An alien life form: Phila. officials who care

July 19, 2008
Chris Satullo
Inquirer columnist

Over the years, I've led a lot of citizen forums. Until recently, though, none featured Martians.

At the latest Great Expectations forums, citizens of Philadelphia stared, agog, at some guest speakers as though they were creatures from another planet. These odd beings spoke in a strange tongue, using words such as service, promise and listening.

In their day jobs, these exotics work in the Nutter administration.

Since April, the "A City That Works" forum series has gathered more than 500 Philadelphians. The residents have discussed how city life might look and feel and taste at the rowhouse level - if City Hall ever started doing its job properly.

A posse of city officials has attended the forums. The officials, from the Offices of the Managing Director and Budget, offered rundowns on city finances (tight), the coming 311 services hotline (way cool), and the new PhillyStat performance review system (dull but important).

They also listened as residents worked together to identify the best measures of progress towards five core city goals: public safety, ethics, sustainable neighborhoods, jobs and education.

The administration's hope is to move from merely tabulating effort ("1,233 potholes filled") to measuring the type of success that matters to citizens: "100 percent of streets drivable."

Citizens also tried to suggest customer-service standards for city agencies that would be as catchy and on-point as "Your pizza in 30 minutes or it's free" or "Absolutely, positively overnight." (See accompanying box.)

Camille Barnett, the managing director, and Stephen Agostini, the budget director, seem dead serious about enforcing these goals.

As the City Hall newbies talked about transforming the place, citizens wondered out loud: "What planet are you guys from? This is Philly, you know, home of the patronage hack, favor bazaar and voice-mail hell."

I'll never forget how one fellow at Albert Einstein Medical Center put it: "This all sounds great. But, you know, every spring the Eagles sign some big free agent who's going to lead us to the Super Bowl. But the Eagles never win the Super Bowl, and you guys are never going to be able to pull off what you're saying."

Agostini said he felt the "Martian effect" strongly: "Yeah, it was remarkable to see how stunned people were that we were even out there, asking them what they think. It underscored the need to keep doing it. And, by the end of the three hours, you could see a change. People were like, 'OK, you're still nuts, but we can see you care.' "

Dana Wilson, Barnett's point person for performance management, said the citizen input would be heavily used as the administration hones its goals and reflexes.

The heart of that effort is PhillyStat - public meetings (1:30 p.m., Mondays and Wednesdays, 1515 Arch St.; video available at www.phila.gov/PhillyStat). They're chaired by Barnett, who grills managers on their progress, or lack of it, toward performance goals. Those around the table allude regularly to issues raised by Great Expectations participants.

At Monday's meeting, Deputy Police Commissioner Patricia Giorgio-Fox had a fairly easy go of it, because homicides are down 21.8 percent compared with last year, close to Nutter's goal of a 25 percent drop. But suicides and attempts are up, she reported. So the group discussed how to better link attempt survivors to pertinent city services.

Next task for this city team is getting the 311 call center running by year's end. The goal: End the 500-numbers-and-no-one-there frustrations of residents. One number to call, quick response, and a number to track progress on your request - just like FedEx!

"Yeah, right," you're thinking. "I'll believe that when I see it." Cynics have the evidence of the past on their side. No doubt Nutter's eager young managers will find that changing ingrained habits is hard.

But the "Martians" definitely have landed at Broad and Market. Might real life prove stranger than science fiction?

Chris Satullo: Great Expectations For City Services

Here are a few of the performance goals and standards for City Hall that citizens drafted at recent Great Expectations forums:

A 20 percent decrease in the city jobless rate in five years.

A 20 percent increase over four years in the percentage of graduates of local colleges who remain in the area.

A clean, safe public gathering place within a six-minute walk of every residence.

An annual survey of the top 200 employers in the city, asking, "In the last year, did the conduct of city government promote or hinder your business?"

Every citizen complaint triggers action within 24 hours and a report back to the citizen within 72.

Increase the recycling tonnage by 25 percent a year.

Change the default response from "I don't know" to "I'll find out for you."