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REPRINTED FROM THENEXTMAYOR.COMMarch 27, 2007 press release, (submitted via e-mail) |
For Immediate Release
Contact: Ryan McKeon, 215-238-0235
Vern Anastasio, Democratic Candidate for City Council in the First District, released his plan today to improve government programs and deliver quality constituent services to residents and businesses of the First City Council District.
Today, Anastasio put the final touches his 5 Point Plan to restore excellence in constituent service to City Hall. "This bold reform proposal would finally require our City's elected officials to be leaders for their neighborhoods," Anastasio said. "We need to transform the way city government does business."
The benchmark points of the Anastasio plan would require Philadelphia's agencies and service providers to meet mandated constituent service goals and establish timelines for the completion of cases. "When a constituent calls the City for help, the City should be there," Anastasio said. "We can't fix every problem overnight but we must make sure that these problems don't go unchecked and constituents don't fall through the cracks."
Anastasio also proposes to extend constituent access to City services by establishing a non-emergency 3-11 constituent service hotline and adding internet-based forms and filing services for individual and neighborhood complaints.
"When all you need is a simple street sweeping or more police on your street, there is no reason why you should have to file paperwork in triplicate and wait for the heavy machinery of city politics to eventually get back to you." Anastasio says that the bureaucratic red tape at City Hall ensures that the system works to ease the burden of elected officials, not their constituents.
If the Anastasio plan were to be implemented, 1st City Council District residents could also expect Neighborhood Service Centers to be re-opened, with service hours on evenings and weekends. "Thirteen years ago a City Councilman used to care about the complaints of his constituents. He used to work for his neighborhoods," Anastasio recalled. "Then politicians decided it was easier to double their staff at City Hall rather than deal with issues on our streets." He added that the Council is less available now than in years past.
"I want to serve those constituents who work for a living and don't have the time during the day to accommodate the Councilman's schedule," said Anastasio.
According to Anastasio, "It's not enough to set goals for service and make reporting complaints easier if there are no ways to track progress and hold officials accountable for being asleep at the switch." Anastasio proposes that Philadelphia implement the CitiStat program that has shown to be highly successful in Baltimore City government since 2000 and in different derivations with the New York Police Department and the cities of Cleveland, Chicago and Phoenix among others. "The CitiStat model is viable for Philadelphia but only if there are responsible people at City Hall to take these agencies to task. We know that the current crop of pay-to-play politicians will never put their constituents above their cronies," Anastasio said. He added that this will ensure that political appointees "are doing the work."
CitiStat's main derivation, CompStat, has been used by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia School District with good results. To this point, no officials at City Hall have presented plans to implement the government accountability spin-off program that Anastasio proposes.
With the May 15th primary less than 8 weeks away, Anastasio has been spending nine hours a day knocking on doors throughout the First Council District. "Everywhere I go, the more doors I knock, the more I get complaints about things in the neighborhoods. The more I am asked, 'Where are our City services?'" Anastasio cites complaints of open-air drug markets in South Philly and abandoned lots "full of trash" in Port Richmond and Kensington. "I say, 'I can't answer for the Councilman, and if he were here I am sure you would ask him the same thing.'"
Anastasio describes his quality constituent service program as the cornerstone of his campaign. It will be "a new day in Philadelphia ."
The Anastasio 5 Point Plan follows this release.
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Vern Anastasio and his family have called the 1st Council District home for six generations. Anastasio is a former aide to Councilman Joe Vignola, former Chief of Staff in the PA House of Representatives and has spent the last 15 years in business, law and government. Vern is the founder of the Bella Vista United Civic Association, a member of Casino Free Philadelphia, Neighbors Allied for the Best Waterfront, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. He fought for more police protection after the South Street Mardi Gras riots; hosted city-wide panels on responsible development and zoning reform; and is an advocate for bans on nepotism and moonlighting as well as quality neighborhood services for everyone. His candidacy is endorsed by the Cement Masons and Plasterers Union Local 592, Americans for Democratic Action and the National Organization of Women's Philadelphia Chapter to name a few.
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