Yoon Calls For New Approach to Road Repair
Public Works Dept. Still Sitting on Findings from ‘07 Report

May 19, 2009

BOSTON- City Councilor-at-Large and mayoral candidate Sam Yoon today pressed the City’s Department of Public Works on why it has not sought a new system for identifying and filling potholes, one of many recommendations from a 2007 external audit conducted by KPMG.

“Potholes are a prime example of how our city could do better with a real 311 service,” said Yoon. “The City would receive a higher volume of calls about the state of our streets, and, like many other cities, we would have better data to evaluate patching needs. It’s time for us to embrace new ideas and new technology. Boston needs performance-based management.”

The KMPG audit report, released in September of 2007, found that Boston’s Department of Public Works had serious problems in keeping reliable daily attendance records, managing employee paid leave, and planning litter basket and hokey routes. In the area of pothole maintenance, particularly, the report found that identification of patching needs was a “totally subjective decision of the supervisors” and was unsupported by any record, database, or planned survey.

“Potholes should be easy,” said Yoon. “Yet we continue to do things the same old way. This audit found systematic problems in the department’s ability to manage personnel and deliver services. At this point, it’s clear that we have not put serious reforms in place.”

Yoon’s questions to Public Works chief Dennis Royer in today’s Council hearing confirmed that 90 percent of the City’s patching needs are identified by the department’s 10 district supervisors at their own discretion. In contrast, Yoon said the City should put a higher value on resident service requests.

Yoon previously held a hearing on August 5, 2008, nearly one year after the release of the KMPG audit report, that revealed that the department had made little progress on all fronts.