City complaint line lags Despite Menino's vow, a system to track citizen calls is still years away
By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | April 6, 2008 The Boston Globe
When Boston officials rolled out their ambitious plans for a citizen complaint tracking system like the ones that are commonplace in cities across the country, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced, "The city's changing, and my administration has to change, too."
Nearly two years later, the administration has not changed much, leaving Boston far behind other cities such as New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and even Somerville and Hartford - and leaving untold numbers of citizen complaints by the wayside.
City officials have spent $2 million. They've hired outside consultants. They've bought furniture and telephones for a complaint call center in City Hall, and painted the room a pale shade of blue. But senior officials say it could be nearly two more years and $2 million more before the administration has a citywide system to keep track of residents' complaints about everything from burned out street lights to missed trash pickups.
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The city's use of carrier pigeons to communicate with advocacy groups has also come under fire, since the birds are no longer willing to fly to their intended destinations but are, instead, prone to head south ...
Bill, whose father once worked for the City of Boston
Bill Horne Temporary Moderator
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