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About one in five calls to Multhomah County departments—made by auditors to gather data—went unanswered or unreturned, according to a report released today by County Auditor Jennifer McGuirk.
Sending email got a better response. County departments returned 87% of those, or almost nine out of 10, McGuirk and her staff wrote. In total, county departments answered or returned 83% of phone calls, emails and chats combined.
Two departments had perfect records for calls, emails and chats: the Multnomah County Library system and the Department of County Assets, which manages computers, software, buildings, telephones and vehicles for county workers.
The laggard, auditors said, was the Homeless Services Department. It answered or returned just 40% of all calls and emails. Homeless Services administers contracts for nonprofits and doesn’t provide direct services, but McGuirk included the department because people might contact them expecting to be connected to housing.
“The public expects their government to be responsive, and since Multnomah County provides many critical services, staff need to ensure people consistently receive timely responses,” McGuirk said in a statement. “We are hopeful that county leaders will use this information to improve their responsiveness to requests from the public we serve.”
McGuirk’s office undertook the audit after the county’s ombudsperson flagged complaints from people who were unable to reach county employees. To measure responsiveness, auditors used five mobile phones that didn’t have the county prefix (503-988) and set up two email accounts identified only with aliases to avoid preferential treatment.
Auditors made a total of 171 phone calls, sent 79 emails, and used the library’s online chat feature 3 times. To avoid wasting county staff time, auditors contacts small offices just once. Offices that serve more people got eight calls, emails or chats.
When auditors got a prerecorded phone message, 59% offered options for languages beyond English. Three phone numbers listed on the county website didn’t work.
Among other high-profile departments, the Department of Community Services responded to 95% of all 20 of auditors’ calls and emails. DCS responded to all phone calls, and only its Volunteer and Internship Program failed to return an email. DCS handles animal services, elections and land use planning, among myriad other things.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office responded to 79% of all contacts initiated by auditors, including 100% of all emails. The number for the Monitored Misdemeanor Program (503-988-3235) listed on the sheriff’s website didn’t work, McGuirk said. The Multnomah County Detention Center didn’t return three out of eight contacts.
The Department of County Human Services responded to 73% of the 30 total contacts attempted by phone and email. Calls got a response 68% of the time, emails 82%.
