City of Lansing Adds Innovative Program To Improve Service Delivery

The City of Lansing is using a new accountability tool called Citistat in order to provide citizens better, more effective service. The tool tracks calls and complaints and holds the proper city department accountable for taking care of the situation.

According to excerpts from the article:

With Citistat, City Hall will not only know that your street hasn’t been plowed, but it will also help hold someone accountable; the fire chief will know how many house fires have been in your neighborhood; and the Parks and Recreation Department will know that there’s graffiti scrawled all over the playground.

In its physical form, Citistat is just a meeting. But the form and substance of the meeting is what counts. Heads of every city department come together at Citistat meetings to share data about their operations. Everyone is together in one place sharing and learning. And that high level of intercommunication is the difference between a traditional government and a Citistat government. Once a problem is identified, that department head will be roasted by the administration until it’s fixed.

Lansing has tapped Dr. Eric Scorsone, a Michigan State University professor who runs the school’s state and local government program, to help implement Citistat. Scorsone likened Citistat to a car’s dashboard for the mayor’s office.

“They can gauge where things are heading as opposed to making a decision with a gut feeling,” he said. “It’s a performance management system designed to very quickly, in real time, assist the city in reallocating resources to address critical needs and to seize opportunities.”

Recently the city has been conducting Citistat meetings about once every two weeks. But the system will eventually be folded into weekly cabinet meetings, said Scorsone. Ten issues were identified in early Citistat meetings, and each issue (some items include refuse and recycling; neighborhood watch programs; mowing of city properties; snow removal; parking enforcement; and road maintenance) will be on the table at least once a month. Data on city issues will be updated monthly, and department heads must respond to queries about problems within that same time period.

Citistat is also a part of the city’s “goals and objectives,” says Jerry Ambrose, chief of staff of the Bernero administration. Some items on the highly pragmatic list include increasing public safety; attracting new businesses and residents; improving public infrastructure and developing stronger neighborhoods.

Read the entire article here.