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CALLING OUT: Response rates for calls and emails to various Multhomah County departments. (Multnomah County Auditor’s Office) <\/p>\nAbout 1 in 5 calls to Multhomah County departments\u2014made by auditors to gather data\u2014went unanswered or unreturned, according to a report released today by County Auditor Jennifer McGuirk.<\/p>\n
Sending email got a better response. County departments returned 87% of those, or almost 9 out of 10, McGuirk and her staff wrote. In total, county departments answered or returned 83% of phone calls, emails and chats combined.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t provide direct services, but McGuirk included the department because people might contact them expecting to be connected to housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public expects their government to be responsive, and since Multnomah County provides many critical services, staff need to ensure people consistently receive timely responses,\u201d McGuirk said in a statement. \u201cWe are hopeful that county leaders will use this information to improve their responsiveness to requests from the public we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGuirk\u2019s office undertook the audit after the county\u2019s ombudsperson flagged complaints from people who couldn\u2019t reach county employees. To measure responsiveness, auditors used five mobile phones that didn\u2019t have the county prefix (503-988) and set up two email accounts identified only with aliases to avoid preferential treatment.<\/p>\n
Auditors made a total of 171 phone calls, sent 79 emails, and used the library\u2019s online chat feature three times. To avoid wasting county staff time, auditors contacts small offices just once. Offices that serve more people got eight calls, emails or chats. <\/p>\n
When auditors got a prerecorded phone message, 59% offered options for languages beyond English. Three phone numbers listed on the county website didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
Among other high-profile departments, the Department of Community Services responded to 95% of all 20 of auditors\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
The Multnomah County Sheriff\u2019s 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\u2019s website didn\u2019t work, McGuirk said. The Multnomah County Detention Center didn\u2019t return three out of eight contacts.<\/p>\n
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%.<\/p>\n
CALLING OUT: Response rates for calls and emails to various Multhomah County departments. (Multnomah County Auditor’s Office) <\/p>\n
Willamette Week\u2019s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. <\/p>\n
Help us dig deeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 1 in 5 calls to Multhomah County departments\u2014made by auditors to gather data\u2014went unanswered or unreturned, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-231885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}