Comptroller Stringer Audit Finds NYC Parks Sidewalk Inspections and Repairs Move at Snail’s Pace

(New York, NY) — Today, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer released an audit of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks), which found that homeowners waited on average a staggering 101 days after submitting a service request to have their tree-damaged sidewalks inspected – 71 days longer than NYC Parks’ own 30-day response target. Comptroller Stringer’s audit also found that NYC Parks’ average time from inspection to repair of tree-damaged sidewalks during Fiscal Year 2017 was 419 days, with one repair taking over a decade to complete. The audit revealed that although NYC Parks compiles various statistics for its Trees and Sidewalks Indicator Report, it does not track the time frames in which sidewalks damaged by the roots of City trees are inspected or repaired. The Comptroller’s review found that Inspection data was missing from some NYC Parks’ records, and the agency failed to identify duplicate service requests in 23 percent of the sampled duplicates, impacting its efficiency.

The audit notes that unrepaired sidewalks could present tripping hazards and a potential liability for the City. For example, during Fiscal Year 2017, the City settled six claims totaling $1.3 million with individuals who reported being injured as a result of sidewalk defects caused by the roots of City trees.

Based on these findings, the audit recommended that NYC Parks establish metrics to track its timeliness in inspecting reported tree-damaged sidewalks outside one- two- and three-family homes, record all relevant information when completing inspections, identify locations that are ineligible for repairs, ensure NYC Parks staff are fully trained to perform inspections and flag duplicate requests, and establish reasonable targets for the time it should take to complete a repair after it receives an inspection request.

“Our city’s trees and sidewalks frame the landscape of our communities, and we must maintain them to support healthy neighborhoods. But we also have to do our sidewalk inspections and repairs as a matter of safety, to prevent tripping hazards for pedestrians and property owners. This isn’t some frivolous notion – it’s important for a livable city,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “Our street trees are some of our most vibrant neighborhood markers, yet New Yorkers often have to wait more than a year for basic maintenance. That delay could be the difference between an accident and a safe walk or passage for a stroller or a wheelchair. We can’t wait until the worst happens. We need to maintain our trees and sidewalks, and we need to do it right. When New Yorkers lodge a complaint, we can’t continue to delay or cut corners.”

Comptroller Stringer’s audit on NYC Parks’ Trees and Sidewalks Program found:

• NYC Parks repaired 1,069 sidewalks during Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) for which the average duration from inspection to repair was 419 days, with the longest time for repair taking more than 11 years.
• 449 NYC Parks-approved work orders for sidewalk repairs, each at a unique address, had remained open for an average of 523 days (1.43 years) as of December 31, 2017, with the oldest having been open for 2,166 days (5.93 years).
• According to NYC Parks officials, the agency has no target time frame for how long it should take to repair a sidewalk once it is inspected and found to qualify for repair under the agency’s priority-rating system.
• During FY16 and FY17, NYC Parks received 16,558 service requests for tree-damaged sidewalks at 13,373 unique addresses and inspected only 27 percent of them within the agency’s own, internal, 30-day target.
• New Yorkers submitting requests for an inspection had to wait an average of 101 days after submitting the request to have the inspection.
• No inspection record was generated for 1,527 service requests at 1,509 unique addresses that NYC Parks closed, consisting of 475 cases that the agency appears to have found eligible for repairs, 909 cases that the agency appears to have found ineligible, and 143 cases, at 141 unique addresses, where the agency’s records lacked sufficient information to show how and why the service requests were closed and whether the customers’ requests had been addressed.
• NYC Parks did not consistently label service requests as duplicates when it received more than one request concerning a single condition and address—Auditors identified 1,494 duplicate service requests that NYC Parks failed to flag as duplicates (23 percent of the 6,446 duplicate service requests NYC Parks received in FYs 16 and 17). Of those, Parks inspected 187 unique addresses two or more times, duplicating its own efforts while other service requests remained open and unaddressed.

Comptroller Stringer’s audit issued a series of recommendations to ensure NYC Parks is streamlining the Trees and Sidewalks Program to ensure it is efficiently managed and accurate records are kept:

• NYC Parks should incorporate additional timeliness metrics for the program, including for inspections, into its internal management reports.
• NYC Parks should ensure that every address that has one or more service requests is inspected within the agency’s 30-day target time frame.
• NYC Parks should ensure that all inspection data is correctly linked to the correlating service requests it receives.
• NYC Parks should record all relevant information in the appropriate inspection fields in its records and identify, with the applicable reasons, any address that is ineligible for the program.
• NYC Parks should train its staff on the proper process for identifying duplicate service requests.
• NYC Parks should establish reasonable timeliness targets to complete sidewalk repairs after an inspection has been performed.

To read Comptroller Stringer’s audit of NYC Parks’ Trees and Sidewalks Program, click here.

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