Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today released the Mayor's Management Report (MMR) for Fiscal 2005.  The MMR presents five years of statistical information on the efforts of more than 40 City agencies to provide services effectively, efficiently and responsively.  In addition to presenting annual statistics for the last fiscal year, the report also provides a scorecard on how the City has performed under the Mayor's leadership over the last four years. The statistics in the MMR show that City government is outperforming levels achieved four years ago and substanital progress has been made in many critical areas. 

"City agencies and their employees have done a remarkable job," said Mayor Bloomberg.  "We can be proud of their achievements which make New York a better City for all of us.  Today, New Yorkers are safer, our children's education has improved, the public's health is better, those in need are being cared for and our economy is stronger.  These accomplishments are even more striking when you consider that these gains were achieved during one of the most difficult periods in New York City's history."

When Mayor Bloomberg was sworn into office the City faced a budget deficit of almost $6 billion precipitated by a national recession and compounded by the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11th.  City agencies were directed to do more with less, manage resources more wisely, and maximize the use of cost-effective technology.  Over the past four years, the City's budget was cut by over $3.6 billion and the size of the workforce reduced by nearly 15,000. 

The statistics in the Mayor's Management Report bear out that City agencies succeeded in doing more with less, without adversely affecting critical services. While there is always room for improvement, the annual and four-year trends point to high levels of service delivery. City agencies overall are also predicting that performance will improve in Fiscal 2006 as compared to last year.

The following are highlights of trends from Fiscal 2004 to Fiscal 2005 unless otherwise noted:

• Crime is down: Major felonies decreased by 5% citywide, from 143,268 to 136,491 and homicides fell from 566 to 537, marking the third consecutive year with fewer than600 murders.
  
  
• Violence in jails declined: Stabbings and slashing incidents involving inmates, a key indicator of violence in City jails, fell 25% from 40 to 30.
  
  
• Student achievement is up in elementary and middle schools: Students in grades
  3-8 meeting or exceeding English Language Arts standards rose from 41.1% to 51.8%.
  
  
• The public schools have become safer: Citywide violent crime in the schools is down 16% and major felony crime is down 4% from last year.  During the 2004-05 school year the 11 original schools still in Impact status experienced a 37% decrease in major felony crime.
  
  
• Recycling rates increased: Daily tonnage increased by 3%, exceeding the level seen prior to the temporary suspension of glass and plastic recycling in Fiscal 2003. The curbside and containerized recycling diversion rate rose from 13.5% to 16.8%.
  
  
• The number of adults entering homeless shelters declined:  The number of new single adults entering homeless shelters declined by 8%, the first decline seen since Fiscal 1999.  The number of new families entering the system continued to fall.
  
  
• Response time to emergency housing complaints fell:  Despite a 23% increase in complaints due to improved access through 311 and new lead paint regulations, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development reduced from 14.3 hours to 10.9 hours the response time to emergency housing complaints.
  
  
• A greater proportion of childcare slots were utilized: The percentage of capacity filled in childcare programs rose from 96.6% to 96.9%.  Utilization of Head Start program capacity also grew, from 97.4% to 97.7%. 
  
  
• Response time to maintenance complaints in public housing fell: New York City Housing Authority reduced from 14.9 days to 12.9 days the response time for non-emergency complaints.  Emergency complaint response remained at 1.2 hours and elevator complaint response rose from 5.2 to 5.3 hours.
  
  
• Lead poisoning is down: The number of cases of lead poisoning fell by 14% for children under 18, and by 11% for those aged six months to under six years.
  
  
• Adult AIDS and tuberculosis cases are down: An estimated 4,460 new AIDS cases were diagnosed in Calendar 2004, 481 less than the previous year. New tuberculosis cases fell from 1,140 to 1,039.
  
  
• Emergency room visits in public hospitals fell:  There were 822,200 visits to public hospital ERs in Fiscal 2005, the lowest level in at least five years.
  
  
• Compliance with tobacco regulations fell: Compliance with regulations governing the sale of tobacco to minors dropped from 85% to 82%, and the proportion of second time offenders identified through inspections rose from 18% to 28%.
  
  
• Libraries hours increased:  Average weekly scheduled hours throughout the City's three public library systems increased.
  
  
• Tort payouts were reduced:  Payouts for tort claims declined by 12%. 
  
  
• Call volume at 311 is up: Monthly call volumes were one and a half times the level seen at the end of Fiscal 2004. Average time to speak to an operator was 40 seconds, and 63% of calls were answered in 30 seconds.

The following are key performance results over the past four years:

Public Safety

• New York is safe and getting safer: Major felonies fell by 21% from Fiscal 2001 to Fiscal 2005, including a murder rate that is the lowest in 40 years. Major felonies in the transit system are down 17% compared with four years ago, and major felonies in public housing developments have fallen by 20%. According to FBI Uniform Crime Index reporting, New York is the safest City in the nation with a population over 1 million.
  
  
• Police Department response times improved: Average response time to all crimes in progress fell from 10.1 minutes in Fiscal 2001 to 7.2 minutes in Fiscal 2005.
  
  
• Counterterrorism training expanded: Since Fiscal 2002, the Police Department has provided over 761,000 hours of training to officers, civilian employees, businesses and citizens and has dedicated 1,000 officers to counterterrorism duties. Under the leadership of the Office of Emergency Management, the City has sponsored or participated in over 65 drills to test and enhance emergency preparedness.
  
  
• Civilian fire fatalities dropped to the lowest level since 1919: Over the past four years the number of civilian fire fatalities fell from 107 to 91 and is the lowest in 85 years.
  
  
• Response times decreased for medical emergencies but increased for fires: The combined response time of fire units and ambulances to life-threatening medical calls improved by two seconds over the past four years. The average response time to structural fires rose by 15 seconds, from 4 minutes 16 seconds in Fiscal 2001, to 4 minutes 31 seconds for Fiscal 2005. The Fire Department has adjusted its policies and instituted new regulations to reduce response times.
  
  
• Traffic fatalities are at their lowest level in 95 years: Deaths among pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists continued to decline, with total traffic deaths falling from 386 in Fiscal 2001 to 297 in Fiscal 2005.  This is the lowest level since 1910, when 332 fatalities were recorded.

Quality of Life

• Potholes were repaired quicker than ever, even as workload soared: The number of potholes repaired increased by 78% since Fiscal 2001, totaling over 216,000 in Fiscal 2005. The Department of Transportation raised the proportion of pothole work orders filled within 30 days from 70% to 98%.
  
  
• Park cleanliness and acceptability ratings rose: Acceptability ratings of the City's parks and playgrounds rose from 85% to 87% for overall conditions over the past four years, and from 91% to 92% for cleanliness levels. Safety-related ratings conducted in playgrounds rose from 87% to 90%, and condition ratings of playground safety surfaces remained stable at 89%.
  
  
• Enforcement against noise violations increased: A top category of complaints to the 311 Citizen Service Center is excessive noise. The number of noise violations issued by the Police Department and the Department of Environmental Protection has almost quadrupled, from under 5,500 in Fiscal 2001 to 20,800 in Fiscal 2005.
  
  
• 311 has changed the way citizens access government. The 311 Citizen Service Center handled over 12.5 million calls during Fiscal 2005, and has responded to more than 20 million calls since its establishment in March 2003 - 46% more on an annual basis than were handled by individual agencies prior to the launching of the call center. 311 provides New Yorkers with one stop access to government information and services, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in over 170 different languages.
  
  
• Street cleanliness reached unprecedented levels: In Fiscal 2005 ratings of acceptably clean streets citywide reached 91.5% up from 85.9% in Fiscal 2001.  This is the highest rating in the 31-year history of tracking this statistic. 

Education

• Student achievement improved sharply for elementary and middle school students: In the most recent school year, overall success on standardized tests improved to 50% for Mathematics (grades 3, 5, 6, and 7) and nearly 52% for English Language Arts (grades 3-8). These represent the highest overall scores and biggest one-year gains ever. Compared with the 2000-01 School Year, performance improved by nearly 13 percentage points for English Language Arts and 18 percentage points for Mathematics.
  
  
• Academic interventions to support new promotion policies are helping students to learn: Of the third graders who attended Summer Success Academy and took the summer tests in 2005, 55% achieved the promotion standard - as compared to 49% last year and 35% in 2002-03, before the implementation of the promotion policy for third graders. Of the fifth graders who attended Summer Success Academy and took the summer tests, 43% achieved the promotion standards, as compared to 28% in 2004, before the implementation of the fifth grade promotion policy. The overall promotion rate for grades 1-9 increased from 94.6% during the 2000-01 School Year to 95.9% for the 2003-04 School Year.
  
  
• High school academic performance improved:  The proportion of students passing State Regents examinations with a 65-100 score rose on four of five exams - including English, U.S. history and government, global history, and science - while declining minimally in math. The proportion of high school students graduating within four years has also increased to 54.3%, the highest rate since the City began tracking this data in 1986.
  
  
• Schools are less crowded: The City has provided over 43,000 new student seats since the reorganization of the School Construction Authority in October 2002. Since the 2000-01 School Year the percent of schools at which enrollment exceeds capacity fell from 48.5% to 28.6% for elementary schools, from 31.1% to 19.5% for middle schools, and in high schools, where overcrowding is most severe, from 58.3% to 48.0%.
  
  
• Teacher qualification levels rose: The percent of public school teachers who are certified increased from 84% during the 2000-01 School Year to nearly 99% for the 2004-05 School Year.

Human Services

• The City makes progress on creating 68,000 affordable housing units: The New Housing Marketplace Plan - the City's $3 billion plan for housing development, representing the largest investment in its housing stock in twenty years - funded 28,550 units through its second year, and is ahead of schedule. The five-year plan will create a mix of low, moderate, and middle-income housing for 200,000 New Yorkers.
  
  
• Homelessness is declining: In 2002 the City was in the middle of one of the most dramatic increases in homeless shelter utilization on record. The average monthly census peaked in November 2003, up 51% from shelter census figures in Fiscal 2001 and 83% from Fiscal 1998, when the dramatic growth began. Since the shelter census peak in November 2003, the number of individuals housed has fallen by 15%, and the number of children in the shelters has decreased by 22%, putting the City ahead of its goal of reducing homelessness by two-thirds by 2009.
  
  
• The number of homeless families placed in permanent housing increased: The number of homeless families placed in permanent housing nearly doubled, from 3,349 in Fiscal 2001 to 6,545 in Fiscal 2005.
  
  
• Help for domestic violence victims increased: The Human Resources Administration now provides 1,955 emergency beds for victims of domestic violence, 500 more than at the close of Fiscal 2001. Reports of serious crimes related to domestic violence, including murder, rape and felonious assault, have declined.
  
  
• Fewer child abuse and neglect reports were received: The number of reports alleging child abuse and/or neglect declined by 12% from Fiscal 2001 to Fiscal 2005. The City's rate for contacting each reported case within 24 hours declined slightly to 96.4%.
  
  
• The foster care population is the lowest in nearly 20 years: The number of New York City children in foster care homes or group foster care fell by 38.5% during the past four years to under 19,000, the lowest level since Fiscal 1987. The number of children receiving contract preventive services rose over the past four years by 21%, totaling nearly 28,800 children in Fiscal 2005.
  
  
• Enrollment increased for Head Start but falls slightly for City subsidized child care: The utilization rate for available child care slots fell from 98% to 97% over the past four years, corresponding to a decline in enrollment of less than 1%. At the same time, utilization of Head Start programs rose from 91% to 98%, as enrollment climbed by 16%.
  
  
• Public assistance caseload declined: The number of New Yorkers receiving public assistance fell by over 80,000 from Fiscal 2001 to Fiscal 2005, a drop of 16%. Because those still receiving assistance over this period have significant barriers to employment, the number of recipients placed in employment fell by 37%.  However, the proportion of those placed in jobs that kept them for at least six months rose from 63% in Fiscal 2002 to 75% in Fiscal 2005.
  
  
• Eligibility was expanded for Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemptions: The income threshold for the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) program was raised in Fall 2003 for the first time since 1996. New applications for the SCRIE program, which had fallen from 7,908 in Fiscal 2001 to 6,789 in Fiscal 2003, rose to 7,447 in Fiscal 2004 and 8,100 in Fiscal 2005.
  
  
• More New Yorkers used food stamps: Enrollment in the Food Stamp Program has increased by 30% to 1.1 million over the last four years.

Health

• Fewer New Yorkers smoke: Nearly 200,000 fewer New Yorkers are smoking now than four years ago.
  
  
• Children's health improving: Since Calendar 2001 the rate of infant mortality has remained near historic lows, falling to 6.1 deaths per thousand live births in Calendar 2004. From Fiscal 2001 to Fiscal 2005, the percent of public school children receiving all required immunizations rose from 93.0% to 97.4%, the highest level ever recorded; and new cases of lead poisoning among children aged six months to six years fell by 44%.
  
  
• AIDS cases declined: The number of new adult AIDS cases diagnosed fell by 13% from Calendar 2001 to Calendar 2004. At the same time, the number of New Yorkers living with AIDS rose by 21% due to new therapies and better care.
  
  
• More New Yorkers have health coverage: Aggressive enrollment for Medicaid and other forms of coverage has boosted the number of New Yorkers with public health insurance by more than 60%, or nearly one million over the past four years. The number of uninsured patients seen at the City's public hospitals dropped by 11% between Calendar 2001 and Calendar 2004.
  
  
• Restaurant inspections increased: The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene inspected 99.9% of the City's restaurants in Fiscal 2005, compared with 98.8% in Fiscal 2001.
  
  
• Rodent complaints and exterminations rose: The availability of 311 led to a 63% increase in complaints about rodents. Exterminations performed by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene are up 36%, reaching the highest level in at least 20 years.

Economy

• Unemployment is down: The City's unemployment rate was 7.5% immediately following the September 11th terrorist attacks, and had fallen to 5.5% as of the last month of Fiscal 2005.  During the four-year period from Fiscal 2001 through Fiscal 2005, the City has retained and recruited over 150,000 jobs through a combination of commercial incentives and federal grants, including assistance provided for the renaissance of Lower Manhattan.
  
  
• Tourism is up: The number of annual visitors to New York climbed from 35.2 million in Calendar 2001 to 39.6 million in Calendar 2004, and is on pace to exceed that record in 2005.
  
  
• Citywide construction activity increased:  Over the past four years, the Department of Buildings increased the number of building permits issued or renewed by 25% to over 110,000, and there was a 50 percent jump in the number of job filings for new construction.
  
  
• The number of newly certified minority and women-owned businesses increased: Businesses newly certified for the Department of Small Business Services' M/WBE program have nearly quadrupled over the past four years. By the end of Fiscal 2005 there were a total of 955 participating businesses.