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Surveys Ding City Staffers on Service

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Laura Jesse, San Antonio Express-News

Dec. 8--A longstanding litany of complaints about the city's Development Services Department was reflected in a survey of clients who have dealt with the city agency.

The surveys reflected an overall dissatisfaction with the level of customer service. Respondents complained about inadequately trained staff and unnecessary delays in the permitting and inspection processes.

The department long has been the target of criticism from the development community, prompting Mayor Phil Hardberger to order the survey to help identify areas that need to be improved.

The survey found a moderate level of overall satisfaction with customer service at the department's One Stop Development Center.

But respondents also said staffers were unqualified and unwilling to think outside the box, internal disagreements between staff members led to costly project delays and inspectors failed to keep appointments.

The resounding theme of many respondents' suggestions was to hire more and better trained staff, who could make a decision when unusual circumstances come up and who would communicate efficiently with other departments.

"That's not to say that employees are doing poorly, but there is room for improvement," City Manager Sheryl Sculley said Wednesday. The survey "lends focus to those areas where we can improve."

Comments from the respondents yielded a list of nine priority improvements, with refining customer service and staff motivation at the top.

Others included speeding up the review process, increasing services offered on the Internet and improving internal coordination and communication to avoid conflicting decisions.

"You get told 'yes' by one department and then 'no' by another department," Councilman Kevin Wolff said he often hears from constituents. "So then what are you supposed to do?"

The conflicts between departments or even between a plan reviewer and a field inspector end up costing clients time and money, many respondents wrote.

Sculley, who said the system also takes too long for plan review, permitting and inspections, said she will form a task force of city staff and development industry professionals.

The Internet survey, created by staff in the mayor's office and the city's Development Services and Economic Development departments, queried 8,584 clients on their most recent experience in obtaining an array of services offered either online, at the One Stop Center or through the city's Community Link Centers.

Of the 1,907 who responded, nearly two-thirds had sought services at the One Stop Center, while 30 percent had gone through the city's Web site.

Even though online services are limited, 67 percent of the Web users said they agreed or strongly agreed that the experience was satisfactory, while 56 percent of the One Stop users found the experience satisfactory.

Respondents seeking services for personal reasons such as online garage sale permits had a higher overall satisfaction score. People in the development industry who work with the department regularly were most dissatisfied with the overall level of service.

That could be because developers are working on more complex projects than just securing a permit for a yard sale, Hardberger said.

The results were not all negative, however. Anonymous comments offered by respondents praised the level of service and overall process for improving in recent years.

One respondent specifically linked this to the completion of the One Stop Center, which was an effort to streamline the overall development process by placing all the services under one roof.

Still, the survey clearly shows the One Stop Center did not eliminate many problems, Wolff said.

"Mr. Mayor, not sure if you will ever get this, but one stop really means one stop -- things take forever to get a building permit these days," an anonymous comment read. "I have been doing this for 22 years in this city, it is a shame this has to be."

A person's experience with the department can be entirely different depending on the staff member that was encountered.

One complaint said staff at the One Stop was courteous and helpful while the inspectors in the field, "have some sort of personality issues."

Yet another response said the layout of the facility allowed him to see that more staff members are busy talking to each other, eating or talking on the phone instead of helping clients.

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Copyright (c) 2005, San Antonio Express-News

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Source: San Antonio Express-News

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