Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today released the Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. Building on innovations introduced last year, the MMR includes new features that enhance its usefulness as a tool for public accountability. In addition to presenting agency performance statistics, and projecting service levels for Fiscal 2004, the Report includes for the first time, information about inquiries, requests and complaints received directly from the public through the 311 Citizen Service Center.

“Despite weathering the worst fiscal crisis in a generation, our administration continues to provide high quality service to our citizens,” said Mayor Bloomberg.  “It is a testament to the hard work of our agency heads and employees who have managed to do more with less through these challenging times.  The emergence of 311 as a tool for managing performance is a milestone in the City’s efforts to ensure quality in government.  The continuous public feedback made possible by 311 will serve as a barometer of how responsive the City is in meeting the needs and concerns of New Yorkers.”

The FY 2003 Mayor’s Management Report marks the beginning of the integration of citizen feedback into the City’s performance management and reporting system. This edition of the MMR highlights the key agency concerns raised by New Yorkers phoning 311. In summary, the top inquiries included: noise, landlord and pothole complaints, requests for assistance to quit smoking, and blocked driveways.  These five categories accounted for nearly 20% of inquiries during the four months that 311 was operational last fiscal year.  In addition to reporting on public concerns, the Fiscal 2003 Mayor’s Management Report also presents customer service statistics related to 311’s operations. By year-end over 1.2 million calls were handled, and 99% were answered within 30 seconds or less.

Aside from the inclusion of 311 information, several additional improvements have been made to the MMR to enhance its usefulness as a public report card:

• Performance reporting for the Office of Emergency Management, established as an independent Mayoral agency by the Charter Revision of November 2002, has been introduced.
  
  
• At-a-glance highlights have been added at the start of each agency section, providing a quick summary of results for key statistics.
  
  
• The use of unit cost statistics that measure program efficiency has been expanded.
  
  
• Approximately 60 new statistics appear as part of agencies’ continuing effort to improve
  performance reporting; and
  
  
• An additional year of neighborhood information for 47 statistics has been added to the ‘My Neighborhood Statistics’ website allowing for multi-year trend comparisons in communities citywide.

Citywide performance results indicate that agencies are maintaining key service levels in the face of the most severe budget crisis in a generation.  Agencies are in most cases projecting service levels for Fiscal 2004 that are similar to or better than the prior year. Some of the key results are as follows:

• Murder and crime decline: The number of major felony crimes fell by 6% from 156,559 in Fiscal 2002 to 147,669 in Fiscal 2003, continuing a 12-year decline. Homicides fell from 607 to 599.
  
  
• School violence incidents fall: The total number of crimes and non-criminal safety incidents in the public schools fell for a second straight year, from 15,990 to 14,880, a decline of 7%.
  
  
• Violence is down in juvenile facilities:  Within juvenile detention facilities, incidents between youth declined from 347 to 301 over this period, while assaults on staff fell from 39 to 23.
  
  
• Traffic fatalities decrease: The number of traffic deaths fell by 8%, from 397 in FY 2002 to 366 in Fiscal 2003.
  
  
• Pothole repairs are quicker despite increase in complaints: After a severe winter, pothole complaints jumped nearly 70% in Fiscal 2003, to 35,812. DOT repaired nearly 125,000 potholes, a 23% increase, and maintained an 89% record of fixing potholes within 30 days, up from 70% in Fiscal 2002.
  
  
• Street cleanliness improves: Citywide acceptably clean streets rose from 84.2% in FY 2002 to 85.4% in Fiscal 2003, but the number of Sanitation sections rated under 67% acceptable grew from 14 to 18, out of 230 sections total.
  
  
• Refuse volumes increase as recycling is scaled back: The Department of Sanitation collected and disposed of an additional 439,000 tons of refuse, a 13% increase over FY 2002 due to the temporary suspension of glass and plastic recycling and a continuing growth in disposable waste.
  
  
• Response time to child abuse reports improves: The percent of abuse/neglect reports responded to within 24 hours rose slightly from 95.8% in Fiscal 2002 to 96.2% in FY 2003.
  
  
• Foster children are reunited with parents more quickly: While more foster children were reunited with their families within a year – up from 48.4% in Fiscal 2002 to 49.2% in Fiscal 2003 - those awaiting adoption into a new family still wait an average of 3.6 years, the same as the previous year, and the proportion adopted within two years fell from 25.1% to 22.9%.
  
  
• Utilization of childcare slots is down: The percent of capacity filled in child care programs fell from 98.1% in Fiscal 2002 to 96.8% in Fiscal 2003. Utilization of Head Start program capacity fell from 89.4% to 86.4%.
  
  
• Playground facilities are safer; park conditions decline slightly in Fiscal 2003 but are better than target: Acceptability ratings fell from 88% to 87% for overall conditions, but remain better than the target of 83%. Cleanliness ratings were down from 93% to 91%, but remain above the 89% target. Safety-related ratings improved from 85% to 91% for play equipment, and from 94% to 95% for playground safety surfaces.
  
  
• Rodent complaints rise: Rodent complaints to the City were up 29% in Fiscal 2003, to nearly 21,000. Lower Fiscal 2002 call volumes resulted from disruption of agency phone lines after the September 11th attacks.  A rodent task force was announced by the Mayor on August 14th.
  
  
• Childhood asthma hospitalizations and infant mortality decline: Fewer children aged 0-14 were hospitalized for asthma; the rate per 1,000 children fell from 6.2 in Calendar 2001 to 6.0 in Calendar 2002. Infant deaths per 1,000 live births fell from 6.1 in Calendar 2001 to 6.0 in Calendar 2002.
  
  
• Fewer AIDS cases are reported: The number of new adult AIDS cases reported fell from 6,355 in Calendar 2001 to 6,017 in Calendar 2002, a drop of 5%.  New AIDS cases among children fell from 38 to 26.
  
  
• Structural fire response remains virtually unchanged: Average response time to structural fires rose from 4 minutes 14 seconds in Fiscal 2002 to 4 minutes 17 seconds in FY 2003, and were one second above target.
  
  
• Medical emergency response times remains virtually unchanged and below target: Response time to life-threatening medical emergencies, counting both fire companies and ambulance units, rose by one second to an average of 5 minutes 57 seconds in FY 2003, but remain faster than the fiscal year target of 6 minutes 12 seconds.
  
  
• Civilian fire fatalities are up for the year but remain at historic low levels:
  The number of civilians dying in fires rose from 98 in Fiscal 2002 to 109 in Fiscal 2003. However, fatalities for Fiscal Years 2001-2003 are down from an average of 163 between 1993 and 1996.  Fiscal 2002 figures do not include victims of the September 11th attacks.
  
  
• Lead poisoning cases again decline: New lead poisoning cases requiring environmental intervention fell from 645 in Fiscal 2002 to 577 in Fiscal 2003.
  
  
• Economic redevelopment programs accelerate in Lower Manhattan: 
  Federally-funded grant programs helped to retain, recruit or create 57,911 jobs in Fiscal 2003, nearly triple the Fiscal 2002 total of 19,615, and helped induce small firms to sign or renew 950 leases in Lower Manhattan, compared to 98 the previous year.
  
  
• Reading scores improve in elementary/middle grades: The percent of students in grades 3-6 and 8 meeting English testing standards rose from 39.3% in the 2001-2002 school year to 42.3% for the 2002-2003 school year. Grade 7 results were discounted by New York State due to inconsistencies.
  
  
• Math scores improve: For grades 3, 5, 6 and 7, the percent of students meeting mathematics standards improved from 35.3% to 37.5%. Tests results for grades 4 and 8 are being reviewed by the State Department of Education.
  
  
• More certified teachers in City schools: the percent of certified teachers rose from 83.0% for the 2001-2002 school year to 89.6% for 2002-2003.
  
  
• High school graduation and dropout rates have yet to improve: Graduation and dropout rates for the school year ending June 2002 are now available, showing the percent of general education students graduating after seven years of high school falling from 69.5% to 68.6%, and the percent dropping out after seven years rising from 30.5% to 31.4%.
  
  
• School building conditions improve overall: The percent of students in overcrowded elementary or middle schools fell from 45.9% in Fiscal 2002 to 38.9% in Fiscal 2003, although the same measure for high schools rose slightly from 73.3% to 73.8%. The percent of school building ratings categorized as “good” or “fair to good” rose from 21% to 33%.
  
  
• More homeless people are placed in permanent housing: While the demand for shelter continued to increase, the City placed 5,289 families in permanent housing during Fiscal 2003, 46% more than the previous year’s 3,614 placements. Placements for single adults rose from 5,580 to 5,711.
  
  
• Fewer public assistance recipients receive job placements as welfare rolls decline: In Fiscal 2003 the number of public assistance recipients fell from 430,400 to 421,500, the lowest level since 1965. Because there are fewer recipients, and a higher proportion with barriers to employment, job placements for people on welfare fell from 143,200 to 93,000, a drop of 35%.
  
  
• Housing construction programs start fewer units but exceed program targets, while completions rise: City programs started just under 5,000 new and rehabilitated dwelling units in Fiscal 2003, down 35% from the prior year but 8% above the annual target. Work was completed on over 5,300 housing units, topping the previous year by 8%.
  
  
• Emergency room visits decrease in City hospitals: The Health and Hospitals Corporation saw a decrease of 7% in emergency room visits, from approximately
  917,000 in Fiscal 2002 to 852,900 in Fiscal 2003, due to increased enrollment in managed care plans and new asthma care programs.
  
  
• Quick response times are maintained for sewer and catch basin problems: Response time to backed-up catch basins fell from 5.2 days to 3.9 days. Response time to sewer backups rose from 3.3 to 4.2 hours, but remained under the 7-hour standard.

The MMR can be viewed at www.nyc.gov.