The 3-1-1 line took a year to get going, as promised, but budget constraints limited the hiring and equipment purchased. Currently wait times can be as much as five minutes.
City Councilman Jim Kenney, a longtime advocate of 3-1-1, said: "Having one number to call, I think that's been successful."
PhillyStat has been in place for more than a year. Under the program, departments are regularly summoned to the Municipal Services Building, across from City Hall, where they present slides on their performance and budget before Barnett and her staff.
"I think the thing PhillyStat has done mostly is to establish the new way of judging success, which is [that] it needs to be measurable so we're more performance-oriented," Barnett said.
Asked for an example of a policy change made by the city due to PhillyStat data collection, Barnett noted that last year the city collated information on summer programs from various agencies into one guide for citywide use. She also said that PhillyStat data was used last November in deciding where to cut the budget.
But sometimes the data-tracking process has a few holes.
For example, a recent presentation on the 3-1-1 call line said that the city had exceeded expectations, with 600,000 calls in the first six months, even though the call-center director told the Daily News in November that she was budgeting for 1.5 million calls in the first year.
Barnett said that perhaps there had been a change in the initial estimates, causing the confusion.
With 3-1-1 and PhillyStat set up, Barnett said she will continue to work on improving efficiency and customer service.
She laughed off questions about her visibility and role in the government, saying she was just keeping her head down and plowing ahead.
"I do think we are moving in the right direction," she said.
