City services

[from Gillian Cook]

Has anyone been noticing a decrease in the City Service Request Center (727-1000) or online service requests? In the past few years, calling 727-1000 or going online with a service request resulted in prompt service.

Recently (over the past few months) I have had 2 city service requests that reminded me of the old days of poor city services. Is it me or are city services slipping? How can we address this before we head back to the days of frustration and lack of city services?

Comments

[Richard]

You could always carbon copy your emails to one of the local papers.

[Malachai]

Yes, I put in a request for bulk pickup over a week ago and still can't get an answer about when someone is going to come out here to take my broken entertainment center, now even more broken because of the neighborhood kids who like to try to smash another part of it when they're bored. Can't wait until someone tries to set it on fire with fireworks. I'm starting to think the reference numbers are only there so they can keep a list of who's complaining about what how many times, not to help them keep track of what still needs to be done.

[Joe Martin]

Also bring this to the attention of Councilmember Fenty's office at 724-8052 - to the attention of his director of constituent services, Ron Austin.

Another tremendously helpful resource is Ayana Rockett, the Ward 4 Neighborhood Services Coordinator at 202-576-8103. Email:
[email protected]

Ayana is part of the Mayor's staff, and her role is to ensure city agencies are doing what they're supposed to be doing in Ward 4. She has been an invaluable help and resource in my Single Member District and elsewhere in ANC 4C's district.

[Joe Martin]

Let Michael Latessa know of your concerns. He's the head of the Unified Communications Center which now includes 727-1000. They also handle the 311/911 calls.

He's been cleaning house, re-training people who needed it and fired some others. You learn a lot about city government when you're an ANC commissioner - especially chair.

Email Mr. Latessa at:
[email protected]

Michael Latessa genuinely wants to fix problems and wants to know about them. The other side of the equation could be that specific individuals in the agencies responsible for addressing your issues might not be responding as they should. While there are a lot of good, impressive people in city government, there are still less productive people from the old days. One of former Mayor Marion Barry's right hand people admitted in a Washington Post article that in those days Marion Barry and his cronies were more interested in giving people jobs than in competence. It shows. They're still out there. Look behind the current crop of candidates for mayor and check out the Barry crowd on some of the campaigns, especially one. It's enough to send a chill up your spine.