CLEVELAND — A first-of-its-kind report put together by a Cleveland City Council member shows what has happened over the years when basic city services have fallen short of citizen expectations. The report published by Ward 12 Council member Rebecca Maurer, which examined three months of call data, shows residents are nearly twice as likely to call the ward office for basic city services instead of the very resource built to handle them, Cleveland’s 311 system.
Maurer’s Constituent Services Reportprovides a glimpse into how bogged down city council members can become in responding to and, later, ensuring that city government is providing residents with the basic services they need and expect. In her report, Maurer concluded the current system simply isn’t working for council members, who have become inundated with calls that preclude them from working on policy and ward development. Most important, Maurer said, the system has fallen short of the needs and expectations of city residents, who are not receiving the benefits of a responsive and efficient city.
“We are the de facto the front doors to City Hall,” Maurer said.
In her first few weeks as Ward 12’s elected council member, resident frustrations with city services were put on display during the city’s maligned response to two large snowstorms in January. In particular, the snowstorm that occurred around Martin Luther King Day left much of Ward 12 impassable for many days. On the campaign trail, Maurer said she was reminded time and time again from residents that there was a general lack of confidence in the city’s ability to deliver basic services.
“It was maybe that second snowstorm when I realized, ‘Oh, this is much worse than I thought.’ People don’t know where to go and residents still aren’t getting that experience of having their issues responded to,” Maurer said. “Sometimes the council office can help on a particular type of task, but more often than not, we are just shuffling it around City Hall and residents still don’t feel like they are getting the benefit of a well-run city.”
Even after the snow was eventually cleared, the calls into her ward office kept coming, the vast majority of which were related to basic city services and, consequently, were not under direct control of the City Council. Maurer said those calls continued to require a significant investment of her time and energy as well as her limited staff, which is comprised of one full-time executive assistant and one part-time assistant.
According Maurer’s report, her ward office received more than 1,000 calls, emails and other correspondence in a 110-day period. Some calls could be quickly answered while others required weeks of emailing and following up with respective city departments. When she began examining the data, Maurer said she was struck by the fact that her ward office received nearly twice the number of constituent service requests compared to the number of Ward 12 requests submitted to the city’s 311 system.
Cleveland’s 311 system was designed to be the main point of contact for residents in need of city services or those who were looking for more information. Created in response to years of complaints about inadequate city services, the 311 call center is supposed to identify a resident’s request with the appropriate city department. However, Maurer’s data suggests that many residents have either lost confidence in 311 or simply do not know that it exists. In turn, residents have grown accustomed to calling their local council members in hopes that their service requests are fulfilled.
“Over the years that became this cycle and now we have created just a behemoth that is eating up all of our time on City Council,” Maurer said.
Maurer compared it to a three-legged stool that has become off-balance.
“There’s always going to be a balance. I always want residents to call me about things. I love hearing from residents but we have to find this balance,” Maurer said. “I want Cleveland to have a city that is thriving. They should be able to get calls back on issues that they have. They should have a council that can really engage substantively on ward-level development and policy. That’s just not possible when we’re spending 95% of our time on basic city services.”
In her report, Maurer identified several case studies that serve as examples of how burdensome things have become and, additionally, how some situations still require the help of a council member.
In the 800 block of Pelley Drive, just north of Schaaf Road in Old Brooklyn, a tall, ornate street light had been missing from the tree lawn at the end of the cul-de-sac. Neighbors said the street light had been sheared off in a car crash. Despite periodically calling to have city crews replace the light, the only improvement proved to be an orange construction cone that was placed over the base.
“That street light was out for probably three years,” neighbor Angie Tomas said. “It was pitch black here. We had some break-ins going on around the neighborhood. Nobody ever did anything. It was very frustrating especially when I’m out all times of night and morning with my job. Coming back to a pitch black neighborhood, I wasn’t feeling very safe.”
Not long after taking office, Maurer said she began working to get the street light replaced, but even she couldn’t have expected the bureaucratic hurdles that she would encounter. In the end, Maurer said the street light was eventually replaced after 26 emails, contacts with a half dozen city departments and four months of wrangling.
“A resident could have never gotten that lamppost fixed — not in a million years and not with the city the way that it is right now. That’s one of the things that we need to recognize as a council office,” Maurer said.
Part of the disconnect, Maurer said, is a result of years of a lack of communication coming from City Hall and a collective lack of promotion of the 311 system. A stronger, more effective 311 service would allow council members to more efficiently and effectively work on policy and ward development.
“We need to build that trust within 311 so that if a resident calls 311 they know they’re getting the same level of service. On the flip side of that, council offices should always be available if something is going wrong,” Maurer said. “We should still be there if things aren't going right. We need to be a resource but we shouldn’t be a frontline.
"There’s always going to be a balance. I always want residents to call me about things.”
In her initial conversations with members of Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration, Maurer said city officials have provided her with positive feedback, she said.
“They see the effects from within the departments. They see that it’s not working either,” Maurer said. “Residents should be able to call one number, get a very clear answer, get a ticket, a number that they can use to reference a concern and get a callback. The council office isn’t capable of doing that. It’s just not working for residents.”
A spokesperson for Mayor Justin Bibb provided the following statement to News 5.
"We have reviewed the report and we appreciate the work of Councilmember Maurer and her team. The administration is aware of these issues and we are collaborating with City Council on resolving them. These improvements seek to both reduce the volume of service-related calls directed to members of council and improve basic city service delivery for all residents.
We work every day to make City Hall and city services work better for our residents. Since day one, we have been evaluating 311 -- identifying process improvements, investments in technology, increased staffing, expanded partnerships and better communication. We are currently developing a comprehensive plan to improve service delivery, responsiveness, and public awareness of 311."
