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·- --- A SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF: Mr. Bement (East Central) · Mr. Bruce (West Central) Mr. Christenberry (Pittsburg) Mr. Isaac ( Central City) Mr. Menez (Ed g e w ood) Mrs. S n ider ( C i ty H a ll) Miss Sow ell (Na s h-Washi n gton - E x tension) Miss Woodward (West End) AUGUST 1, 1969 �EVALUATIONS OF CITY SERVICES , In evaluating City Services not all interns mentioned all City' Services. divided opinion on many departments. There was However, the general consensus was that the City Services were not responding well enough to complaints by area residents. The Atlanta Housing Authority, according to Miss Sowell, does not respond at all. . . . However,- the Housing Code Department was commended by Mr. Christenberry and Miss Sowell. This was not the case with Mr. Menez, who feels the department is "not only inadequate, but also poorly administered 11 • Mr. Isaac reported that the Police Department is· doing well in Central City, but Mr. Christenberry, Mr. Menez, and Miss Sowell reported very poor response. Mr. Christenberry was told that the Police D epartment did net knov.r to return route sheets; howev er , that is not b e liev e d. In most areas they have shown poor response on pick-up of junk cars: Only Mr. Isaac mentioned Public Works. He noted only one third response. The Recreation D e partm e nt was commented on by Miss Woodward and Mr. Menez. Mr. Menez stated that the Recreation Department was not only hampered by lack of e quipment, but its unsystematic s yste m allows for i!1consistenc y. Miss Woodward was more explicit, stating that recreation "app ears to suffer not in quanity but in quality". Since this is Atlanta's third y ear of exp a nd e d summer r ecreation , she feels that " one would exp e ct to find a ctivities with carry ov e r values 11 • Further, Atlanta is loosing its b es t opportunity t o communicate with youth in th e se areas. She r e ports t h at youth do e s not participate in othe r programs, such as Mod e l Citi e s, E. 0 . A. , e t c . �-2- The Sanitation Department came in for quite a bit of com1neint. Miss Sowell, Miss Woodward, and Mr. Isaac had reasonably good e x periences with this department. Mostly their request had been answered promptly. Miss Sowell stated that the quick response on the trash barrels gives tangible evidence of the City's concern. Thus this service of the Sanitation Department is invaluable. Miss Woodward states tha"t ther·e· is such· high c·onfideri~e in the department and in Mr.· Hulsey in · West End that citizens there usually call Mr. Hulsey directly with their complaints. Not all opinions of the Sanitation Department are good. Mr. Christenberry reports poor pick-up of junk cars by this departme n t, especially if the car has not been tagged by the City Service Coordinator. Mr. Menez feels the departments "output well _on complaints concernin g litte r barr e ls and/ or trash removal and poorly on removal of junk cars. The "Sid ewalks D e partm e nt" wa s commended by Mr. Isaac who stated that he has r e c e ived o ne -hun dred percent r e spon s e . Miss So we ll r e ports Str ee t Mai n t enanc e as b e ing prompt in r e plying. Ho wever, she f ee ls they should h ave inf o r m ed this offi c e t hat no addition al p av in g could b e done. The Traffic Engineerin g D e pa rtment d id not p lea se M iss S owe ll , Mr s . Snid er, o r Mr. Menez. Mi s s Sowell fe lt they s houl d h ave no tifie d th e Commu n i ty Development Coordinator 1 s Office t h at n o traffic s ignals were availa bl e for this year. Mrs. �---- - -3- Snider noted that many times the Traffic Engineering Deparhnent replied with "will check this next week" or "maybe next year". harm than good. are done". She felt this type of reply did more Mr. Menez criticized "the bureaucratic procedure in which things Mr, Isaac reported answers to all five route sheets sent to Traffic Engineering. Thus of the four comments on this department, only Mr. Isaac was satisfied. RECOMMENDATIONS There were several types of recommendations which appeared often in the intern evaluations. · These were concerned mainly with the City Services Coordinator, · junk cars, and the establishment of a central tel ephone nurn.ber or office. Although many recommendations were quite si1nilar each wa s p:resented from a slightly different viewpoint. The recommendations conc erning the City S ervi c e s Coordinators cent ere d around the number of coordinators and their duties, Miss Sowell, Mr. Isaac, and Mr. Bement recommend that the re be one City S ervice Coordinator per target area. I• Others , such as Christenb err y, Mrs. Snider, and Miss vVoodward felt that more City S e rvice Coordinators should be hired 11 • Mr. Christenberry su ggested that since the City Service Coo r dinator's do public relations work anyway, the 11 e x pens ive, blu e-ribb on b e d ecked Community Rel a tions Commission 11 could be abolished and the commission 1 s money be used for more City S ervice Coordina tors . Miss Woodward, Mr . Bement , Miss Sowell, and Mr. - Ch r ist e neerry also discussed pos sibl e change s in the coord i nat or 's duties . making them the administrators of 11 Miss Woodward recommended Little City Halls 11 and increasing the scope of �- -4- their duties to include early slum detection, consumer services complaints, public relations, and general information distribution. removing the coordinators from the E .O. A. Centers. the City Service Coordinators be viewed as 11 All of this involves Mr. Christenberry feels inovaUve chaps with an overview of the whole system whose job is to better integrate existing services and develop ne~ services as they see .fit 11 • They should have the po\ver to "recommend revisions in and additions to the city codes in their respective areas 11 • Mr. Bement saw the coordinator: s job as that of a "city-man in the ghetto; touching, listening, stimulating, teaching, reporting " . Miss Sowell believes the City S ervice Coordinators could perform a broader coordi nating function between the va.1~i 0LLS groups en h.is (or her) area. Those were not the only recommendations pertaining to City Service Coordinators. Mr. Christ enberry wants all City Service Coordinators (both present coordinators and all future ones ) to sp e nd tim e w ith experienc e d coordinators, le arning methods of "handling 'routine ' community proble ms". He also fee ls that all City S e rvic e Coordinators should have a per sonal knowledge of the operation of all city departments. Mr. Isaac recommended tha t the coordinators b e publicized in th e community. Miss Sowell suggeste d that re g ul ar 11 hou t' .!. of att endance 11 in their offic e s b e kept by the coordinators, and that route she e ts from the Cit y S ervic e Coor dina tors should received priority action (perhaps special funds could be a ll ocated for thi s ) . Thu s the s e inte:o. r ec omm end a tions conc e rnin g the City S e rvic e Coo r dinators r e l a t e �- r - - - - - - -- - -5- · to their role, their number, their training, etc. There is disatisfaction not with the ideal of a City Service Coordinator, but with the reality. A large number of recommendations concerned centralization. the entire system be tied to one telephone number, such as 511. Mr. Bement suggested He also suggested .a cent~al City Services intake . and Routing Office containing one or two complaint desks from each department. This would expand the Community Development Office's · coordinating function by enabling departments to work together on problems not "apropos II to any one department. Mrs. Snider also felt a central information service for field personnel was needed. Under her plan, the Community Develop- ment Office could become a central coordinating a ge ncy for target area groups who might need supplies or other help and those churches, busine sses, etc., who rr1igh: like to help such groups. A centralized publicized telephone number was also recommended by lvlr. Isaac. Miss Woodward suggested a central complaint depart- ment similar to that of Mr. Bement, but not included as a part of the Community Development Office. In the complaint department there would be a central real-time information bank and "exceptions 11 crews to investigate a11 types of complaints. Centralization as seen by the interns, wouLd expand the function of the Community Development Office and aid in its operation. Junk cars were the object of many of Mr. Christenberry 1 s and Mr. Menez's recommendations. Both felt that only one department of the City should have re spons ibility for removal of junk cars, rather than both Sanitary and Police. Menez suggested that this single ag ency be the Sanitary Department. Both felt that manpower in Sanitary should be increased; Christenberry suggesting that these �-6- --

be used to make "periodic sweeps through all infected are as to remove junk cars 11 • An additional suggestion made by Mr. Christenberry was to assign personnel from the Community Development Office to work with Rex Honeycutt of Sanitary in the development of a profitable system for handling jul"'..ked cars. In other words, these intern recommendations were concerned with increasing the efficiency of junk car removal. Although the above are the major types of groupings of intern recommendations, there were many more. - Mrs. Snider and Miss Woodward suggested "little City Halls". Miss Woodward also sugg e sted a social research and planning staff which would . begin slum prevention studies, a new training orientation program for summer recreation employees, pla.i.11 english transl~tions of city orcHnances. new ordinances concerning consumer service violations; investi g ation of bribery complaints, regulation of absentee landlords, and use of volenteers for summer recreation programs. publicity. Mrs. Snider and Miss Woodward had recomm endations pertaining to Miss Woodward feels the War on· Poverty should be publicized to affluent Atlanta; Mrs. Snider sugg ested that City Hall publicize itself through direct effective action. Miss Sowell and Mrs. Snider felt thathi gh l evel p ressure (i.e., Mayor Alle n) should be used against those departinents which were unresponsive to the Commqnity Development Office . Several sugg es tions were made with regard to p ers onnel. Mr . Isaac b e lieves the inter n progr am should be continue d part-time all year. Miss Woodward sugge sted the pay of polic emen and recreation e1nployees be increased. She also suggested strengthening the lines between the E. 0 . A. Manpower Progra1n �- -7and the City Personnel Office. Miss Sowell r-ecommended that the Atlanta , Beautification Corps workers could be used to clean streets and vacant lots in . ' answer to complaints. Mr. Christenberry also suggested increasing the number of housing inspectors. Other's suggestions included improving the Summer Program Book by printing it in color code, having each department use the same are~ definition providing space for up-da_tir1g t~e book, revising th~ route sheet filing system by using file cards (Mrs. Snider); charging land owners for cleaning their property, giving recognition to the Housing Code Department for its fine performance, making a concentrated effort in one area in the hope that changes in crime, property values, etc. (Mr. Christenberry). �