Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today released the Preliminary Mayor's Management Report (PMMR) for Fiscal Year 2005.  The PMMR provides a snapshot of how the City is performing four months into the fiscal year, and forecasts expected levels of service based on the City's Preliminary Budget. The report indicates that overall the quality of City services remains high and continues to show improvement.   Over 70% of citywide preliminary performance results were positive, either meeting established service goals or performing at levels equal to or better than last year.  Early trends for the City's leading indicators are equally positive, showing that the most vital services have largely been maintained or improved during the reporting period.  Moreover, in the face of nearly $1 billion in budgetary gap closing measures, City agencies are projecting performance for Fiscal 2006 to look much the same as in Fiscal 2005.

"The PMMR confirms that despite the challenging fiscal environment, City agencies are succeeding in doing better with less," said Mayor Bloomberg.  "We are increasing public safety, improving our quality of life; promoting the health and welfare of our residents and reforming our schools.  Our parks are cleaner; more school children are being immunized; affordable housing is being built; progress is being made in controlling asthma; and pothole repairs are on track to reach a record high. Our agencies, both large and small have a lot to be proud of."

In addition to agency performance statistics, the PMMR shows information generated by the 311 Citizen Service Center.  311 has transformed the way City residents interact with government and request services.  The direct feedback provided by 311 provides an important barometer about the demand for City services.  Calls to 311 soared to 3.8 million, increasing 86%, during the first four months of Fiscal 2005 as compared to the same period last year.  The largest increases in call volume were seen in requests for the $400 homeowner property tax rebate, for sanitation pick-ups and noise complaints.

The following highlights some of the preliminary results reflected in the Fiscal 2005 PMMR.  Unless otherwise noted, the trends described below compare July-October 2003 to July-October 2004.

• New York remains the safest large City in America: The number of major felony crimes dropped by 6% from 52,884 to 49,690.  New York defended its title as the safest large city in the United States.
  
  
• Police Department responded quicker to crimes in progress: Response times to critical crimes in progress averaged 5:00 minutes and to all crimes averaged 7:36 minutes, improving by 36 and 30 seconds respectively.
  
  
• Counterterrorism training expanded: The total number of counterterrorism training hours delivered by the Police Department increased more than sevenfold, from 14,680 to 111,196.
  
  
• Major felonies in public housing continued to decline: Reports of major felonies in New York City Housing Authority developments dropped from 2,031 to 1,854, a reduction of 8.7%.
  
  
• Civilian fire fatalities dropped below historic low level: Less than half as many civilians died in fires, decreasing from 29 to 14.
  
  
•  Response times to structural fires continued to be below national standards: Response times to structural fires averaged 1 second faster at 4:23 minutes. Performance continues to be well below the national standard of six minutes in all five boroughs.
  
  
• Medical emergency response time improved: The combined response time to life-threatening medical emergencies by ambulance and fire units improved by 17 seconds, to 5 minutes 51 seconds. Ambulances responded on average 24 seconds faster; however, fire units responded 8 seconds slower.
  
  
• Traffic fatalities are on track to reach their lowest levels in 90 years: The number of traffic deaths decreased by 6%, from 113 to 106.
  
  
• Pothole repairs are on pace to reach a record high.  The Department of Transportation repaired over 35,000 potholes, the highest volume of any comparable four-month period in over a decade.
  
  
• Park cleanliness and acceptability ratings rose: Overall park condition ratings improved from 84% to 86% and cleanliness jumped to 92% from 87%.  Playground safety surfaces and equipment acceptability ratings met targets although ratings were lower than last year's.
  
  
• Street cleanliness continued to reach unprecedented levels: The Citywide rating for street cleanliness significantly exceeded expectations reaching the highest level in more than 30 years.  Street cleanliness averaged 91.4 % acceptably clean for the first four months of Fiscal 2005. None of the City's 230 individual Sanitation sections were rated dirty or marginal for this period.
  
  
• Recycling rates are projected to exceed pre-suspension levels in Fiscal 2006:  Recycling rates have steadily rebounded since the reinstatement of plastic and glass, beginning in July of 2003. The Department of Sanitation expects the rates in Fiscal 2006 to surpass performance levels achieved prior to the suspension of the program.
  
  
• Violence in jails declined: Assaults on staff declined by 4%, from 132 to 127, and inmate stabbings and slashings decreased from 14 to nine.
  
  
• School safety is improving: The total number of safety incidents occurring in public schools dropped more than 9% from 2,972 to 2,697. 
  
  
• Student performance improved on Regents and math exams: Results now available for the 2003-2004 school year show the percent of high school students passing the required Regents exams increased from 36.1% to 43.4%. Results in math performance for students in grades three through eight also showed substantial improvement, from 41.9% meeting or exceeding standards to 46.7%.
  
  
• Parent coordinators made nearly 790,000 Parent Contacts: Between September and December of 2004, the public schools' new Parent Coordinators responded to over 363,000 phone calls and assisted 235,000 parents in person. More than 190,000 parents attended 7,700 parent-coordinator workshops, and over 483,000 parents attended parent-teacher conferences.
  
  
• More public school children were immunized early in the school year: The proportion of children in public schools completing required immunizations by October 31 rose from 85% to 90.5%.
  
  
• More student seating capacity was added: 1,700 new student seats were created during September-October 2004, almost three times the 633 seats that were added during the same months of 2003. A greater proportion of small capital improvement projects were completed on time or early, up from 65% to 84%, and the within-budget performance rate for projects remained high at over 90%.
  
  
• The number of families in homeless shelters fell: The average daily census of families in homeless shelters fell by more than 4%, to 8,828.  However, as more families were found eligible for assistance, the number of new families in the shelter system grew from 2,561 to 2,703 for the July-October reporting period.
  
  
• The number of homeless families placed in permanent housing remained constant: The Department of Homeless Services placed 2,321 families into permanent housing, virtually equal to the comparable period last year.
  
  
• Response time to child abuse reports improved: The Administration for Children's Services responded to 98% of child abuse or neglect reports in 24 hours or less, up from 95.8%. At the same time, the proportion of children for whom repeat allegations were received within a year grew from 17% to 19%.
  
  
• A greater proportion of available childcare slots were utilized: The percent of slots utilized in ACS-sponsored childcare programs rose from 90.9% to 94.9%. Utilization of Head Start program capacity also rose from 83.7% to 90.7%.
  
  
• The foster care population continued to decline; however, children took longer to reunite with their families: The number of children in foster care fell by 14% to 20,083, as the number entering the system for the first time declined by 21%, to just under 1,300. However, the proportion of children in foster care that were reunited with their parents within a year declined from 51.8% to 47.5%.
  
  
• More people received public assistance, but there were also more job placements: The number of New Yorkers receiving public assistance grew by 1%, to approximately 437,700. However, the number of recipients placed into jobs during the four-month reporting period rose to 30,500, an increase of 19%. The number of persons receiving Food Stamps also grew by 13.5%, to over 1 million, and the number of New Yorkers enrolled in public health insurance rose by 7.3%, to more than 2.5 million.
  
  
• Fewer asthma patients returned to public hospital emergency rooms: The rate of revisits for asthma patients declined in Health and Hospital Corporation emergency rooms. Repeat visits fell from 7.4% to 6.6% for adult asthma patients, and from 4.0% to 3.4% for pediatric patients.
  
  
• Fewer lead poisoning cases were found: Reports of children with elevated blood lead levels continued to decrease. New cases among children up to age 18 with blood lead levels greater or equal to 10 milligrams per deciliter fell by 15%, to 1,583. A new statistic tracks the number of cases requiring environmental intervention consistent with new Local Law provisions; 432 such cases were identified for the period August-October 2004.
  
  
• West Nile cases were greatly reduced: Summer 2004 saw a decrease in West Nile virus cases, from 31 the previous summer to only five, including several cases that were contracted outside the City.
  
  
• Hours of home care for seniors fell as costs increased: The average cost per hour of providing home care services for senior citizens increased by $1.66 since the passage of the Living Wage Law in December of 2003. As a result, the number of hours of care provided fell 11%. However, the Department for the Aging reallocated resources to safeguard seniors already receiving home care from the impact of reductions.
  
  
• Processing times improved for seniors' rent increase exemptions, but remained slower than target: The average time to process applications for rent increase exemptions was 34 days, higher than the 32-day average for the same period last year, but better than the 37-day average for Fiscal 2004. The Department for the Aging will continue working to streamline the process to meet its 32-day target.
  
  
• Building complaints were responded to faster: Despite the sustained growth in the number of reported problems, the Department of Buildings handled more complaints quicker, responding to 96.8% of emergencies and 87.7% of non-emergencies within established timeframes.
  
  
• Housing construction starts and completions increased: Under the New Housing Marketplace Plan, construction started on 3,206 affordable housing units, more than a 160% increase from the 1,221 units started during July to October 2003.  Construction completions increased by 50% from 1,034 to 1,561.
  
  
• Air and noise complaints continued an upward climb: The dramatic growth in complaints, from 12,337 during July to October of 2003 to 19,042 during the same period this fiscal year, impacted the Department of Environmental Protection's ability to meet timeliness standards.  Air and noise complaints responded to within 7 days fell to 72% from 92% and from 89% to 80%, respectively. The increase in complaints is attributable to the ease of using the 311 Citizen Service Center.
  
  
• Newly certified minority and women-owned businesses increased: The Department of Small Business Services certified 142 new minority and women-owned businesses, continuing its record pace for certifications.
  
  
• Tort payouts were substantially reduced: Payouts for tort claims declined by 27% to $103.8 million.