County Services

The County has a wide array of services for its residents, but sometimes things don’t work as we would like.

One core problem is that in many cases, the County lacks codified rules to document how it provides its services, and what to do when things go wrong. As result, different residents may get different treatment, for the identical situation. Often there is no resolution to their problem.

Solutions:

Codify the Rules.

All procedures should be documented and posted on the respective department’s website. In that way, the public and the County employees can access a uniform set of rules.

Post the Complaints.

All complaints to County departments, and the department's efforts to resolve them, should be posted on the department’s respective websites. This will help the public learn if their problem is an isolated one or part of a continuing pattern that perhaps requires a legislative change. It would also provide a means for other County officials to better understand the quality of service, and it would motivate the County officials to implement a solution to prevent future similar problems.

County Stat Program.

The County Executive plans to implement a program, similar to Baltimore City’s, that would have regularly scheduled meetings of all department heads for the purpose of identifying and solving problems. Steve fully supports this approach, provided it is done in the open, such that the public can be involved.

Steve would like to know your thoughts on these issues. Click here to share them with him.

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