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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2003
PR- 054-03
www.nyc.gov


MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG RELEASES
FISCAL YEAR 2003 PRELIMINARY MMR

Despite Budget Reductions City Agencies Are Maintaining Vital Services

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today released the Preliminary Mayor's Management Report (PMMR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. The PMMR provides an early update of how the City is performing four months into the fiscal year.  The Report concludes that nearly three-quarters of performance statistics showed positive results, and less than three percent of these measurements had been negatively impacted by budget cuts. Moreover, for FY 2004 agencies are expecting performance to look much the same as in FY 2003.

“The PMMR has been remade consistent with my vision of making City service delivery statistics user-friendly and more accessible to the public,” said Mayor Bloomberg.  “It provides a snapshot of City performance during the first four months of the Fiscal Year 2003, identifies strengths and weaknesses, and forecasts expected levels of service for next year based on the City’s Preliminary Budget.”

The PMMR has been re-created as a performance update.  Beginning with this edition, emphasis has been placed on scrutinizing and understanding the four-month statistics that are required to be reported, and identifying potential full year trends, both positive and negative. Aside from a new analytic focus, the body of information included in the PMMR has been improved by providing the public with additional historical statistics, and enabling readers to quickly identify where changes have been made since the Mayor’s Management Report’s publication last September.  Preliminary agency performance results have also been highlighted in an easy to read format.

In addition to the improvements made to the PMMR, the “My Neighborhood Statistics” Internet mapping program launched with last September’s Mayor’s Management Report has been significantly enhanced. This program allows the public to view locally mapped performance statistics through the use of the City’s website (www.nyc.gov/myneighborhoodstats).  The website has had more than 50,000 visits since its launch five months ago. 

The “My Neighborhood Statistics” website has been redesigned to allow for an expanded number of agencies and measurements.  The number of covered agencies has grown from eight to 14, and the number of performance statistics has more than tripled, increasing from 14 to 49.  Historic neighborhood performance data has been added to enable viewers to see whether their community has improved or deteriorated over time. Citywide statistics have also been provided to add further context. New features such as agency grouping tabs, keyword search capability, measurement definitions, and agency links provide flexibility that will improve the user experience.  Finally, to maximize the utility of the website, the public can save, manipulate and display the information using a number of different programs including MS Excel.

The PMMR includes a wealth of agency statistics that report on services that affect the lives of New Yorkers.  There are two primary ways to assess performance using this information.  The first method analyzes the degree to which an agency has met, or is on track to meet annual goals that were established in last September’s Mayor’s Management Report.  The second is to look at how an agency’s actual performance in the early part of the fiscal year compares to last year during a comparable timeframe.

Taking into account both targeted goals and trends, Citywide preliminary results for FY 2003 indicate that 73 percent of performance measurements have either already met or exceeded projected service levels, are on pace to meet year-end goals, or are performing at least as well as last year.  Out of 589-agency performance measurements that were evaluated 2.5 percent were adversely affected by budget reductions. Agencies will use the preliminary trends to identify operational steps needed to enhance performance by year-end for those measurements that were lagging in the first four months of the fiscal year.

 “The economic impact of the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, the steep decline in Wall Street profits, and a weakening national economy have resulted in plummeting revenues and the need for City government to tighten its belt,” concluded Mayor Bloomberg.  “Despite a year of budget cutting that saved more than $2.6 billion, the early results for Fiscal Year 2003 indicate that agencies have succeeded in stretching their resources to do more with less and that core services have not suffered from the budget cuts.”


 

www.nyc.gov

Contact: Edward Skyler / Jordan Barowitz 
(212) 788-2958