaries of the programs’ purposes as well as results achieved.  Click on the links below to view these fact sheets.

CitiStat Fact Sheet

3-1-1 Fact Sheet

On April 21st, Mayor Sarno’s office and the Finance Control Board announced the release of the latest progress report on the work of CitiStat.  Efforts undertaken by CitiStat over the last 13 months (from February 2008 through March 2009) will result in savings and efficiencies of at least $1.7 million for the City of Springfield ($7 for every dollar invested).

The report summarizes progress made from the launch of regular CitiStat meetings at the end of January 2008 through the end of March 2009.  In that period, CitiStat has convened 180 CitiStat meetings, including 161 departmental reviews covering 21 City departments.  The report also summarizes some of the major projects currently being addressed by CitiStat.

Highlights shared during the press conference include a savings of $360,000 in sick leave costs through improved monitoring and accountability, up to $75,000 in annual savings through the adoption of a tougher city ordinance for false fire alarms, increased efficiency of housing and building inspectors saving more than $100,000, reductions in workplace injuries on pace to save $120,000 this year while protecting employees’ health, and adoption of a vacant and foreclosing property ordinance that will improve quality of life and generate up to $130,000 in fees per year.  The results of inter-departmental NeighborhoodStat meetings were also shared, including a 14.6 percent reduction in calls for service to the Police Department from one street that has been a focus of CitiStat meetings.

The progress report, as well as three posters with highlights, can be viewed by clicking below.

CitiStat Progress Report - April 2009

CitiStat Highlights Posters

On February 2nd, a presentation on the CitiStat program was made to the Springfield Business Roundtable.  The presentation summarizes some of the results achieved to date,  the CitiStat process, and a few examples of improvements currently being implemented as a result of CitiStat.  The presentation can be viewed by clicking on the below link.

CitiStat Presentation to the Business Roundtable

In the summer of 2008, the CitiStat Department took responsibility for developing the City’s 3-1-1 Citizen Service Center.  The software being used to track calls and service requests in the call center, Intelligov, includes a comprehensive real-time reporting tool or dashboard.  This Dashboard, which is still being developed, allows Departments and the City’s leadership to monitor call center activity (calls taken, service requests created, service requests on-time performance, etc.) in near real-time.   The first link below is a summary view from the City of Springfield’s Dashboard showing all calls taken on February 4th by type.  Calls for service are those calls that are logged as a service request requiring action.   Calls for information are those calls that were answered by the Call Center without being forwarded to another department.  As you can see, this provides the City’s leadership with a quick view of activity taking place on a given day.

Dashboard Summary View

CitiStat has also worked with other City departments to integrate data from other systems and databases into the Dashboard.  At this time, the Dashboard includes data from the Housing Department’s complaint database, the Fire Department’s incident management system, the MUNIS financial system, MUNIS work orders, and ADP payroll.  The ability to access data in near real-time from a variety of systems allows leaders to make data-informed decisions and will greatly improve CitiStat’s ability to monitor performance.

The second link below is a dashboard view of performance metrics for the Housing Department which shows the FY2009 goal, the FY2008 year-to-date performance, the FY2009 year-to-date performance, the status (relative to the goal), and the trend (FY2009 compared to FY2008).

Housing Performance Metrics Dashboard

At its February 3rd meeting, the Springfield Finance Control Board unanimously passed an executive order creating the CitiStat Department under City ordinance.   The ordinance defines the process of appointing and removing the Director, the powers and duties of the department, and the composition and duties of the CitiStat review team.  Following is the definition of the Department’s powers and duties as defined in the ordinance.

2.100.040  CitiStat Department—Powers and duties generally.  A.  The CitiStat department and CitiStat review team established pursuant to the provisions of shall 2.100.040 shall be responsible for cultivating data-driven management and accountability of the operations of all city departments, boards, commissions and agencies and, upon the request of the school committee and/or superintendent of schools, the school department.  The CitiStat department and CitiStat review team shall work with departments, boards, commissions and agencies, and as applicable, the school department, to improve their operations, efficiency and effectiveness, and shall facilitate the process of cross-departmental cooperation for the purposes of improving the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of public services in Springfield.

B.   The CitiStat department shall have the power, right and duty to:

1.              Request data and information from any city department, board, commission and agency (including, pursuant to the provisions of 2.100.040 (A), the school department);

2.              Regularly track, collect, review and analyze performance and management data and other information from all city departments (including, as applicable, the school department), identify key issues and questions, and query any city departments (including, as applicable, the school department) pertaining to such data and information;

3.              Conduct field investigations;

4.              Prepare reports, memoranda and briefing materials prior to CitiStat meetings, highlighting data and posing questions, and at other times as determined appropriate by the director;

5.              Regularly schedule management and performance reviews and other meetings with all city departments, boards commissions and agencies (including, pursuant to the provisions of 2.100.040 (A), the school department);

6.              Record and monitor until completion all action items, open tasks, and follow-up actions identified during any CitiStat meetings;

7.              Notify on at least a monthly basis all city departments (including, pursuant to the provisions of 2.100.040 (A), the school department) of uncompleted action items and follow-up items for which they are responsible; 

8.              Advise and make recommendations to the mayor and others, upon mayoral direction, pertaining to the operations of the city;

9.              Establish, operate and maintain a call center, to be known as the 3-1-1 citizen service center, that will receive; respond to; manage; monitor, evaluate and track departmental responses to; resolve and report on all non-emergency calls, citizen inquiries, requests for services or information, and complaints for all city departments;

10.         Issue a public report on no less than on a quarterly basis regarding departmental activities, results and future items; and

11.         Perform such other duties as the mayor may prescribe from time to time.

At every CitiStat review of a department, one of the first topics of conversation is payroll.  In particular, amounts of leave time and overtime incurred.  While overtime costs are driven by a number of factors, such as emergencies, for many City departments the number of people on vacation or out sick on a given day can significantly impact overtime costs.

CitiStat’s analyses of payroll include metrics like sick leave hours as a percent of total working hours or number of employees by sick leave days used in the year.   One of the simplest ways to review payroll is to examine hours of leave and overtime incurred this year compared to the same period of time last year.

In the table below, you find the total hours of sick leave, all paid leave, and overtime incurred by each Division of the Department of Public Works during the first 10 weeks of FY2008 and the first 10 weeks of FY2009.  As you can see, overtime hours have declined considerably (down nearly 1,000 hours or 100 hours per week) since FY2008.  This type of analysis then leads to a further conversation of why hours are down and whether there are lessons to be learned that could be applied in other departments to reduce overtime costs.