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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 423-09
September 29, 2009

MAYOR BLOOMBERG RELEASES FY 2009 MAYOR'S MANAGEMENT REPORT

Report Reflects Success in Maintaining or Enhancing Services

New Citywide Customer Service Statistics are Introduced

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today released the Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) for Fiscal Year 2009.  The report gives an overview of the performance of City agencies in delivering a wide array of services and sets performance goals for Fiscal Year 2010.  The report shows that the efficiency and effectiveness of services provided to New Yorkers have generally been maintained or improved.

“This year’s report is particularly telling, because it shows that even with massive budget shortfalls caused by a nationwide economic downturn, we can continue to make government more effective by finding innovative ways to do more with less,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 MMR includes new indicators that track citywide customer service performance. Developed by the Mayor’s Office of Operations, the new indicators include the number of customers interacting with the City, and track relevant measures of customer service performance.  The new standards reported this year will establish a baseline against which agencies can evaluate their customer service performance going forward.

In addition to agency performance statistics, the MMR shows information generated by the 311 Customer Service Center.   Calls to 311 rose to more than nearly 18.4 million, 21 percent greater than the prior fiscal year. Complaints about noise continued to be the single most frequent topic for 311 customers.

The MMR is one of two complementary sources of information on New York City agency performance. The Citywide Performance Reporting (CPR) system, an online interactive dashboard, greatly enhances access to data on services, and provides monthly updates for the majority of the City’s most critical performance indicators. Launched in February 2008, CPR includes data from the same City agencies and organizations that are represented in the MMR. CPR Agency Performance Reports are part of the City’s NYCStat  web page, a one-stop shop for all essential data, reports and statistics related to City services.

To accompany release of the Fiscal 2009 MMR, a new feature has been added to the CPR online tool to make it even more user-friendly and provide an added dimension to the data and information. CPR Agency Performance Reports now provide a geographical mapping feature for selected key measures to show data breakdowns by borough, district or precinct, as applicable. Examples of measures that offer this added feature include the seven major felony crimes reported by the Police Department; acceptably clean street ratings, and recycling diversion rates, within Sanitation Districts; grade-level performance in reading and math for the Department of Education; and infant mortality rates reported by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The new mapping feature for CPR will be available by October 2nd.

To view the full 2009 MMR, monthly data from CPR or any other information made available on NYCStat, visit www.nyc.gov.

The following highlights some of the information about agency performance in the Fiscal 2009 MMR. Unless otherwise noted, the trends described below compare Fiscal 2008 (July 2007 through June 2008) with Fiscal 2009 (July 2008 through June 2009).

Public Safety

  • Crime was down: Major felony crime decreased, dropping by 7 percent from 119,052 in Fiscal 2008 to 110,828 in Fiscal 2009. Based on preliminary FBI crime statistics for Calendar 2008, New York City remains the safest large city, with the lowest rate of crime among the ten largest U.S. cities.

  • Homicides were at historically low levels: Murder and non-negligent manslaughter decreased by 8 percent, from 516 in Fiscal 2008 to 473 in Fiscal 2009. For the first time since fiscal year records were kept, there were fewer than 500 murders in New York City.

  • Major felony crime decreased in transit and public housing: Major felony crime in the transit system fell by 6 percent, from 2,346 in FY 2008 to 2,196 in FY 2009. Major felony crime in public housing developments decreased by 9 percent, from 4,686 in FY 2008 to 4,275 FY 2009.

  • Response times to all crimes in progress remained stable: NYPD  average response times to all crimes in progress was 7.3 minutes in FY 2009, the same as in FY 2008.

  • Complaints concerning police officers increased: The Civilian Complaint Review Board received 7,661 complaints about alleged police officer misconduct in FY 2009, an increase of 2 percent from 7,488 complaints in FY 2008. 

  • Civilian fire fatalities were at historic low levels: The number of civilians dying in fires decreased by 8 percent, from 85 in FY 2008 to 78 in FY 2009.

  • Fire Department field inspections increased: FDNY  field force inspections increased by 9 percent, from 56,383 in FY 2008 to 61,732 in FY 2009. Fire prevention staff inspections completed decreased by 1.5 percent, from 162,474 in FY 2008 to 159,961 in FY 2009 due to vacant inspector positions that are currently being filled.

  • Structural fire response time was faster: FDNY responded to structural fires on average in 4 minutes and 5 seconds citywide in FY 2009, 17 seconds faster than in FY 2008. Structural fire response time improved in each of the five boroughs due primarily to the new dispatch policy put into effect June 2008.

  • Medical emergency response times were mixed: Fire units responded to life-threatening medical emergencies on average 4 minutes and 14 seconds in FY 2009, 5 seconds faster than in FY 2008. Ambulance response time to life-threatening medical emergencies was on average 6 minutes and 40 seconds in FY 2009, 1 second slower than in FY 2008 due to an increase in flu-related calls during the spring.

  • Traffic fatalities decreased:  Deaths due to traffic accidents decreased 8 percent from 300 in FY 2008 to 276 in FY 2009.

  • Repair times for traffic signals were slightly longer, but signs were repaired slightly faster: The average time to fix a traffic signal increased to 4.3 hours from 4 hours, while repairs to priority signs were completed in 1.6 days versus 1.9 days last year. 

  • Construction-related fatalities declined, but reports of construction-related incidents and injuries increased:  The Department of Buildings  reported an 80 percent decline in the number of fatalities, from 25 in FY 2008 to 5 in FY 2009; however, reports of construction-related incidents climbed to 543 from 474, and reported injuries increased to 233 from 167. 

  • More construction inspections were completed.  Constructions inspections increased by 5.8 percent to 242,483, but inspector productivity decreased to 9.5 from 9.9 percent in FY 2008.

Quality of Life

  • City streets were the cleanest in 35 years: For the fifth year in a row, the annual rating of acceptable street cleanliness exceeded 90 percent. The citywide rate of acceptably clean streets rose slightly from 95.7 percent in FY 2008 to 95.8 percent in FY 2009.

  • Calls to 311 increased: The 311 Customer Service Center received 21 percent more calls, from 15.2 million calls in FY 2008 to 18.4 million in FY 2009. Callers waited 22 seconds on average to speak to a 311 representative and 88 percent of calls were answered in 30 seconds or less in FY 2009.

  • More potholes were repaired but pothole work order repair time grew longer:  The number of potholes repaired rose by 7 percent, from 210,032 in FY 2008 to 224,648 in FY 2009.  On average, the time to close a pothole work order where a repair was completed increased to 4.1 days from 2.7 days.  

  • Street pavement ratings improved: The percent of streets rated in good condition rose to 70.9 percent from 66.4 percent in FY 2008.  The Department of Transportation  resurfaced a record 1,006.9 lane miles in FY 2009.

  • Inspections of street work continued on upward trend:  The Department of Transportation’s inspections of permitted street work increased by nearly 14 percent to 606,785.  The percent of work rated satisfactory rose by one point to 78 percent.  An additional 223,352 inspections of street work were conducted after construction had been completed to determine if contractors had properly restored the street. 

  • The City’s three-year bike lane mile plan was completed:  The Department of Transportation added 88.7 bicycle lane miles in FY 2009, reaching its broader three-year goal of installing 200 bike lane miles citywide.

  • Ratings for parks were mixed: Overall acceptability ratings for park cleanliness were essentially the same at 90 percent, but cleanliness ratings of large parks declined slightly to 77 percent, continuing a downward trend.  After increasing by two points last year, overall condition ratings fell by four points to 82 percent. 

  • Tree planting and pruning remained high:  For the second year, more than 21,000 trees were planted and more than 75,000 trees were pruned.   

  • Recreation center membership and attendance grew by more than 14 percent: Membership at the Department of Parks and Recreation ’s centers grew by 14.3 percent to 169,301, and attendance increased by 14.9 percent to 3,193,646. 

  • Noise complaints and violations dipped and response time was faster:  The Department of Environmental Protection received 39,371 noise complaints, a decrease of 20 percent, and issued 2,559 violations, a drop of 25.2 percent.  On average the Department closed complaints in 17.7 days compared to 18.7 days in FY 2008.

  • Per capita water consumption and average in-City water consumption were at record low levels:  Per capita water consumption and average in-City water consumption declined by 6.8 percent to the lowest levels in more than a decade.

  • Construction activity under the New Housing Marketplace Plan (NHMP) slowed, but long-term goal remained on schedule:  In FY 2009 construction started on 12,500 units, reaching 97 percent of the annual target, and was completed on 12,914 units, or 82 percent of the year’s plan.  During NHMP’s six years of implementation, construction has started on 93,916 units, more than half the overall goal of 165,000 units.

  • Housing complaints increased, but response times were quicker: The number of complaints to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development  grew by 4.4 percent, with increases in both the emergency and nonemergency categories.  However, due largely to a 13.8 percent jump in the number of inspections, response times were quicker.  The average time to close emergency complaints improved by 4.3 days to 12.1 days, and nonemergency complaints were closed in 30 days compared to 39.9 days in FY 2008.  The total number of violations issued climbed by 10.1 percent, from 483,578 in FY 2008 to 532,497 in FY 2009.

  • Housing Authority elevator repair times were slower: Average time to resolve elevator service requests in public housing rose from 10.4 hours in FY 2008 to 11.4 hours in FY 2009. The percent of time that elevators were in service declined slightly from 98.2 percent to 98.1 percent.

  • Lead complaints continued to trend down:  The Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 40,114 complaints regarding conditions that may cause a lead-based paint hazard compared to 43,021 complaints in FY 2008 and 46,033 the year before.  

  • Decisions on parking ticket hearings-by-mail/web were issued more quickly: Turnaround time for parking ticket hearings-by-mail/web decreased by more than a quarter, from 43 days in FY 2008 to 31.4 days in FY 2009.

Education

  • English and Math achievement levels improved strongly: The percent of students in grades 3 to 8 meeting or exceeding standards in English Language Arts increased by more than 11 percentage points to 68.8 percent in School Year 2009-2009. Students in grades 3 to 8 meeting or exceeding standards in Math increased by 7.5 percentage points to 81.8 percent.

  • Class size increased slightly: For the 2008-09 School Year average class size increased slightly overall. All grades except 4th grade saw slight increases in class size.

  • Regents exam scores rose: Data is now available for Regents examination performance for the 2007-08 School Year. The percent of students in the graduating class with a 65 to 100 passing score on the Regents examination increased in all five subject areas.

  • Graduation rate improved: The four-year graduation rate for general education high school students rose to 60.7 percent for the 2007-08 School Year. The rate has risen steadily since 2002. The City’s Department of Education and the New York State Education Department now use a shared methodology to calculate graduation and dropout rates.

  • Parent coordinators continued to provide assistance: Parent coordinators assigned to the public schools responded to more than two million phone calls in the 2008-09 School Year, an increase of 28 percent compared to the previous year. Parents receiving assistance from coordinators on a walk-in basis increased slightly, by 2 percent, while parents attending parent coordinator workshops and the number of workshops held declined by 5 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

  • Expansion of school space continued: A total of 14,329 new student seats were added in FY 2009, slightly more than planned. This was the most new school seats provided in four years. The Department of Education  and the School Construction Authority plan to add 17,046 new student seats in the coming year.

  • School safety continued to improve: Major felony crime in schools decreased by 13 percent, from 1,042 in FY 2009 to 902 in FY 2009.

Human Services

  • Indicators of the street homeless population declined: The Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) showed a 30 percent drop in the estimated number of unsheltered individuals living in New York City, from 3,306 in FY 2008 to 2,328 in FY 2009. Average daily census figures in the City’s homeless shelters declined by 1 percent and 3 percent for adult families and single adults respectively, while the census for families with children increased by 5 percent.

  • The number of families placed into permanent housing increased overall: Placements of homeless adult families into permanent housing declined to 1,094 in FY 2009, 6 percent fewer than the prior year. At the same time, the number of families with children placed into permanent housing rose to 7,716, up 20 percent from FY 2008. The improvement for children with families reflects the Department of Homeless Services ’ work with clients at family facilities to prepare them for placement into permanent housing, and the implementation of Advantage NY, the Department’s new rental assistance program, in late FY 2007.

  • Response time to child abuse and neglect reports was the fastest since FY 2000: The percentage of abuse and neglect reports responded to within 24 hours of receipt by the Administration for Children's Services increased from 97.3 percent in FY 2008 to 97.6 percent in FY 2009, the best reported in the Mayor’s Management Report since FY 2000.

  • Child protective worker caseloads were reduced: The average number of child abuse and neglect reports handled by each caseworker was reduced from 11.0 to 9.3.

  • Foster care population declined: The average number of children in foster care was 16,439 in FY 2009 compared to 16,701 in FY 2008.

  • The number of people receiving cash assistance increased slightly: The number of persons receiving cash assistance increased by 1 percent to approximately 346,100 at the close of in FY 2009. This population has decreased 32.7 percent since December 2001 to the lowest number of cash assistance recipients since December 1963. This reduction reflects the Human Resources Administration’s continued welfare reform efforts designed to engage recipients in work and work-related activities, enhancing their ability to obtain employment and maximize their self-sufficiency.

  • The number of persons receiving food stamps increased: The number of persons receiving food stamps increased by 21 percent. Among these recipients, the number of non-cash assistance persons receiving food stamps increased 41.6 percent

  • Resources and program participation for domestic violence victims remained stable: Emergency beds made available for victims of domestic violence by the Human Resources Administration  did not change during FY 2009, remaining at 2,144 beds. The monthly average of individuals participating in HRA’s nonresidential domestic violence programs rose from 3,209 in FY 2008 to 3,271 in FY 2009, and has doubled since FY 2003.

  • More working families were living in public housing:  In FY 2009, 64 percent of applicants placed in public housing were working families, and more than 46 percent of public housing residents are now working families.

  • Day care site inspections and complaints decreased: The number of initial site inspections of day care facilities monitored by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene  declined 14 percent, from 18,695 in FY 2008 to 15,989 in FY 2009. Day Care site complaints received by the Department decreased 2 percent over this period, from 1,554 in FY 2008 to 1,525 in FY 2009.

Health

  • Adult asthma patients needed fewer emergency room visits while pediatric patients needed slightly more visits in public hospitals: The rate of emergency room revisits within seven days of discharge for adult asthma patients decreased from 5.2 percent in FY 2008 to 4.7 in FY 2009, while the revisit rate for pediatric asthma patients increased from 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent. The Health and Hospitals Corporation’s Asthma Initiative, combined with facility-specific asthma programs, emphasize close monitoring of asthma patients.

  • The infant mortality rate increased slightly: The rate of infant deaths per thousand live births increased from 5.4 in Calendar 2007, the lowest rate ever recorded in New York City, to 5.5 in Calendar 2008. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene efforts to reduce infant mortality include numerous programs for new mothers, and an ongoing focus on City neighborhoods with high mortality rates.

  • Lead poisoning cases continued to decline: For children under 18 years old, the number of new cases requiring environmental intervention for lead poisoning decreased by 14 percent, from 584 in FY 2008 to 503 in FY 2009. For those from 6 months to less than 6 years old, the number of new lead poisoning cases with blood lead levels greater than or equal to 10 micrograms per deciliter declined by approximately 20 percent from FY 2008 to FY 2009.

  • Health Department refocused exterminations: The number of pest control exterminations declined by 52 percent, from 60,000 in FY 2008 to approximately 29,000 in FY 2009. The Department is focusing on exterminations of private properties rather than catch basins. Since private property exterminations are more time intensive, the overall number of sites exterminated declined.

  • HIV/AIDS mortality was lower: The number of New Yorkers who die from HIV/AIDS continued to decline in Calendar 2008, to 1,073. This represents a reduction of 4 percent since the prior year and 26 percent compared with Calendar 2004.

  • The trend in syphilis cases continued to rise: Syphilis cases increased by 13 percent in FY 2009, from to 965 to 1,079. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene continues efforts to increase case-finding and heighten community involvement and awareness regarding the need for screening and symptom recognition.

  • Tobacco use declined: The proportion of adult New Yorkers who smoke was 15.8 percent in Calendar 2008, a decrease from 16.9 percent the prior year.

Economy

  • Consumer complaint processing times were much faster: The Department of Consumer Affairs  received and resolved fewer complaints, closing 5,521 complaints in FY 2009 compared to 7,612 in the prior year.  Ninety-five percent of complaints were processed with 50 days compared to 68 percent in FY 2008, and the median time to process a complaint improved by more than a third to 23 days. 

  • Unemployment rate spiked: The City’s unemployment rate rose by 2.3 percentage points to 7.2 percent, in line with national trends.

  • Economic indicators reflected downturn in national economy.  The value of City funding agreements between the New York City Economic Development Corporation and non-City entities decreased to $225.6 million in FY 2009 from $315.3 million in FY 2008.  Third-party investment leveraged as a result of these agreements dropped to $375 million from more than $4 billion last year, when several exceptionally large agreements were executed and the national economy was healthier. New private investment related to the sale/long-term lease of City-owned property was two-thirds lower than last year at $324.2 million. 

  • Certifications of Minority and Women-Owned Enterprise Businesses continued to rise: The Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) program certified a record number of new businesses, 611, compared to 550 last year, bringing the total to 2,200 certified firms. The overall number of City contracts awarded to M/WBEs increased by two percent to 5,892. Seventy-eight percent of the businesses whose M/WBE certification expired in FY 2009 elected to recertify, an increase of 25 percent in the annual M/WBE recertification rate from the previous fiscal year.

  • Construction permits showed modest decrease: Although the number of renewal permits increased by nearly 10 percent, a decrease in the number of initial permits resulted in a net decrease of 3.8 percent in the overall number of permits issued by the Department of Buildings.  The Department issued a total of 116,898 permits in FY 2009 compared to 121,571 last year, when activity was at its highest.   






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