en HEM reEssMeK PKajEer
Office of the Governor
Comnionujealth of Puerto Rico
PRP . .HO
PUERTO RICO'S CITIZEN FEEDBACK SYSTEM
The preparation of this report for the
Puerto Rico Planning Board was financed in
part through a comprehensive planning grant
from the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, under the provisions of Section
701 of the Housing Act of 1954, as amended.
Citizen Feedback System
Development Team
Office of the Governor
February, 1970
i
ABSTRACT
Title:
Authors:
Subject:
Puerto Rico's Citizen Feedback System
Citizen Feedback System Development Team
Communication Channels Between Puerto
Rican Citizens and Their Government
Date: February, 1970
Name of Planning
Agency: Puerto Rico Planning Board
Source of Copies: Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and
Technical Information,
Springfield, Va. - 22151
Citizen Feedback System Development Team
Office of the Governor
San Juan, Puerto Rico - 00901
Puerto Rico Planning Board
Box 9447
Santurce, Puerto Rico - 00908
For Reference:
HUD Regional
Region VII
Office Library
San Juan, Puerto Rico
HUD Library
Washington, D. C,
State Depository Library
University of Puerto Rico
Rfo Piedras, Puerto Rico 00931
Planning School Libraries,
Depository Libraries
HUD Project No. : P. R. -P-30
Serie s No. : NA
No. of Pages: 50
Abstract: The basic design of a Citizen Feedback System for the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has been completed. Now
the experiences of three pilot projects, in the Governor'.s
Office, in certain San Juan fire stations, and in a mobile
unit, will be analyzed during a six-month testing phase A
telephone system, a letter processing system, a visitor re ¬
ceiving system, a public service handbook, special l.rainmg
for "Citizen Aides", and a feedback reporting system are
among the more important components of the overall system
Also, a series of experiments are planned for the testing
phase: an opinion feedbat i< experiment, two "listening post"
experiments, and a talent bank experiment.
At the conclusion of the testing phase, the complete
system will be specified, and then implemented on an island-
wide scale. That system should be capable of handling both
service feedback (inquiries, requests, and complaints), and
involvement feedback (opinions, suggestions, and volunteers).
This report describes various existing feedback mecha¬
nisms and innovations which the design research team studied
in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the United States. It then
goes on to describe the basic design of Puerto Rico's proposed
Citizen Feedback System, the operation of one pilot mechanism
in the Governor's Office, and other pilot projects and experi¬
ments to be conducted during the testing phase. In conclusion,
some of the organizational implications, as well as the long-run
objectives, of this innovative project are discussed.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Abstract i
Table of Contents iii
I. The Purpose of Puerto Rico's Citizen Feedback System 1
II. Citizen Feedback Systems Outside of Puerto Rico 5
Boston Neighborhood Service Centers 5
The New York City Neighborhood City Hall 6
Mail Handling in the U.S. Senate Offices 7
Action Now Program, Republican National Committee 8
Listening Posts, Republican National Committee 8
Amnobus, Model Cities Program, Lowell, Massachusetts ... 9
Community Information Center of Boston's Arlington 10
Street Church
III. Feedback Systems in Puerto Rico 11
Letter Processing - 11
Personal Visits 11
Phone Calls . 12
Citizen Complaint Offices 12
Night Complaint Offices . 13
Department of Health Surveys 13
Political Parties 13
Lfnea Dire eta 14
Conclusion 14
IV. Citizen Feedback System Testing Project 16
The Deputy Aide to the Governor and the Citizen Aides . ... 17
The Public Service Manual 19
The Office of the Governor System Pilot Project . 22
Personal Visits 22
Information Recording 28
Physical Facilities 28
Twenty-Four Hour Phone Service 28
Investigatory Backup 29
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PAGE
Islandwide System 29
Location and Costs 33
Feedback Reporting: Measuring Citizen Feedback 33
V. Special Experiments in Involvement Feedback 38
Opinion Feedback Experiment 38
Suggestion Feedback 40
Listening Post Experiments 40
Talent Bank Experiment 41
VI. Feedforward and Reform 43
Appendix A -- Implementation Schedule 48
Appendix B -- Participants 49
I. THE PURPOSE OF PUERTO RICO'S
CITIZEN FEEDBACK SYSTEM
The main purpose of the Citizen Feedback System Design Project
has been to devise better communication channels from the Puerto
Rican citizen to his Government. Information should pass through
these channels to guide the Government in improving its programs and
services to its citizens. These channels would allow a citizen to
participate, not only by offering information, but also by offering his
talents. A good Citizen Feedback System may provide the necessary
foundation on which to build a true system of citizen participation.
All over the world, citizens are said to feel more estranged
from government, alienated from "the system. " A major element
behind this alienation is the technological revolution in communications.
People have become more aware of various public problems through
the electronic speed of the mass media. However, without a corre¬
sponding increase in the speed of communications in the opposite
direction, from the citizen to government, the increasingly aware
citizen becomes frustrated when he attempts to communicate with
his government.
From the democratic processes and citizen participation of the
colonial times, in particular the New England town meeting, the
United States has moved to an almost non-participatory form of
government. Except for the act of voting, most citizens have re¬
linquished their role as participants in government and have become
only observers. The feeling of alienation comes with the role of
observer, since the citizen feels a loss of control over his govern¬
ment's actions.
This is not to imply that all citizens have lost the ability to
communicate with and participate in their government. In considering
types of citizen communication to government, one should distinguish
among three main categories, based on the sender. First, there is
the communication sent by the influential citizen ( a member of "the
establishment"); secondly, the communication by the average citizen;
and, finally, the communication by the disadvantaged citizen. The
influential citizen can most readily effect government decision-makers.
He can do this either by himself, or as a member of a small segment
of the population, such as a chamber of commerce, a bar association,
or a group of major campaign contributors.
However, even the influential citizen's capabilities are not all
inclusive. He can often be thought of as the average citizen when
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dealing in matter s outside of his sphere of influence. An example of
this would be the case of an influential member of a chamber of
commerce trying to get a driver's license. He would face the same
problems and delays as any other citizen; however in economic matters
his voice would more readily be heard and his power felt. In econo¬
mic matters he might feel that he was successfully communicating
with his government; while in other matters he might feel much less
successful.
The average citizen lacks real influence, except as part of the
electorate on Election Day; and, even then, he may view elected
officials as having little control over a growing and complex bureau¬
cracy. When a citizen makes an inquiry or lodges a complaint with
government, he is often passed from bureaucrat to bureaucrat, with
limited results. If he can gain access to an elected official, he might
seek help (or influence) there, or he might offer an opinion or sug¬
gestion. But an elected legislator has little effect in administrative
areas, and an elected executive, if accessible, can do little with one
citizen at a time.
Rather than suffer the frustration of this situation, the average
citizen usually limits his attempts to communicate with government
to voting, paying taxes, and applying for licenses and permits. He
may have valid complaints, important questions, and worthwhile
opinions. Despite his desire to communicate, he is discouraged by
the fact that the system is unresponsive and his previous attempts
have not met with success. Often he decides that he will not try to
communicate with his government and, instead, becomes more
alienated from it. The Citizen Feedback System has been designed
more for the average citizen, than for the influential citizen.
One might rightfully then ask: What about the disadvantaged
citizen who may be inarticulate rather than alienated? He needs
an advocate as well as an open communication channel. In the
United States, the poverty programs, and the Civil Rights Movement
have attempted to provide such advocates. However, without open
communication channels these advocates turn to protests and demon¬
strations or else become as disenchanted as the average citizen upon
confronting a government which does not seem to want to listen.
The Citizen Feedback System is not an advocacy program, but it
should make advocacy programs more viable and thus be of considerable
help to the disadvantaged citizen who needs to communicate more
frequently with government than does the average citizen.
The core of Puerto Rico's Citizen Feedback System is thus a
societal information system designed for receiving citizen com¬
munications, for making direct referrals to appropriate government
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problem-solvers, and for follow-up to assure complete and prompt
response by the government. There are two broad categories of
feedback to be handled: service feedback which includes inquiries,
requests, and complaints; and involvement feedback which includes
opinions, suggestions, and volunteering. A public service handbook
and a number of easily accessible "Citizen Aides" are key components
in the system for handling letters, phone calls, and personal visits.
The system includes periodic feedback reporting, measuring, and
analysis aimed at abstracting patterns of recurring problems in order
to suggest needed program modifications.
Certain involvement methods of communication are also needed
in order to produce a more complete feedback analysis. Once
problem areas are discovered through "program monitoring" or
"service auditing" (which is what the summary reporting of service
feedback amounts to) or through other feedback channels (e. g.
protest demonstrations), then a more structured, although ex¬
perimental, approach for producing involvement feedback may be
helpful in resolving a broad issue. Once the pilot projects of the
Puerto Rican Citizen Feedback System have been in operation for
a few months, special involvement feedback experiments, including
opinion feedback, talent bank, and listening post experiments will
be undertaken. These, or modifications of these approaches, should
later be included as continuing features of the overall system.
In the service feedback area, a citizen gets "response" from
government when his personal problem is either solved or when he
receives a satisfactory answer as to why it cannot be solved. In
the involvement feedback area, government "response" comes only
when somehow he finds out that the appropriate decision-maker has
at least heard the citizen's opinion, suggestion, or offer to volunteer.
The opinion feedback, listening post, and talent bank experiments
must therefore include "responses" which prove that the citizen has
been heard.
Participatory democracy of this sort does not imply any more
than does electoral democracy that every citizen can be a winner.
In fact, majority rule will not even apply here as it does in elections.
It must be understood that this feedback is only advisory in nature,
since it is to be used by elected officials operating under a republican
or a representative-democratic system, and not under a system of
pure democracy.
Puerto Rico's Citizen Feedback System is part of Governor Luis
A. Ferry's larger effort to get government to listen more both to
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citizens and to science. The concept of citizen feedback is reactive.
There must first be certain government policies and programs; or,
in areas where well defined policies and programs do not exist, there
must be at least a reasonable articulation of the issues of policy and
program options--of the alternatives which citizens and their elected
representatives must consider before rendering their value judgements.
Governor Ferrd in his overall citizen and science in government pro¬
gram is seeking a proper balance between expert advice and democratic
decision-making.
The scientist can help determine and articulate certain alternatives.
He is given such a role in the year-old Governor's Advisory Council for
the Development of Government Programs, which is made up primarily
of citizens and government technical people, but also includes objective
"outside" scientific advisors. This type of scientific input is needed
not only in the formal process of program development; but also under
the Citizen Feedback System in program monitoring, in service auditing,
and in the public presentation of feedforward. Feedforward is the pro¬
jection forward in time of probable consequences of policy alternatives
and also the projection forward to the people of such information which
they need in order to pass judgement on competing options.
How such scientific feedforward can be provided on a continuing
basis as part of the Citizen Feedback System is not yet clear. Cer¬
tainly expertise within the various agencies who will use the feedback
must be drawn upon in the preparation of feedforward. More objective
scientific expertise must also be applied from an outside body, such
as the proposed Institute of Social Technology in Puerto Rico.
This is just one of the features of the Citizen Feedback System
which must be determined during the testing phase which extends
from February 1970 through July 1970. Sometime soon thereafter,
it should be possible to implement a full-scale islandwide system.
The existing feedback mechanisms in Puerto Rico are examined
in the following pages, as are several mechanisms on the mainland.
Based on this research and on preliminary results of the first pilot
project, a total system design for Puerto Rico,with several possible
components scheduled to be added to it, are presented. The questions
of feedforward and comprehensive reform of government structure are
discussed in the sixth section. Appendix A presents the implementation
schedule for the Project testing and operational phases. Appendix B
lists the participants in the Citizen Feedback Project, including the
Citizen Aides, the system's development team, participants of a
Review Panel held at the Joint Center For Urban Studies of Harvard
University and M. I. T. , and others who have contributed.
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n. CITIZEN FEEDBACK SYSTEMS OUTSIDE
OF PUERTO RICO
A number of citizen feedback projects on the mainland were
closely examined for relevant ideas for the Citizen Feedback System
Design Project. These projects include:
- Boston's Neighborhood Service Centers
- New York's Neighborhood City Halls
- Mailhandling in U.S. Senate offices
- Action Now Program, Republican National Committee
- Listening Posts, Republican National Committee
- Amnobus, Model Cities Program, Lowell, Massachusetts
- Community Information Center of Boston's Arlington Street
Church
This cross-section of citizen feedback projects provided themes and
ideas useful in designing Puerto Rico's Feedback system. The projects
manifested two themes: The service aspect of citizen feedback and
the information exchange aspect. The Neighborhood Service Center,
the Action Now Program, and the Community Information Center have
been basically established for the purpose of making it easier for the
citizen to get the service that is due him from his government. The
Listening Posts and Amnobus projects were designed for information
and opinion collecting.
Boston Neighborhood Service Centers
The Neighborhood Service Centers in Boston serve as little city
halls where a citizen may bring his complaints, requests, and inquiries.
As of April, 1969 there were ten operating Neighborhood Service Centers
conveniently located to serve fairly distinct neighborhoods containing
forty to sixty thousand residents. Public buildings, leased buildings,
or trailers were selected as offices,depending on what was available
in the prime locations. The selection of the locations had been based
on studies of where people shop and of what transit facilities they use.
Depending on the problems of the neighborhood, the Center pro¬
vides different services. In some Centers, housing is a major pro¬
blem, while in others crime and juvenile delinquency concern the
residents. The size and talents of the staff in each Center is de¬
signed according to the needs of the neighborhood.
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A major innovation of the Boston program is the intergovernmental
cooperation in the project. City, state, and federal officials use the
Centers to more effectively reach their constituencies. Social security
representatives and state welfare workers regularly use the South End
Center. This is presently an experimental project, but results point to
the value of the concept of one-stop governmental service.
A substantial staff operation at City Hall coordinates the activities
of the Centers, evaluates the citizen contacts in the neighborhoods, and
checks on the responses of the city departments. The Mayor is kept
informed through prepared reports and through meetings of his Public
Service Board composed of commissioners from various city depart¬
ments.
To keep a record of each citizen contact and to insure complete
follow-up, a form is filled in when the citizen telephones or brings
his problem into the Neighborhood Service Center. To have feedback
on governmental services, the Office of Public Service tabulates the
forms and keeps track of types of problems, what departments are
involved, and the responses. This information can then be used
for decision-making by the Mayor and the Public Service Board.
This is extremely useful in that it points to possible weaknesses
in the City Administration or to problems that must be solved.
The manager of the Neighborhood Service Center has the respon¬
sibility to be active in the community, to attend meetings, to encourage
cooperation within the neighborhood, and to be sensitive to neighborhood
complaints and opinions. To supply qualitative feedback to City Hall,
he submits a monthly report outlining the activity of his Center and the
problems affecting his neighborhood. He serves both as an administrator
of the Center and as a liaison between the community and City Hall. The
manager is discouraged from becoming an advocate for the neighborhood
or for City Hall, but is encouraged to serve as the eyes and ears of the
City. To discourage him from using the neighborhood as a political
stepping stone, he is not allowed to live in the community in which he
works.
The New York City Neighborhood City Hall
This program provides three types of services to the community in
which it is located. First, it provides a location where the citizen can
get information, present a complaint, or be referred to a specific agency.
The Neighborhood City Hall worker is equipped with a 3, 000 card Rolodex
file called an Information and Referral Vianual (IRMA). This file is set
up by topic areas such as animals, abandoned cars, etc. When a citizen
brings a problem to the Neighborhood City Hall, the worker can refer
to his IRMA to find a procedure for helping the citizen. IRMA contains
not only public agencies, but also private agencies that can provide rapid
and satisfactory help. IRMA is maintained and updated by the staff at City Hall.
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The second service provided by the Neighborhood City Halls is
one of supplying staff and technical assistance to all community groups.
This service furnished professionals to work in community organization
and supports existing community groups.
The third service is to bring together various government officials
with responsibilities for that neighborhood in viiat are called neighborhood
interdepartamental cabinet meetings. The result of these meetings is an
increased coordination of the interrelated functions of the various city
agencies serving the neighborhood.
By providing these services, the City government is able to
bring the government closer to the people in terms of providing
the service aspect of citizen feedback. In relation to information
exchange, the main mechanism provided in the program is the
informal exchange of information between the Neighborhood City
Hall Director and the Administration. Through his staff and his
contacts with the citizens, the Director achieves an awareness
about his community and the opinions of its members.
The full value of this resource does not seem to be realized
at present, since the emphasis in reporting seems to be on grievances
and not on opinions.
Mail Handling in the U. S. Senate Offices
Three Senate offices were studied, each of which handled from
600 to 2, 000 letters per day. Each letter was catalogued for a
form response, if possible, or sent to an aide or case worker to
process the writer's request.
The form letters that were used in each office had been prepared
by a staif member and approved by the senator. Although the Senator
had not personally read the citizen's letter and dictated a response,
he was still in control of what was being said to the citizen.
Case workers in each office received requests from citizens,
which required follow-up and they made the necessary contacts to
see how they could best be served. If the request could not be serviced
by the Senator's office, the citizen was so notified. If required, con¬
tacts with agencies were made, and the citizen was sent all of the in¬
formation explaining what the Senator's office had done to service his
request and advising him what further action he should take.
Techniques of reporting varied from office to office. One Senator
received a weekly breakdown on the mail with pro and con counts made
on each issue. The geographic distribution was also noted. Another
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Senator received monthly reports on the pro and con count, but weekly
he received all of the incoming letters filed by pro and con for each
subject. He could then leaf through the letters to get the general
tenor of what was being written by this constituents.
Mail handling has become a sophisticated operation in the Senate.
It appeared that the close physical location of the one hundred systems
and the fact that all must serve the same goals, has led to an exchange
of ideas and a steadily refined system that shows only slight variations
from office to office depending on a Senator's individual concerns. The
following two general goals seem to be the same from office to office:
1. Provide rapid and satisfactory response to each constitutent,
2. Provide the Senator with a measure of his contituent's
attitudes and opinions.
Action Now Program, Republican National Committee
The Action Now Program includes many varied community action
programs designed to meet local problems and local resources. Parts
of the program of particular relevance to the Citizen Feedback Project
are the Republican Action Centers. The first Action Center opened in
Detroit during 1967, and centers in other cities are currently operating
or in the design stages.
The Action Now Program Center in Detroit handles an average of
fifty calls a day and occasionally will receive more than hundred. Each
call is dealt with and a follow-up letter is sent to the citizen telling what
action was taken. A wide variety of problems are faced by the Center,
including abandoned families, burned out street lights, employment pro¬
blems, and late social security checks.
The operating procedures with regard to location, contact with
citizens, and complaint handling are quite similar to the Boston and
New York little city halls. However, the Action Centers lack power
on the governmental level where most of the problems exist since there
is no major Republican figure at the city level. Although this may have
some disadvantages in terms of power, it does have the advantage that
the program personnel are more inclined to be advocates of the citizen
in his dealings with the government since they lack formal ties to the
bureaucracy.
Listening Posts, Republican National Committee
The main goal of this program is to provide in-depth information on
important problems to Republican leaders at the state and national level.
There seems to be no attempt to use the program as a public relations or
political gimmick. The program's basic purpose is to collect specific
information and opinions from the typical citizen facing certain types of
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problems, such as the elderly, the consumer, or the ghetto resident.
The program is run from the Republican National Committee Head¬
quarters. Local Republicans are asked to gather a representative group
of citizens with a common concern. For example, a group of housewives
were brought together in Portland, Oregon, to get information on con¬
sumer problems. There is no attempt to gather a completely random
sample or a specially stratified sample, since the purpose is not to run
a referendum on an issue, but to get at the reasons behind the various
opinions expressed on the issue.
The groups of citizens gathered for a discussion consist of from
five to thirty-five people, but twenty seems to be the goal. To keep
costs low, the group is usually assembled on inexpensive and politically
neutral ground, such as a church, a minister's home, or a private home.
The participants are not chosen for friendliness to the Republican
Party, but instead for their likelihood of giving honest opinions and
articulating problems. The National Committee does not screen the
participants, but leaves that task to their local contacts.
The sessions last approximately an hour and a half and are tape-
recorded. A transcript is prepared for use in compiling a final report.
After each session, a one-page summary is prepared for transmittal
to the Republican leaders in the state where the discussion took place.
A thirty minute presentation is prepared on each issue for party leaders
and for President Nixon.
Amnobus, Model Cities Program, Lowell, Massachusetts
The Amnobus is a refinement of the Mayormobile operated during the
Boston mayoral campaign of John Sears. Both the Amnobus and the
Mayormobile were developed as a result of the continuing work of Bison
Associates, a political - economic consulting firm located in Boston,
Massachusetts. This firm has been developing a communications center
for political, civic, and commercial use. Their goal has been to create
new mechanisms to allow the citizen greater opportunity to participate
in the decision-making processes of his government.
The Amnobus is a mobile unit designed to collect opinions, priorities,
and suggestions from the inhabitants of the Model City area in Lowell,
Massachusetts. A further goal of the design was to educate the residents
in governmental programs and problems, and to supply information that
will help the citizens make informed choices.
The. Amnobus, adapted from an old moving van, was equipped with
exterior graphics, a lighted moving sign, and hand-out cards for identifying
-.10 -
the demonstration van and attracting passersby. The inside of the
vehicle contained exhibits, IBM Information Recorders, tape recorders,
and message blanks. The citizen was given several different media for
communication with his government.
Community Information Center of Boston's Arlington Street Church
The Community Information Center was established in 1968, at the
Arlington Street Church to fill unmet individual and community informa¬
tion needs. May problems were felt to be left unsolved because the
citizen did not know which service agency to visit to find help.
Other goals of the project were to provide information and help
without charge on a continuous around-the-clock basis, and to provide
a place where a person would find a willing listener who would treat
him as a human being. With these goals and the lack of a government
link, the Community Information Center has become a place where
young people go for help, especially if they are runaways, have drug
problems, or are alienated from government for other reasons.
The Center is located in a small office that can be reached
through a side door of the Church. This is a prime location, adjacent
to the Boston Common and at the corner of two major thoroughfares
in the downtown section of the city.
The majority of the problems that are brought to the Center are
ones of drugs, runaway children, the need for temporary housing, draft
counselling and employment. These are common problems for youth
and young adults who live in Boston. Although there are may adults
who also use the Center, the staff would like to encourage greater
utilization by older citizens. No records are compiled regarding total
use of the Center, although a log is maintained on a daily basis.
The C. I. C. is basically a referral and information center. A
Rolliflex file is maintained by the staff and as a new solution is deve¬
loped for a new problem, it is added to the file. There are maps and
notices on the walls; and an extensive information library has been
created.
A major difference between the C.I. C. and other existing systems
is the C. I. C. 's total dependence on volunteer help. Each volunteer
serves without secretarial or other staff assistance, for three hours
every other week.
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m. FEEDBACK SYSTEMS IN PUERTO RICO
In order to design a Citizen Feedback System for Puerto Rico,
two preliminary studies had to be carried out. The first, discussed
in the previous section, was an examination of applicable mainland
projects and of the forms of citizen communication they were receiving.
The second was an analysis of certain existing citizen participation and
feedback methods operating in Puerto Rico.
In Puerto Rico, eight main systems were identified as channels
through which the citizen could communicate with his government.
A brief description of each of these is presented in the following
paragraphs;
Letter Processing
The largest single grouping of citizen communications comes in
the form of letters addressed to the Governor. Approximately 1, 500
letters arrive each week at La Fortaleza, the Governor's mansion
and office. An elaborate system had been established to sort this
incoming mail, attach a priority, and to see that it was delivered
to the appropriate Governor's Aide for action. The Governor's Aide,
upon receipt of the correspondence, was to take any necessary action
and then reply to the citizen by using a form letter or by writing a
personal letter. No records were kept on the nature of the citizen
communication, and the Governor had no real contact with the average
citizen through the letters that came to his office. He did not know
what came, in nor did he have control over what was sent out.
Furthermore, since the response to the citizen did not go out with
the Governor's signature, the citizen knew that he did not have
contact with his Governor.
Personal Visits
Many citizens visit the Office of the Governor each day.
From 50 to 100 persons come each day without appointments
and do not know whom they should see to deal with their
needs. They bring problems that they feel the Governor
may be able to solve in areas as housing, education, road
repairs, welfare, or employment. In most cases, these
people have gone to seek help at some government agency
and feel their case has received little attention or is being
unduly delayed. Since they see the Governor as the visible head
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of the Government, they want to take their problem directly tp his
office. Since, at La Fortaleza they have been meeting with a re¬
presentative of the Governor who attempts to solve their problem,
the visiting citizen has been made to feel that someone cares about
his problem; and he has usually seen action being taken towards its
solution.
Although this systerri may have soothed the citizen with a com¬
plaint or request, it has lacked-a reporting system that informs
the Governor of problem areas. Without knowledge of these
problems, the Governor is unable to take administrative action
that might alleviate them and prevent future complaints.
Phone Calls
Many citizens telephone the Office of the Governor to register
a complaint, to request information, or to appeal for help in dealing
with other government agencies. Upon receiving a telephone call,
the switchboard operator tries to identify the program area in which
the citizen's problem lies. Often errors occur and the caller must
be switched to another aide's office.. No records have been maintained
that would show the number or subject of citizen inquires made by
telephone to the Office of the Governor. Thus it has not been feasible
to report systematically to the Governor on citizen feedback through
telephone calls.
A further problem has existed in matching a telephone call from
a citizen to any previous correspondence from him. Unless a citizen
happens to communicate with the aide that had been previously involved
with his case, the citizen has to explain the case again. The aide would
then have to traick do-wn the previous correspondepce and the other aide
who had been working on it. From the citizen's point of view, the process
has appeared disorganized and may have reduced his confidence in government.
Citizen Complaint Offices
Every major government department or agency in Puerto Rico has a
complaint office. Here citizens can present their problems related to
that government agency. This can be done either in person or by phone
at any time during regular working hours. The complaint office staff
gives orientation to inquiries, receives complaints, conducts investigations
if necessary, and keeps the office of the Director informed, who, in turn,
sends reports to the Governor. The Government in no way publicizes the
services of its complaint offices. Unless a citizen takes the initiative to
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inquire about the existence of such offices, he would never know
about them, so the volume of complaints probably does not reflect
the discontent of the citizen.
Night Complaint Offices
The Night Complaint Offices are extensions of the Daytime Complaint
Offices which operate in every major government agency during regular
working hours. An advertisement is placed each Monday in every major
newspaper on the Island to inform citizens where they can go and who
they can see or call that evening from 5:00 p. m. to 8:00 p. m. at the
various government agencies. The staff receives the citizen com¬
plaints during that time and fills out a form on every complaint.
Action is taken the next day when the forms are sent to the Office
of the Director of the Agency. He usually delegates one of his aides
to oversee any investigations which might be necessary. The aide
makes sure that an agency official writes or arranges a personal
appointment for the citizen to explain what could be done to solve
his problem.
However, it is understood that the operation of the Night Complaint
Offices is to be terminated in the near future.
Department of Health Surveys
The Puerto Rico Health Department has adopted a continuous
survey program as an aide in establishing priorities for the distribution
of limited funds. The program conducts quarterly islandwide surveys among
cumulative samples of households. These surveys determine people's
knowledge of social and health problems, their opinions on the gravity
of the problems and of their relative importance, the way they should
be solved, and their feelings toward persons affected by them. Question¬
naires have also tested the level of awareness of health measures and
services, the extent of their utilization, the reasons for their use or
non-use, as well as knowledge about causes, symptoms, and cures for
various illnesses. In addition, people are asked what should be done
about illnesses, other health and social problems, the efficiency and
organization of health services and what they think about proposed
regulations, services, and reorganization.
Political Parties
A citizen with a problem may take it to a local political party
official. The official w'ill refer the citizen to his mayor, to an aide
at La Fortaleza, or directly to the government agency involved.
- 14 -
The citizen is usually given a letter of recommendation or the party
official contacts the person he has sent the citizen to see.
Since there are no formal records maintanined the government is
unable to identify recurring problems or questions. Although there
is no definite quantitive measure of how often this system is used,
it is used far more often than the agency complaint offices.
Linea Directa
Linea Directa is the column in the Puerto Rican newspaper
El Mundo where citizen inquiries and complaints are answered.
The citizen either phones or mails in his complaint, and, if it
is selected, he sees the answer published in El Mundo. The pro¬
blems are dealt with by trained investigators and solutions are
chosen for publication based on public interest. The newspaper
prints approximately five problems and their solutions per day.
Citizen sending in problems not selected for publication do not
receive answers.
Conclusion
These subsystems for citizen feedback were examined at various
levels of depth, depending on their relevance to future work oa the
Citizen Feedback Project. The total system as it now exists contains
three overall problems. First -- there is a lack of coordination
between various public subsystems;second -- an overall reporting
system does not exist; and third -- together these subsysterris do not
appear to be as comprehensive and or fully accessible as seeiAs to be
required.
In order to meet the first problem of coordination, a public
service handbook describing the multitude of public programs would
be a first step. Then some sort of cross-communication between
problem receivers and problem - solvers is needed, perhaps
involving a system of accounting for open cases (e. g. as could be
recorded in a central computer file.)
Out of such a case accounting system could evolve an overall
reporting and summarizing system. This should help the Government
to identify problem areas where administrative action could alleviate a
problem or where new legislation is required. To be effective, a feed¬
back system must contribute information to be used in the decision-making
process. Presently each subsystem provides some information, but not
in a form useful for determining government policy.
- 15 -
An more comprehensive, accessible and independent system is
needed to insure that the citizen is treated in a fair manner and
without undue delay. At present, a citizen with a complaint
against an agency is often unsatisfied. If he has sent a letter
to La Fortaleza, his letter has usually been referred to the agency.
The fact that such a letter has been referred from La Fortaleza
may encourage the agency to take action, but there has been no
follow - up to insure that the agency has dealt with such problems.
The agency has itself become the final arbitrator in matters that
involve the agencies as a participant. The citizen is limited to
Linea Directa if he seeks an independent and uninvoled judge.
However, the volume that Linea Directa can handle is extremely
small and cases are often chosen on the basis of general reader
appeal, instead of their validity or urgency.
The Citizen Feedback System Design Project has had as its
goal the development of a total system that will solve the above
problems and encourage a greater volume of communications
from the citizens of Puerto Rico, with the assurance of adequate
response.
- 16 -
IV. CITIZEN FEEDBACK SYSTEM TESTING PROJECT
This section details the Citizen Feedback System resulting
from the Citizen Feedback System Design Project. The operations
of the pilot mechanisms over a six month period, the Citizen Feedback
System Testing Project, will serve to modify and finalize the feedback
system before it is put into islandwide operation.
Several goals were established for an islandwide citizen feedback
system. First, a total system must be easily accessible to any citizen
desiring to communicate with his government. Alternate channels
should be available to the citizen. An islandwide system shall provide
for several types of communications -- letters, phone calls, and
personal visits. A citizen must not be prevented from communicating
with the government just because he does not know how to write and
does not have access to a telephone.
A second goal for the Citizen Feedback System is for the citizen
to receive a response from the system. He must feel that when he com¬
municates to government, that it will respond. Not only must some¬
one be listening, but that someone will be able to help the citizen with
his problem or acknowledge his opinion.
The personnel manning the citizen feedback stations are referred
to as Citizen Aides. Their background, training, and responsibilities
are discussed first, followed by a description of the Public Service
Manual. This Manual serves as a handbook or tool for the Citizen
Aide to supply help to the citizen with a problem. By providing a
description of every government service and how to obtain it, the
manual equips the Citizen Aide with information previously available
only at diverse and dispersed agencies.
The Office of the Governor presently is the most often used
feedback station. Here a large volume of visits, phone calls and
letters must be dealt with daily. The third section discusses the
upgrading of the procedures for the pilot project operation and
the integration of these into the total feedback system.
Another aspect of the total feedback system is the islandwide
network of feedback stations and mobile units. These fixed
stations and mobile units will provide a more complete coverage
of the Island so that the government is more readily accessible
- 17 -
to the citizen.
If the system is to truly involve feedback, information collected
from the citizens must be presented in such a form as to be useful
in determining government policy. This section of this report
concludes with a discussion of the reporting system for the Puerto
Rican Citizen Feedback System. The reporting system is a means
for the citizen to influence his government. Without this aspect,
the Citizen Feedback System would be limited to a service oriented
project.
The Citizen Aides, the Public Service Manual, the La Fortaleza
operations, the feedback stations, and the reporting system comprise
the major elements of the proposed Citizen Feedback System for Puerto
Rico. During the testing stage, other possible elements are to be de¬
signed and tested. The fifth section of this report covers several of
these -- opinion collecting, suggestion handling, and a talent bank.
The proposed feedback system in this section will include some of
these elements. Since they are still in the design stages, they are
included in a separate section.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
has provided $36, 000 for the Citizen Feedback System Testing Project.
The Project is being carried out and coordinated by a staff operating
out of the Governor' s Office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico's
contributions to the Testing Phase, including the salaries of the Citizen
Aides, preparation of the Citizen Feedback Stations, and the salary of
the Project Director, is over $50, 000. The implementation schedule
for the Testing and Operational phases is shown in Appendix A.
The Deputy Aide to the Governor and the Citizen Aides
A Deputy Aide to the Governor is the overall supervisor for the
Citizen Feedback project. The members of the general public who
do not have previous appointments are being received by this Deputy
Aide who listens to their requests and refers them to the Citizen Aides
who will help to solve their problems. If a Citizen Aide refers the
person to an agency after identifying the problem-solver to assist the
citizen, a case file is opened for any problem that cannot be solved
during the first visit, and a follow-up on open cases may occur once
a week.
The personnel who operate the feedback stations are called Citizen
Aides. They are individuals who are provided by agencies to the Citizen
- 18 -
Feedback project. During the design stage, fifteen of the major agencies
dealing with the public provided on man each to the project. These
individuals ttended a one month training program and are serving at
least six months as Citizen Aides before returning to their agencies.
During the testing phase of the Citizen Feedback Project, there
will be six Citizen Aides stationed at three fire stations and two
Citizen Aides assigned to testing a mobile unit. Four Citizen Aides
will remain at La For tale za to handle mail and visitors, while two
more stationed at La Fortaleza will serve as investigators. These
two Aides, occasionally assisted by other Citizen Aides, will investi¬
gate the source of the more complex citizen complaints around the
Island.
Each participating agency head should provide one agency oficial
for the project. A college level degree and several years of govern¬
ment experience are desirable prerequisites for the program, but
these may be waived for individuals with other outstanding qualifications.
The project director makes the final decision on whether an individual
will be accepted for the training program.
To meet the needs of the islandwide program, forty Citizen Aides
will be required. They may be obtained by requesting two people
from the following agencies: Social Services, Agriculture, Labor,
Education, and Health; and one person from thirty of the more than
sixty other agencies. The choice of the thirty agencies to. provide
people will be based on the amount of contact the agencies have with
the public. This could be partially measured by the amount of feedback
received. The testing stage of the feedback project should be useful in
identifying the agencies from which one or two people should be requested.
Feedback results should be studied carefully before requesting personnel.
Agencies where it is believed that employee attitudes are offending the
citizen should be required to provide two people, to determine whether
proper training will remedy the situation.
Before a Citizen Aide assumes his post he must be well prepared
for the responsibilities and knowledge that it will require. A one
month training program was necessary for the first class of Citizen
Aides, but this could be reduced to a three week training program and
one week of on-the-job training.
The training of future Citizen Aides will be similar to that provided
for the first group of Citizen Aides. The first week consists of an intro¬
duction to the program, agency orientation, and discussion with the
- 19 -
current Citizen Aides of the types of problems they have faced and how
they handled them. The first day's introductory session should involve
a welcoming speech by the Governor so that the Citizen Aides will feel
like his representatives. The second and third weeks should be split,
with mornings devoted to sensitivity training and afternoons to dealing
with sample cases. The sample cases should be in the form of
letters sent in by citizens. This allows the Citizen Aide to practice
using his problem-solving skills. The sensitivity training should
focus on how the individual relates to others and on their perceptions
of him. Other goals of this training are to make the individual more
tolerant of others and to encourage him to perceive himself as an
intermediary between the citizen and the bureaucracy, rather than
as a representative of the bureaucracy. He must learn to react to
the citizen as equally intelligent, but lacking information.
The final stages of the training program should consist of a
half day of psychological testing and then a graduation ceremony.
The psychological testing should provide the Project Coordinator
with personality profiles that can be used in assigning the Citizen
Aides to their posts. Citizen Aides who have not benefited by their
training can be eliminated from the program at this point should it
become necessary.
During the fourth week before the Citizen Aide assumes full
responsibilities, he should serve in a feedback station with an
experienced Citizen Aide. The experienced Citizen Aide should use
this week to gradually phase out of the operation of his station and
let the new Citizen Aide take over. The week should be used to
introduce the new Citizen Aide not only to the type of problems he
will meet, but also to the leaders of the community and the community
organizations with which he has to work.
The Citizen Aide is the key to the success of this operation and
is being given an intensive training program and a trial period in
which actual cases are being studied. The Citizen Aides in the
La Fortaleza Pilot Project assist the agency head who presently
must take time to answer the letters sent by the aides, and they
attempt to reduce many of the delays which are caused by the pre¬
sent system.
The Public Service Manual
In order for the Citizen Aides to effectively serve the public,
they must be equipped with information about government programs
- 20 -
available to the citizen. As part of the Citizen Aide training program,
officials from the major agencies lecture the Citizen Aides on
programs available at their agencies. Although these lectures and
the material distributed by the agencies helped familiarize the
Citizen Aides with the individual agencies, this was felt to be
insufficient. The Commonwealth government has approximately
seventy agencies offering more than 800 programs to the public.
In order to present the information in an organized and compact
manner, the Public Service Manual was prepared.
The Manual has been set up with one or more pages devoted to
each service. The service is described and the requirements for
obtaining it are listed. How, where, and when it may be obtained is
presented and any documents needed to receive the service identified.
For the benefit of the Citizen Aide, a name of a person to contact at
the agency is given, so the Aide may call him to straighten out any
problems the citizen is having, or to check on the status of a request
for service. Exhibit A is a sample page of the Manual.
The first class of Citizen Aides were used to prepare the Manual
in conjunction with a private firm SITA, Inc. , which had already been
preparing a manual for public distribution. The firm collected and
orgaized the initial date from the agencies and then the Citizen Aides
visited the agencies to update, correct, and collect additional infor¬
mation. The Aides showed the corrected material to agency heads
to receive verification of the data. The verified information was
then retyped, duplicated, and placed in loose leaf notebooks for
each Citizen Aide to have a copy.
In order to index the manuals,every agency was assigned a two
digit number from 11 to 99. Public programs were then listed in
sequential order by agency. The indexing was done in this manner
to allow for efficient use of computer time and easy listing for the
reporting system that is described in a later section of this report.
Loose leaf notebooks were chosen so that there could be a
constant updating process. One Citizen Aide stationed at La
Fortaleza will be used to maintain the notebooks. Every month
he will send to one third of the agencies a copy of their programs
as listed in the Manual. The agencies will be asked to make any
changes and return the material. Corrected services will be re¬
typed and duplicated for distribution to all of the Citizen Aides.
The Citizen Aide, upon receiving corrected or new pages, can
add them to his loose leaf notebook, removing any out-of-date
pages.
- 21 -
EXHIBIT A
UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO (UPR)
1. SERVICE:
Admission into UPR for a high school graduate.
2. REQUIREMENTS:
A) High school diploma or equivalent by an approved institution.
B) Should have approved, at least, 12 units in the three years of
high school, or 16 units in the last four years with an average
no less than 2:00 (C).
C) Will have to take the College Board Entrance Examination
(See page ).
3. HOW TO APPLY:
By telephone (764-0000 Ext. 439): writing to the UPR; or in person.
4. WHERE TO APPLY:
Dean of Students
Admissions Office (Office 112)
University of Puerto Rico
Rib Piedras, P. R.
5. WHEN TO APPLY:
Monday through Friday
8:00 am - 12:00 n
1:00 pm - 4:25 pm
6. STEPS WHICH APPLICANT MUST FOLLOW:
A) An application must be filled out no later than January 30.
7. CONTACT AT UPR
Mrs. Marcano
Admission Office
22 -
The Office of the Governor System Pilot Project
La For tale za is the center of citizen contact with the Government.
As such, the Office of the Governor was the focus of much of the initial
study carried out by the Citizen Feedback Project staff, and it was
selected as the location for the first pilot project, which has been
in operation since early in 1970.
In designing an improved Citizen Feedback System at La Fortaleza,
the staff needed to identify a set of general goals that La Fortaleza
system should fulfill. After study of the problems in the existing
system, the staff selected four major design goals:
1- Provide the citizen with a rapid and satisfactory
response when he communicates with his government
at La Fortaleza.
2. Substantially reduce the current work load of the Governor's
Aides on routine citizen problems so they may be better able
to serve the Governor.
3. Provide a more organized information system for the
problem-solvers dealing with citizen communications.
4- Include a reporting system so that the Governor and
his Aides know what the citizen are communicating
to La Fortaleza.
Based on these goals, the following procedures have been
developed:
Personal Visits
After an examination of the various subsystems for dealing
with different classifications of visitors, it has been determined
that all visitors to La Fortaleza should be included in the design
system. Visitors with appointments to see the Governor or an
aide should not be excluded,although they do not fit into the main
area of interest, the average citizen.
The visitors to La Fortaleza can be categorized into the
following three main groups.
1. Visitors with appointment to see the Governor or an
aide
2, Political leaders desiring to see the Governor
- 23 -
or an aide but without an appointment
3. The general public
Included in the "general public" category are visitors wishing
to see the Governor or an aide, but not having previously arranged
appointments. Any person who should see the Governor or an aide
would usually make an appointment. Newsmen do not fit into the
classification of visitors and thus they will not be covered in this
report.
In the system, all visitors at the main gate are greeted and
asked the purpose of their visit. If the guardsat the gate have
been notified to expect the visitor, he is directed to the pertinent
office. If the guards do not expect him, the pertinent office is
contacted to see if the visitor should be shown in. Upon con¬
firmation, the visitor is shown to his destination. When the citizen
does not know his destination, the guards try to help him. Tourists
are shown to an outside area with benches where they wait for a
guide.
A new waiting area is being constructed for those people who
want to see the Governor or an aide and lack an appointment. Also
these people will not meet with an aide until it has been determined
necessary by a lower level official. Visits by too many people,
who have routine or easily solvable problems, occupied an aide's
time. The new system provides for problem-solvers below the
level of aide.
The approach to handling visitors varies according to their
category:
1. Visitors with appointments to see the Governor.
They are met at the gate, taken to a waiting room convenient
to the Governor's office, and are introduced to any high level
officials they meet on the way to the waiting room.
On the day prior to their meeting with the Governor the aide
responsible for their visit presents a standard fact sheet (Appointment
Report) to the aide in charge of the Governor's schedule or to the
- 24 -
Governor's Executive Secretary. The Governor is given these sheets in
a loose leaf binder along with the next day's schedule at 5:00 P. M. daily.
This gives him time-to study who i>s coming to see him, the person's
background, the reasons for the visit, or to obtain additional informa¬
tion. This will allow the Governor to be better prepared for each visitor
by having more information at hand. During and a.fter each visit, the
Governor can enter comments on a space left on the Appointment Report.
Samples of the Appointment Reports are included as Exhibits B, C, and
D.
After a visitor or group of visitors have completed their meeting
with the Governor, the aide responsible for the visit can offer refresh¬
ments or provide a tour of the grounds and gardens. Since the Governor
must move rapidly through his meetings, the aides should provide some
sort of follow-up experience that leaves the visitor with a sense of not
being rushed in and rushed out of La Fortaleza. The technique of
achieving this could be left to each individual aide, but some follow-
up should be planned.
2. Political leaders waiting to see the Governor or an Aide
but without an appointment.
Since they are representatives of the people and the purposes for
their visits are usually different from the average citizens, they should
receive special treatment. The political leaders are met at the gate and
taken to a waiting area to be treated on a priority basis. A secretary fills
out an Appointment Report sheet, which should be taken to the Deputy Aide
who handles citizen contacts. The Deputy Aide will decide what action
should be taken. If the political leader should be sent to see an aide, the
Deputy Aide will make the arrangements. If not, the Deputy Aide will
meet with the political leader and try to solve his problem or thank him
for his information or opinion. The results of the visit would be marked
on the information sheets.
3, The general public
Upon entering La Fortaleza, visitors are escorted to the waiting area.
There a secretary should fill out the information sheet. Literature about
the Governor and La Fortaleza is available for the citizen to read, and if
his wait is to be a long one, the citizen is asked if he would like to take
a tour of La Fortaleza. His position in the waiting line will be maintained
if he chooses to take the tour. When it is his turn, he enters the office of
the Deputy Aide who already has the information sheet. The Deputy Aide
decides how the case should be handled. If the problem is the type that
can be handled by a phone call and, providing he does not have many people
waiting, he can make the phone calls himself. If the case is more com¬
plicated, the Deputy Aide collects the necessary information and then
25 -
EXHIBIT B
APPOINTMENT REPORT
NAME (S): Mr. Charles J. Zwick
POSITION (5); Advisor to the Government
Management SystemsSub-
committee
DATE : October 12. 1970
HOUR : 10:00 A.M.
AIDE : Torres Campos
OTHERS : V. Esteves
H. Stevens
RESPONSIBILITIES: To aid the subcommittee in the development
of its report to the Advisory Council due on
October 25, 1969-
HISTORY: Currently president of Southeast Bancorporation, a
bank holding company that controls five Florida
banks and has combined resources of $866 million.
From January 1968, to end of Johnson administration
he was director of the U. S. Bureau of the Budget.
Author of "The Economics of Competition in Trans¬
portation Industry" a comprehensive study of trans¬
portation in the U. S.
Phd. in economics from Harvard Universtiy
Undergraduate, University of Connecticut.
OBJECTIVE: To inform the Governor of the progress of the Government
Management Systems Subcommittee.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
- 26 -
EXHIBIT C
APPOINTMENT REPORT
NAME (S): Carlos Romero Barcel6 DATE : October 17, 1969
HOUR : 10:00 A.M.
POSITION (S): Mayor AIDE : Dr. Perusse
RESPONSIBILITIE8: Mayor of San Juan
Vice President N. P. P.
HISTORIAL: Mayor Romero Barceld wishes to help promote United
Nations week in the San Juan Area.
OBJECTIVE: Would like to invite Governor Ferr^ and his guest.
Ambassador Olds of the U JM. for a luncheon at
City Hall on October 24 at 12:30 P. M.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
1. Should I make a brief speech or Ambassador Olds?
2. Contact Ambassador Olds about this. Dr. Perusse
-11 -
EXHIBIT D
APPOINTMENT REPORT
NAME (S): Richard C. Van Dusen DATE October 16, 1970
HOUR ; 12:30 P.M.
Luncheon
POSITION (S): Number 2 man in HUD AIDE : Torres Campos
Has general management responsibilities
HISTORY: Ex-State Representative - Michigan
Legal Advisor for Governor Romney
Lawyer
OBJECTIVE: Gain his support for current Puerto Rican applications
to HUD - Citizen Feedback - Information Center
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Conservative attitudes toward citizen
participation.
Differentiation between Citizen Feedback
Project and citizen organizing for projects
should be stressed. Citizen Feedback Project
is not citizen participation in the current sense
of the term.
- 28 -
turns the case over to one of the Citizen Aides.
The main purpose of the Deputy Aide is to identify the citizen's
problem and decide how it should be handled. The citizen, when he
leaves, should feel that his problem is being dealt with by someone
important and that action is being taken.
Information Recording
The information sheets containing the material concerning all
visitors to La Fortaleza are kept in alphabetical order by name in
a central file convenient to the Deputy Aide's office. A visitor is
asked if he had visited or written to La Fortaleza previously con¬
cerning the present matter. A check is made of the files and any
previous material removed and given to the person who would be
dealing with the vistor. In this manner the Deputy Aide can
always be informed c£ previous contact with the citizen and thus
better serve the citizen.
The Deputy Aide and these Citizen Aides can also assit the
Governor or any of his aides in providing information on some¬
one who had previously had dealings with La Fortaleza.
Physicial Facilities
A new air conditioned waiting room has been provided for
visitors. Coffee, magazines, comfortable chairs, literature
about the Governor, and tours of La Fortaleza are provided.
A receptionist is available to help complete the appointment
report and to escort the visitors to the waiting room. All of
the general public as well as the political leaders without
appointments wait in this area.
Those individuals having an appointment with the Governor
are directed to the waiting area near the Governor's Office.
Twenty-four Hour Phone Service
Another phase of this project is the implementation of twenty-
four hour phone service to give the citizen access to goverment
at any time and to ease the work load upon the present La Fortaleza
telephone system. The twenty-four hour phone service will work in the
following manner: A person calling for information or an inquiry at
any time will be able to leave a message on a tape recorder connected
to a special phone number reserved for this purpose. The following
- 29 -
morning, six secretaries will record and process the requested in¬
formation. A letter will be sent to the requestor stating the message
has been received, and that the information will be forwarded to a
Citizen Aide. There will be a standard time limit of thirty days
established for the handling of any such inquiry.
Investigatory Backup
Whenever a case is processed that can be attributed to negli¬
gence of an individual or agency, an investigator may be assigned
to handle the case. He will make the necessary investigations and
present his findings to the Governor's Staff Coordinator for immediate
action. This will prevent any Citizen Aide from being detained by a
case for an extended period of time. Also "investigators" may re¬
quire especial investigatory powers that go beyond the ordinary
powers of a Citizen Aide.
Islandwide System
If a feedback system is to be easily accessible to the citizen,
the location of the feedback stations must be recognizable and
easily found. To insure use of the system even when the location
of the station is known, the process of communicating with the
government must make the citizen feel comfortable. Little effort
on the part of the citizen should be required to use the system.
With these aims in mind, plus the ones mentioned previously,
twelve fire stations and five mobile units are recommended as
locations for feedback stations.
The decision was made to use existing public buildings as the
fixed stations since people are familiar with their locations. Cost
considerations also favored this decision. An existing public building
may have extra space that could be used. If not, an addition to the
building on publicly owned land would cost less than the purchase of
a site and the construction of a new building. A new building or
an existing building not used for government purposes was also
not suitable from the point of maximizing visibility and accessability
to the citizen.
The fire station is a natural choice both from the point of visibility
and from the point of being a comfortable place for the citizen to visit.
The citizen tends to visualize the fire station as politically and socially
neutral. In his community he often knows where the police station, the
city hall, the social service offices and the fire station are. The police
- 30 -
stations were considered, but were eliminated because they inspire dis¬
trust or fear in many citizens and are also a place where many citizens
would not want to be seen entering. Mayor's offices and city halls have
strong political overtones and the Department of Social Services are
associated with charity, thus producing a social stigma. Something
more neutral is needed for the locations of the feedback stations. They
should be places where citizen do not mind visiting. The image of the
fire station does not have undesirable implications and is often the most
well-know public building in a community. A further asset of the fire
stations is the attitude of the firemen toward their service role.
Chief Gandara of Puerto Rico's fire department visualizes the
fire department as a service organization to the community in which
it is located. His favorable reaction to the ideas of using the fire
stations for the citizen to come to for the purpose of communicating
with their government strongly reinforced the other two reasons
behind the choice of fire stations. In twelve of the Island's fire
stations, Citizen Aides are to have offices where citizens can
meet with them. Each of these stations will have two Citizen Aides
assigned to it initially. In the future, this number might have to be
increased in areas of high demand.
After a brief orientation period when each pair of Citizen Aides
will work normal working hours (8:30 am to 5:00 pm) together, they
will then work staggered hours (Monday-Saturday, 7:30 am - 2:00 pm ,
and Monday - Friday 1:00 - 8:30 pm) to allow each feedback station
to be open from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm Monday through P'riday, and
from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm on Saturday. In addition to these hours
of regular work, each Citizen Aide will be expected to attend on
the average one meeting a week in the area served by his feedback
station. i
The location of the twelve fire station sites where Citizen Aides
are to be situated were chosen based on population and on an analysis
of transportation routes. During the testing phase of the Citizen
Feedback Project, in San Juan, the fires stations in San Jos^, Santurce
and Hato Rey will be staffed. This will help the staff to evaluate the
location decision and to see whether any unforeseen disadvantages exist.
If the fire station is to become the location where the citizen
communicates with his government and if only twelve out of the more
than one hundred fire stations are to be staffed with Citizen Aides,
some method of communica-tion had to be designed for adding to the
remaining stations. After considering such possibiities as tape
- 31 -
recorders, training of firemen to serve as Citizen Aides and ring
down telephone lines, an inexpensive solution was determined. At
each of the more than one hundred fire stations where no Citizen
Aide was to be stationed, there would be a pay telephone which would
allow one number to be dialed at no cost to the citizen, or possibly
a telephone which automatically dials a single number. That number
would connect the citizen with the nearest fire station where a Citizen
Aide was on duty. That Citizen Aide could then discuss with the citizen
his problem or record his opinion. If the citizen was required to visit
a Citizen Aide to solve his problem, he could find out where the nearest
Citizen Aide was located and make an appointment. The telephone
located at the fire station has an advantage of being in a protected
location and would be less subject to the vandalism thatputsmany tele¬
phones out of operation. This idea is in line with the telephone company's
plans to install pay telephones at all fire stations over the next three
years.
During the late evening hours and early morning hours, there
will be no Citizen Aides on duty. To meet the needs of the citizen
who wants to communicate with his government during these off-duty
hours, recorders will be placed at each of the twelve fire stations
which are to be staffed by Citizen Aides. If possible, a fireman will
answer the telephone and ask the citizen to state his problem or
express his opinion to the recorder. The human element supplied by
the firemen is thought to be an important improvement over the standard
recorded message. This concept of utilizing the firemen will be tested
during the late stages of the Test Project, but with the concern for
public service expressed by fire department officials it should be success¬
ful. Also firemen will be encouraged to assist citizens in using the
special tlephone and the public service handbook which will be available
in every fire station not having Citizen Aides and tape recorders.
Although the twelve fire stations staffed by Citizen Aides are
convenient to most of the citizens of Puerto Rico, a need exists for
mobile units to bring the government to the citizen. If possible it
would be desirable to have Citizen Aide offices in every city and town
in the Commonwealth, but the cost would be excessive. Providing two
visiting Citizen Aides in each community on a weekly basis can be
accomplished through the use of five mobile units. The mobile unit
not only offers the citizen a weekly opportunity to communicate in
person with his government in his own community but it will also be
a source of publicity for the fixed stations and the total feedback system.
Available vehicles and the experiences of other agencies with their
mobile units are being evaluated. An opportunity may exist to cooperate
with another agency which would share the costs and aid in providing
- 32 -
public services for the citizen.
The vehicle is expected to be a converted bus or truck that contains
air conditioned space for two offices, plus a reception area. Facilities
and information should be provided to aid the citizens in expressing
their opinions on important public issues. This activity could take
place in the reception area. The vehicle should not only be service
oriented, but must be designed for opinion collecting and citizen education.
It should be equipped with telephone service so that citizen problems
can be solved on the spot.
Each mobile unit will have a staff of two Citizen Aides. They will
perform in a similar manner to the Citizen Aides in the fire stations,
except that they will not usually be dealing with telephone calls from
citizens. Their telephone will generally be used in follow-up work.
One Citizen Aide will always be on duty in the mobile unit while the
other will circulate through the community during slack periods to
locate problems and to develop a feeling for community problems.
The mobile units should be able to visit almost every community
on the Island several hours per week. There will be a need to visit
several small communities at one central site, but most larger
communities should be visited one half day per week. The initial
schedule has been developed according to population and can later be
adjusted to reflect the actual demand. The number of units may
have to be increased in the future if the demand exceeds the current
expectations. The demand for services such as the mobile units is
hard to estimate since it is a service that has never been offered
before in Puerto Rico. The results, including costs of a pilot mobile
unit, scheduled for operating during the latter half of the six month
testing phase will provide guidance to make the final purchasing and
construction decisions.
In theory, the fire stations seem to offer the most desirable sites
for parking the mobile units, as it educates the citizen to present their
feedback at fire stations. It would be beneficial to have the mobile
units locate there to reinforce this belief. It is also easier to always
publicize one type of location, the fire station, as the place where the
citizen talks to his government.
During the testing stage, however, the single mobile unit will
try various locations. It should not only go to the fire stations, but
also to police stations, city halls, and public housing projects. The
results of taking the mobile unit to the disadvantaged citizen will be
studied carefully. The test phase will show whether phones are
- 33 -
sufficient for fire stations without Citizen Aides, and whether
more mobile units should be used to reach the less articulate, dis¬
advantaged citizen closer, to his home. Another possibility that
will be tested is taking the mobile units to the fiestas. Many citizens
visit the cities and towns at fiesta time and thus many more people
might be introduced to the idea of citizen feedback by using the mobile
units as publicity devices. The important goal is to encourage the
citizens to use the system by making it easily accessible to them.
Location and Costs
After the Testing Phase, feedback stations will be extended on an
islandwide basis to Aguadilla, Arecibo, Bayamdn, Carolina, Caguas,
Fajardo, Guayama, Mayaguez, and Ponce, plus the three stations in
San Juan. It is roughly estimated that operating this islandwide Citizen
Feedback System for one year would cost $500, 000. The Citizen Aides
and other staff would involve $250, 000; and office space preparation in
the five stations, $35, 000. Preparation and operation of the mobile
units may cost as much as $20, 000 per unit. The telephone system,
technical support, and other expenses will amount to $115,000.
Feedback Reporting: Measuring Citizen Feedback
A private citizen can react to Government programs or public
issues in various ways. An attempt at providing a quantitative measure
of these reactions will be made by tabulating their frequency of occurence
grouped by the form of the action taken.
Some of these forms of communication used by the citizen are
adaptable to this technique, while others require different techniques.
Communications made via the following media can be easily counted
and tabulated.
Group A 1) Letters
2) Personal visits
3) Telephone calls
4) Telegrams
Other methods by which a citizen can react are more difficult to
objectively measure and are not applicable to the technique described
above. Among these are:
Group B 1) Demonstrations
2) Acceptance or rejection of programs
3) Lobbying
- 34 -
The presentation of feedback from reactions taken in these ways
will not be discussed here since a method of measuring the reation
has not been discussed.
1) Inquiries for information
2) Requests for service
3) Complaints
4) Opinions - in favor of the program or issue
5) Opinions - against the program or issue
6) Suggestions
7) Volunteers
It is not a very difficult task for the recipient of a communication
to classify it into one or more of these categories, based on the in¬
formation that it contains. This information can then be coded on an
appropriate document, the Communications Tally Sheet, and processed
to produce the quantitative tabulations.
It is more informative to the user of these tabulations if the
government program or issue that the citizen has reacted to is also
identified. In order to accomplish this, codes have been assigned
to the government programs in the Public Service Handbook.
How the information is to be analyzed is determined by the users'
requirements. The Citizen Aides or the analyst of a particular
government program should be able to accept the quantitative tabulations
and applying their experience and knowledge of the program's purpose,
scope and history, make a more accurate assessment of its success of
shortcomings.
They should also be able to select from the communications those
cases which represent average and extreme examples of citizen reaction.
In those cases of government programs or public issues that
are politically sensitive, or to which the public has reacted to in an
exceptional manner, or that are selected by some other criteria, the
analyst should prepare a brief narrative describing the cause of the
reaction, any effects that this might cause and any action that should
be taken. This narrative should accompany examples of those com¬
munications that he may select.
The presentation of summary data from the Citizen Feedback
Project will occur at three different levels. At the operational level,
the problem-solver or analyst assigned to a particular public issue
will receive quantitative information in the form of numerical tabulations.
At the supervisory or intermediate level, the agency head responsible
- 35 -
for designated programs or issues will receive summarized data
containing quantitative tabulations of the citizen reactions, the
narrative summaries of the cases selected by the problem-solver
and tabular reports assessing the problem-solver's performance in
responding to inquiries and requests. At the policy level, the
Governor, members of the Cabinet, and the Governor's staff will
receive narrative reports and the qualitative examples prepared by
the problem-solver, to be presented via the Governor's Information
Room and Control Book.
The problem-solver will receive a tabulation of citizen reactions
on a monthly basis. This report will contain the code number of the
program or issue, a short descriptive title of the subject, and two
sections containing counts of the frequency of occurences of inquiries,
requests, complaints, opinions-for, opinions-against, suggestions,
and an overall total of the reactions recorded. The two sections
mentioned above will represent the frequencies of reactions that have
occurred month-to-date. This report should provide the problem-
solver with the necessary data to determine what items, in the
inventory of programs for which he is responsible, are receiving
an exceptional amount of citizen communications. With this informa¬
tion he should be able to make a better assessment of his resource
allocations.
Combining this source of information with his knowledge of the
purpose, scope and history of the programs, the problem-solver
should prepare a narrative report explaining anyexceptional items
and describe courses of action to be taken if action is required. He
should also select examples of communications showing extreme
reactions for the programs of issues selected. These examples
should be prepared for presentation in the Governor's Information
Room. These examples could be letters, telegrams, audio or video
recordings or extracts from the other media available.
Citizen Aides will also receive a report detailing all open cases
that have been referred to them. The report will contain the case
number, its present status, and ageings will be shown indicating the
amount of time since the original entry of the communications into
the Feedback System. The purpose of the ageing is to signal cases
that have remained unsolved for long periods of time, and to determine
the speed with which cases are being solved. This is an extremly
important facet of the project, because the citizens must receive a
solution to their problems in a resonable amount of time. In effect,
this report should serve as an aid to the problem-solver in his
operations.
Day Month Year
COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO
CITIZEN FEEDBACK PROJECT
LA FORTALEZA
SAN JUAN, P. R,
Communications Tally Sheet
EXHIBIT E
Communication
T otal
VISIT
TELEPHONE
LETTER
Service
Description
Information
Reaue st
OP - F
OP - U
Complaint
Sueeestion
Volun¬
teer
Total
Comments
vO
CO
1
- 37 -
The agency heads will receive a summarized report containing
the quantitative data relating to the programs or issues for which
his agency assumes responsibility. This report will be prepared on
a monthly basis and is similar to the report prepared for the problem-
solver. Attached to this report will be the narrative prepared by the
problem-solver. Utilizing these two factors the agency head should
be able to better assess the condition of the programs or issues for
which he is responsible.
The Citizen Feedback Project will transmit information to the
Governor through the Information Room. It is an obvious clearing
point for this type of information because historical dhta will be
plotted on time series graphs which can be easily updated. There¬
fore, when new information is presented, it is within the context of
a historical pattern. Information analysts can readily detect dramatic
changes in the nature of the inquiries, complaints, and the results of
issue ballots that are generated in the Citizen Feedback System and
bring them to the attention of the Governor within the context of regu¬
larly scheduled briefings.
- 38 -
v. special experiments in involvement feedback
The basic system for handling service feedback (inquiries, re¬
quests, and complaints) will be supplemented by processes for handling
involvement feedback (opinions, suggestions, and volunteering). However,
more research is needed before the involvement feedback processes can
be fully specified. Throughout the six-month testing phase, certain
experiments will be run in the area of involvement feedback: an opinion
feedback experiment, two different types of "listening post" experiments,
and a talent bank experiment.
The Opinion Feedback Experiment 1 /
The rise in education and leisure time are permiting an ever in¬
creasing number of citizens to examine the problems characteristic of
modern government. An effective democracy requires that a citizen
understand the issues before the government, and influence and review
the decisions taken by it.
However, two major difficulties hinder the citizen. First is the
difficulty any person has in receiving enough organized information to
realize that a given problem exists, or that there are alternate solutions
to a known problem,and to make the choice among the alternatives.
Second, the citizen faces the difficulty of making his choice count in
influencing the decisions of the responsible public officials. In com¬
bination, these difficulties discourage many citizens from taking the
initiative to participate in government affairs.
The amount of information provided by the news media is too
dispersed in time and subject matter to permit the citizen to perceive
the interrelation, within one complex subject, or to make constructive
choices. He needs to see in one place and at one time: (1) the facts
that indicate the existence of a given problem; and (2) the various
interpretations of the facts that make for alternative and even conflicting
proposals, as understood by both their proponents and opponents.
Voting for candidates is an inadequate method of registering
opinion on individual issues, since each candidate represents the sum
of the positions he holds on all the issues. Voting on referenda is too
cumbersome a procedure for most issues. Between simply voting in
elections and actively participating in a political party or pressure
group, there exists an intermediate level of public interest which
presently lacks an effective communication channel.
The Opinion Feedback Experiment involves the preparation, and
operation of a mobile Communications Center. The Communications
Center will be designed to overcome the difficulties citizens have
1/ Much of the information presented in this section has been prepared
by Bison Associates, 145 Hanover Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
- 39 -
informing themselves on issues and alternatives, and in effective expression
of their viewpoint.
The Communications Center has four main components:
(1) It assembles and graphically presents facts, views
and suggested solutions for problems of concern
to the citizenry.
(2) It permits the absorption of this complex material
by the largest public in a limited time.
(3) It encourages people to choose between various
suggested solutions or to articulate their own
personal ideas.
(41 It 'feeds back" the gathered response material to
those government leaders who can effect changes.
A Communication Center can solve both the problem of data assembly
and opinion transmission. Methods of communication can be used which
present information at different levels of interest and time commitment so
that, even in a few minutes, a person can learn the major elements of an
issue. Information can be arranged so that the facts and proposals accepted
by all can be visibly distinguished from the alternate sets of data, needed
in areas where there is disagreement.
By funnelling the choices and opinions of many through one Center,
the opinions can be accumulated and the total will be of more interest and
significance to the decision-makers than a single opinion. The participant
is more interested in absorbing the information because he has before him
an immediate outlet for whatever opinion or decision he comes to, and his
decision is itself more valuable because he is informed.
In the opinion feedback experiment, the mobile Communications Center
will be prepared for use in both an urban and a rural experiment. The vehicle
itself will act as an experimental laboratory for the testing of various com¬
munications media such as graphics, sound recording, as well as oral and
slide presentations.
The topics to be presented will be selected to have local and island-
wide appeal to test the citizens'reactions to both types of subjects. Several
types of pre-visit publicity will be tried and various locations will be used
to determine the best combinations for effective response.
- 40 -
Suggestion Feedback
No suggestion system can be quite as pre-structured as an opinion
feedback system or a talent bank system. However, a suggestion system
needs a bit more structuring than that part of the overall system which
handles inquiries, requests, and complaints, A citizen knows he has
gotten a "response" from government once his personal problem has
been solved or at least satisfactorily answered. There is no such easy
method for guaranteeing a "response" to a suggestion. While service
feedback is ultimately responded to by numerous problem-solvers con¬
tacted by problem-receivers(the Citizen Aide^, suggestions for program
improvements or policy changes must of course get to a higher level in
government, A relatively few high-level decision-makers must deal
with suggestions, or else the citizen will know his voice has not been
heard. The citizen who takes the time to make a suggestion must receive
an intelligent response from someone who can act upon his suggestion.
Then, if the suggestion should be implemented, the citizen should be
given appropriate recognition so that other citizens will be encouraged
to make constructive suggestions. Two suggestion feedback experiments
are being refined and will be part of the testing phase.
Listening Post Experiments
As the Republican National Committee concluded, there exists a
need at the highest levels of government for well organized qualitative
information on what concerns the citizen. Although quantitative data
on mail, personal visits, and phone calls can often identify problem
areas, it is unable to get deeply into the underlying causes. Even by
taking qualitative samples of communications to the government, the
need is not totally fulfilled. The format and the length of personal
visits, phone calls, and letters does not create a situation where the
citizen is always going to get his real problem across to his government,
A group discussion by people with the same problem is more likely to
lead to a generalized description of the problem so policy can be developed,
based on the needs of the citizens as a group.
To meet the need for qualitative information on some of the under¬
lying problems of the citizens, an experiment similar in design to the
Republican Listening Post operation described on Page 8 will be carried
out. Modifications in staff, the type of sponsoring group, and the sources
of participants are the only changes. The unemployment of the young has
been recommended as a timely topic of concern. The goal would be to
find out how the unemployed young citizen sees the problem.
The procedure that should be followed would be to have three groups
brought to gether separately. Each group should consist of approximately
- 41 -
fifteen to twenty young people chosen only because they are unemployed
and are willing to discuss the problem. One group should be composed
of unemployed young people from San Juan, the second from another
city, and the third from a rural area.
A .critical ingredient to the success of the project is the group
leader. His task is to start the discussion, to serve as a catalyst to
keep it movinig, and to keep the conversation relevant. The group leader
should be experienced in group dynamics and have had practice as a
group leader in similar situations.
.The sessions should last approximately an hour and a half. They
should be carried out in an informal setting with on one else present
other than the group leader and the participants. Participants for the
sessions can oe located by the Citizen Aides in the San Juan area and
by members of the Social Services Department in the other two areas.
The meetings should be tape-recorded so that a transcript can be
prepared. From the transcripts and the tapes of the three sessions,
the group leader can summarize the results and prepare a final pre¬
sentation for the Governor, several of his aides, and for those agency
heads concerned with the problem.
A second type of "listening post" experiment will be undertaken
during the Feedback System Testing Phase. The term "listening post"
has not only been applied to the Republican Party's opinion sessions
as described above, but also to a new "suggestion system" being
established within the federal governm.ent under the U.S. General
Services Administration. The details of this system and of various
employee suggestion systems will be investigated during the,testing
phase, and then a listening post suggestion system will be tested.
Talent Bank
A talent bank consists of a reservoir of the names of individuals
who wish to contribute their skills and a method to retrieve selected
names based on various criteria such as age, experience, salary level,
and area of specialization. It could provide the government with access
to the combined expertise of its citizenry for advice in program formulation,
administration, and development.
The talent bank will become an integral part of the Citizen Feedback
System. As informed ipinions, suggestions and offers to volunteer are
received via letters, phone calls, visits, etc. , the communicants' name
- 42 -
will be entered into a file indexed for retrieval. Whenever a particular
issue or question arises, citizens who had previously expressed an
interest in that subject could be polled to provide further opinions or
suggestions.
A more active approach will also be tested by contacting civic
organizations, professional societies, and other organized groups to
request for volunteers to aid their government. A form will be pre¬
pared and distributed to these groups to be filled in by the volunteers.
This form will contain identifying information such as the volunteer's
name and address and other data such as vocation, educational level,
age, sex, etc. , which will be used as criteria for the selection of
volunteers to aid in sleeted tasks. The identifying information and
selection criteria will be entered into a file. Thereafter, a subject
search of the file (manual or automatic) will provide a list of volunteers
with an interest or expertise in a particular area.
The talent bank could be further expanded to include information
as to the level of involvement. A citizen may be available for polling
or interviewing or consultation, or may be interested in serving on
various committees. As an example, seventy-eight citizens in con¬
junction with over 120 government and university professionals, have
recently been involved in the Advisory Subcommittees of the Governor's
Advisory Council for the Development of Government Programs.
The resources of the talent bank should be made available to the
offices and agencies of the Commonwealth government. The talent
bank could also serve as a source to fill appointive positions or to
obtain professional services both with or without compensation.
- 43 -
VI, FEEDFORWARD AND REFORM
There are two sides of the communications loop between citizens
and their: .government. The designing of a citizen feedback system has
been concentrating on the citizen-to-government communication, the
weaker of the two sides of this loop. However, once this side is strengthened,
the weaknesses in the other side will become more obvious. Ony with
quality feedforward will there be assurance of quality feedback.
Not only do government and the mass media have roles to play in
improving the quality of government-to-citizen communication, but
political groups and the scientific community also must be concerned
with how well policy alternatives are stated. Such information from
the center out might be characterized as feedforward--that is, policy
and program information projected forward in time and projected
forward to the citizens who must then provide the feedback based on
their observations, values, and judgements about the results which
follow.
Formal feedforward mechanisms of the Puerto Rican government
which need strengthening are agency public relations offices and educa¬
tional television. During the six month Feedback System Testing Phase,
attention will be paid to such mechanisms, particularly as they may
relate to the particular issues selected for the proposed opinion feedback
experiment.
The Citizen Feedback System is only one component of Governor
Luis A. Ferrd's overall information system in his science-in-government
project. Two other components of that system should aid the feedforward
process: (1) the Governor's Advisory Council for the Development ol
Government Prognams, which looks ahead to develop scientific statements
of policy alternatives; and (2) the Governor's Information Room, which
will be monitoring major program areas and social and economic indicators.
The Information Room will offer an important presentation capability,
as well as needed information. How skillfully feedforward is presented to
the press and to the public will certainly depend in the long run partly on
how well developed the audiovisual and graphic display techniques of the
Information Room become. The Information Room will also later be looked
to as the vehicle for presentation of feedback results first to the Governor
and to his Cabinet, and then to the public.
There is no question that the results of the well-publicized opinion
feedback experiment must be completely disclosed to the public. This
- 44 -
requirement makes that particular experiment the most critical point in
the Feedback System Testing Phase. It should be noted, however, that
much of the detail of the feedback reporting system on complaints,
inquiries, etc. , will not be automatically made public. The Governor
will be able to exercise some discretion in releasing information which
may be useful in building a case publicly for making certain administrative,
budgetary, or legislative changes which might improve a service of
government.
This feedback system has certain similar qualities to the
Ombudsman in Scandinavian countries and elsewhere. The Ombudsman
investigates citizen complaints against government, if buffered from
the executive branch of government, and typically has only the power
of publicity to apply in seeking restitution for the citizen when a com¬
plaint is found to be valid. When the Ombudsman finds occasional
administrative injustice (for less than one out of five of the complaints
filed), the agency head is practically always willing to correct the
situation, and thus the Ombudsman rarely has to invoke his power
to take the case before the public.
This feedback system differs from the Ombudsman system in
that the Governor has direct justidiction over most of the agencies
against which complaints might be lodged. By direct order, he
can correct administrative injustices and may have less need for
the power of publicity than an Ombudsman has.
It is also true that a certain amount of institutional privacy is
necessary for government employees to do their work. On the other
hand, the citizen feedback system could not survive under a veil of
secrecy. Just as the Governor's Advisory Council was established as
a nonpartisan body, so also must the Citizen Feedback System be non¬
partisan in its operation. Legislative leaders from both parties must
have access to the principal summary reports of the Citizen Feedback
System.
While these summary reports should provide indications of where
major administrative, budgetary, or legislative changes are needed,
individual case reports would usually be less helpful in that regard.
However, when particular case reports are needed for illustration
purposes, the identity of the citizen(s) involved should be protected.
The case report forms have been designed so that certain situations
identifying the citizen(s) might be helpful, but, if so , this should be
done only after the citizen has given explicit permission, preferably
in writing.
- 45 -
Individual privacy will be a critical issue in obtaining public
acceptance for the Citizen Feedback System. For while people
want to be able to talk back to government, they do not want a Big
Brother type of surveillance system. Any permanent file kept on
a citizen under this system must be subject to review by that citizen
and he must have the power to add explanations to that file if not
amend it. As presently contemplated, the only permanent record
of this sort under the citizen feedback system would be the entry
of a citizen into the talent bank. That process would be very much
under the citizen's control, since it would be essentially a "volunteer"
system.
The Citizen Aides will play a critical role in the privacy issue,
both as it applies to individual citizens and to agents of the government.
The Citizen Aide serves essentially as an intermediary between the
citizen and an otherwise hard-to-identify agency problem-solver. The
Citizen Aide must have the trust of both parties in order to fulfill his
role; therefore he must be discreet in what private communications are
revealed.
Also, in his role as intermediary, he should be careful not to
exaggerate his authority when dealing with either party. He is neither
the citizen's advocate,nor a direct provider of specialized government
services. As a Citizen Aide, he attempts to make the Government of
Puerto Rico more accessible and more responsive to those who serve
as advocates for their own or other citizens' causes. As a Citizen
Aide he attempts to expedite the solution of citizen problems through
direct referral and complete follow-up with agency problem-solvers.
He should avoid taking credit for either promoting a specific cause or
solving a particular problem. He should encourage such credit to go
to the appropriate citizen advocates and agency problem-solvers.
The Citizen Aide's job is to improve communication and to help
look for patterns of problems and opinions which might suggest to the
Governor improvements in government policies and programs. The
Citizen Aide Training Program must instill this particular mission
in the trainees.
As a further incentive, the Citizen Aide must see this mission
as consistent with his career objectives in government service.
Agency heads must be encouraged to select for this program only
those persons who show promise for advancement to positions of
executive responsibility. Both the person selected and his superiors
in the agency to which he will return should view the full year's
service as a Citizen Aide as an educational experience which will
be valuable to the individual, to his home agency, and to the overall
government, well beyond that particular year, A substantial increase
in salary should be awarded to any individual upon successfully com-
- 46 -
pleting a year's service as a Citizen Aide.
The first group of Citizen Aides (approximately thirteen in number)
is scheduled to serve only for six or seven months during the Testing
Phase, but some of these may serve longer than this , in order to help
train the first full group of Citizen Aides scheduled for a year's service
under the islandwide system (approximately forty in number). These
two groups will have a still more important function to perform when
they return to their agencies after service as Citizen Aides. The Governor
and the Citizen Feedback management team should make it clear to all
agency heads, as soon as possible, that once the Citizen Feedback System
has been operating for several months out of La Fortaleza, the field stations
and the mobile units, then certain features of the System should be in¬
corporated into internal agency procedures. For example, all government
employees who have any dealings with citizens should be required to use the
Public Service Handbook to make direct referrals outside of their areas of
responsibilities. Also, by the middle of 1971, all citizen contacts with
government could be accounted for in the citizen feedback reporting system.
Otherwise, these reports will not fully serve their intended purpose if the
great majority of citizen contacts within the agencies go unrecorded.
Agency heads should see the return of the first group of Citizen
Aides to work within their agencies as an opportunity to extend the
Citizen Feedback System in their agencies. Any particular agency
head should be interested in a greater degree of detail than the Governor
needs in feedback reports about government services provided in that
particular agency's area of responsibility. These more detailed reports
could be developed by returning Citizen Aides in a manner which is con¬
sistent with the overall feedback system.
In effect, a Government-wide Service Audit should evolve along
lines which in some sense counterbalances the financial auditing process.
The feedback reports should be a part of an evolving system of social
indicators which can be used in government planning as an indication of
the benefits of government programs just as accounting under the new
PPBS ( Planning, Programming and Budgeting System) can be used to
better indicate the true costs of such programs.
In the short-run, the Citizen Feedback System encourages more
cross communication within the existing government structure. In the
long run, this system should help foster fundamental reforms in that
structure. It is difficult to specify what all those structural reforms
might amount to. Government—by-information and a restructuring of
economic incentives might come to replace a multitude of underutilized
- 47 -
government services.
Liberals of the past few decades have failed to appreciate the value
and cost of information. When the market information system failed to
provide certain needed public services, all too often the insufficient
response was to "have government do it." Government may come to
see its role more as supplementing the market information system
with a government stimulated information system and by providing
needed economic resources to the underprivileged through the negative
income tax and needed economic incentives to private enterprise to curb
pollution and other environmental excesses. If so, then a citizen feed¬
back system may become a primary function of government, with public
services being provided more outside of a government which stimulates
and guides, but does not attempt to operate so many services.
- 48 -
appendix a: implementation schedule
testing phase
Feb.
28
Opinion Feedback Operation Plan Finished
Apr.
15
Reporting System Operating Operating
Apr.
30
Mobile Unit Planned
May
15
Public Announcement of Testing Phase Detail
May
30
Talent Bank (Test Model) Completed
May
30
Mobile Unit Ready for Operation
May
30
Automated Handbook Study Completed
May
31
Opinion Feedback Experiment Done
June
1
Listening Post Experiment Carried Out
June
15
Talent Bank Operational
operational phase
J une
15
Selection of 40 New Citizen Aides completed
Construction of 9 New Feedback Stations Started
July
6
Start Citizen Aide Training Program
July
24
Complete 12 Feedback Stations and 5 Mobile Units
July
24
Training of 40 Citizen Aides Finished
July
27 - 31
One Week of On-The-Job Training for New Citizen Aides
Aug.
3
Old Citizen Aides Return to Agencies
Aug.
3-31
New Citizen Aides Familiarize Themselves with Operating
Feedback Stations
Sept.
1
Publicity Campaign Begins
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APPENDIX B: PARTICIPANTS
Mrs. Esther M. Adams - Secretary
Mr. Thomas Anzalota HerneCndez - Citizen Aide
Mr. Anastasio Ayala - Citizen Aide
Mr. Donald Bartlett - Manager, Governors Information Room
Mrs. Amelia Bermddez - Secretary
Mr. Alfonso M. Christian - Project Director
Mrs. Mary Coleman de Santiago - Secretary
Mr. Josd A. Ddvila Jr. - Citizen Aide
Mr. Jesus M. Delgado - Citizen Aide
Mr. Paul Greenlee - Technical Services
Mr. Nigel Gusdorf - Summer Intern
Miss Blanca Herrero - Secretary
Mrs. Myrta Herrero de Rodriguez - Secretary
Mr. Rafael Hill - Printer
Mr. David Hoover - Project Coordinator
Mr. Radl Irizarry Pagdn - Citizen Aide
Dr. Luis F. Iturrino - Liaison, Governor's Staff Coordinator
Dr. John Little - Project Advisor
Miss Felicita Marrero Rivera - Secretary
Mr. Wilfredo Morales - Project Administrator
Mr. Luis F. Nieves - Citizen Aide
Mr. Miguel A. Nin Palmer - Citizen Aide
Mr. Marcelino Pagdn - Field Coordinator of Citizen Aides
Mr. Fernando Pou Estapd - Citizen Aide
Mr. Raymundo Rivera Esquilih - Citizen Aide
Mr. Angel Luis Robles - Citizen Aide
Mr. Gregorio Rodriguez Cancel - Citizen Aide
Mr. Luis Salgado - Summer Intern
S. 1. T. A, , Inc. - Consultants on the Public Service Manual
Mr. George Sommaripa - Consultant on Opinion Feedback
Dr. Chandler Harrison Stevens - Project Initiator and Advisor
Mr. Daniel Tover - Citizen Aide Trainer
Mr. Peter Tropp - HUD Coordinator
Mr. Arthur Zimmerman - Technical Coordinator
A Citizen Feedback System Review Panel was held on November 7,1969,
at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of Harvard and M. I. T. University. The
participants made valuable suggestions for the System's development. The
participants were:
Dr. Robert C. Wood - Director, Harvard-MIT Joint Center
for Urban Studies
- 50 -
Dr. Ithiel D. Poole - Professor of Political Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Raymond Bauer - Professor of Business Administration
Harvard University
Dr. Lisa R. Peattie - Associate Professor of Urban Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Gary Marx
- Professor of Social Relations
Harvard University