Council Member Reports Elimination of Program that Tied Department Budgets to their Customer Service

CM Emily Evans' latest dispatch from the council budget hearings divulges that the Dean Administration is eliminating Metro's internal service fees. I pointed out during his campaign for Mayor last year that his proposal to cut building space contingency would not work based on those fees. I'm not sure whether he is following through with plans to cut space contingency and I don't know if moving away from internal fees makes a difference with space contingency now. It seems to me that someone still has to pay for Metro's empty office spaces to be maintained.

The more troubling news on Ms. Evans' blog is the elimination of a performance management program that tied department budget allocations to how well they served their customers. So, what exactly will budgets be tied to in the future? And how are department heads going to be held accountable? For instance, if the Parks Department fails to fulfill their promise to have Morgan Park's full playground installed by this summer, then how does the community hold them accountable without some customer service criteria? What may sound like a good idea from a bureaucratic perspective does not seem to bode well for neighborhoods.