Comptroller’s Office Releases Constituent Services Quality Evaluation Report For 2022 Contracts
Kingston, NY (April 11, 2024) – Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher issued a Constituent Services Quality Evaluation Report for 2022 Contracts.
This represents the first Ulster County report evaluating and comparing the reporting received by Ulster County from outside agencies that perform constituent services work for the County. The Ulster County Legislature created a new Quality Analyst position in the Comptroller’s Office in the 2023 budget.This position was retained through 2024 and aims to provide a review function to evaluating the quality of the services Ulster County receives under contract.
“Many of the services Ulster County government provides to our constituents are carried out by our partners in the nonprofit community. We appreciate the Legislature giving the Comptroller’s Office expanded capacity to provide better oversight for these services,” said Comptroller March Gallagher. “As this first report shows, many of our contracts have reporting that differs by agency, by contract,and by service. The goal of this initial work is to be able to share materials with policy makers to inform a wider discussion on the evaluation and monitoringof the quality of services we provide constituents through our contract agencies.”
This analysis reviewed 55 contracts across 11 separate county departments representing 42 vendors. The following observations were made regarding the reporting reviewed:
- Contracts rely on the vendor to create the format for reporting. This puts the burden on the vendor to determine the appropriate reporting which can lead to delays in submission of the reporting, and inconsistent reporting from different vendors providing a similar service.
- Data provided to the County by some vendors is not consistent. Some months will be broken down into duplicated and unique individuals served, while others will be a total number within the same contract.
- Even over the course of a full year, some reporting indicates that zero people were served. It is possible that the way the question is being asked is not applicable to the service provided, or it might be a reporting error.
- There is no standardization in outcome and output reporting per service type, making it challenging to compare across agencies even for simple metrics such as cost of service per participant.
- The definition of served is not standardized between departments and in the reporting. It does not necessarily indicate the completion of services.
- Of the 55 contracts reviewed, 15 of them included contractually obligated face-to-face meetings with departments.
In addition to using these materials to assist the Legislature in developing a contract reporting policy to address improved output and outcome reporting received by Ulster County departments, the Comptroller’s Office has launched a new community feedback tool.
As of today, Ulster County constituents can share feedback via the Constituent Services Quality Survey.The survey results will be shared with the Executive branch and other appropriate county-wide elected offices within three business days of receipt and aggregated monthly for review by the County Legislature.
The survey may be a tool incorporated into future Ulster County contracts with agencies that deliver constituent services.
The survey can be reached here
Or through this QR Code
The report can be found here: Constituent Service Reporting Quality Evaluation Report
