QUESTION
What are NYCHA’s strategies for addressing repair backlogs and vacancies, and how are staff performance evaluations being improved?
1:45:15
·
7 min
NYCHA outlines strategies for reducing repair backlogs and vacancies among property managers, superintendents, and assistant superintendents, and discusses improvements in staff performance evaluations.
- NYCHA targets critical areas for backlog reduction, focusing on plumbing and painting work orders.
- The authority has seen a decrease in the overall work order backlog, from 650,000 in May 2023 to 584,000, by prioritizing health and safety repairs.
- Efforts include reallocating painting resources to boroughs and verifying older paint work orders through 'Operation Paint the Town.'
- Staff performance evaluation processes are limited by contractual terms, with ongoing efforts to implement a more structured system.
- Almost all current vacancies for property managers, superintendents, and assistant superintendents have identified candidates starting soon.
Gale Brewer
1:45:15
First of all, just I know we talked about some of the numbers, but what is NIOSH's current repair backlog.
1:45:21
That's 1.
1:45:22
And then how many vacancies because this is related, I think, this night to have for the following job titles.
1:45:29
Property manager superintendent and assistant superintendent, and then I I assume there are some vacancies.
1:45:36
So who's filling them?
1:45:37
And then can you explain how you review the job performance of supervisors and assistance supervisors and have the staff evaluation changed due to the recent scandals.
UNKNOWN
1:45:51
Thank you for those questions,
Lisa Bova Hiatt
1:45:52
Trevor.
1:45:53
I'm going to turn it over to Dan Green, who's going to walk walk you through first your first question.
Gale Brewer
1:45:58
Backlog through.
1:45:59
Thank you.
Daniel Greene
1:46:03
Thank you, Chair brewer.
1:46:06
So I can do a deep dive into the I love talking about the work orders.
1:46:10
I can do a deep dive into the backlog.
1:46:12
The backlog is high, but it's complicated.
1:46:16
And I I just wanna just give some context first.
1:46:19
So last month alone, we saw 229,000 work orders created at night, just in 1 month.
1:46:27
The month before that, we had over 200,000 work orders created.
1:46:31
The month before that, we had 211,000 work orders.
1:46:34
So on and so forth.
1:46:35
So every single month, we're getting a very high volume of work.
1:46:39
That we have to do.
1:46:41
I will say proudly for our main for what I supervised, I supervised maintenance, I supervised lead, I supervised mold, and I supervised all the skilled trades.
1:46:50
For all the properties.
1:46:51
We are meeting our monthly burden for for what is coming in.
1:46:57
And that is a really good thing.
1:46:58
We've been really pushing, and I think the neighborhood model that we move through the transportation, the transformation plan along with the additional staffing.
1:47:06
Helping us meet that benchmark for our in house work orders.
1:47:11
Where we have challenges with getting to the backlog during COVID I think we crested.
1:47:17
So we just to get into overall numbers, in May 2023, we crested at and this is for all work order types, including for heating, for elevators, 650,000 in May 2023.
1:47:30
Today, we're down to 584,000.
1:47:33
So just in the past 10 months and that was at the end of January, we've been able to really bring that work order backlog down.
1:47:42
One of the main ways that we've done that is targeting the most critical work orders.
1:47:46
We've gone after leaks, old leaks, We've gone after old motor mediation.
1:47:52
We've gone after things called tub enclosures, which are in our bathrooms, which cause leaks Yep.
1:47:57
And through those concerted efforts.
1:47:59
It's we've been able to bring that backlog down.
1:48:01
And I would note that we worked on the with the Bias monitors to develop those criteria to target our backlog.
1:48:08
Because the bottom line is not all work orders are created equal.
1:48:10
Some of the a lot of the old work orders are paint work orders, and that that's it's really paint after repair.
1:48:16
And right now, we simply don't have enough nitrile painters or vendors to be able to cover all of the painting that work orders that have been created.
1:48:25
So we're targeting areas where health and safety is paramount, where resident quality of life is paramount, and we are seeing number 1, us meeting that monthly throughput.
1:48:35
And number 2, so that the backlog does not grow.
1:48:38
And number 2, we want to target that those backlog work orders in those most sensitive areas.
1:48:43
And I I can say, for example, in Manhattan alone, we dramatically reduced the number of plumbing work orders open in Manhattan I'll just pull up the numbers just quickly here because I think that they are illustrative of some of the work that we're doing It's cooperating.
1:48:59
So but for plumbing alone, in Manhattan.
1:49:09
At the height in July 2022, We had 6750 plumbing work orders open in in Manhattan.
1:49:17
That was that was the Crest.
1:49:18
It actually was a little bit higher than what before.
1:49:21
606,814.
1:49:24
As of today, we have 3626 plumbing work orders open in all of our Manhattan developments.
1:49:32
And that's with over 1600 plumbing work orders being created every single month.
1:49:37
So we're bringing so we're actually getting to our plumbing work a lot faster now.
1:49:41
I mean, we see similar trends in in in the trades.
1:49:44
But I give a long answer because work order data, sometimes we see the number and people say, oh my goodness, that's the worst.
1:49:51
It's actually actually, we have to be very smart about it and use our resources very strategically.
1:49:56
And, again, make sure that we're we're not adding to that backlog institution.
Gale Brewer
1:49:59
I appreciate that.
1:50:00
When you say you because plumbers, you just don't have an I mean, painters, you just don't have enough painters.
1:50:04
Is that what you're Yeah.
Daniel Greene
1:50:04
And we are we are so one thing that was we're gonna be doing is we're we're gonna trans we're gonna be moving some painters that were in a central department back out to our boroughs.
1:50:12
They were they were pulled centrally to deal with some of the really, a lot of lead issues back a few years ago Mhmm.
1:50:18
Now that we have full blown abatement program, removing those resources back out to the boroughs.
1:50:22
So we really our pager backlog is coming down too, but not as quickly as as things like plumbing.
1:50:27
So we wanna We wanna add those resources to our neighborhoods to be able to do more paying work orders.
1:50:33
We all started this year a project called Operation Paid the Town.
1:50:38
Which is still evolving.
1:50:40
But basically, we're going after those very old vendor paint work orders.
1:50:43
So our nitrile painters They only get assigned to do two rooms or fewer, and then vendors are assigned to do full apartment painting.
1:50:51
That's the way that the work has been divided for Nitro for many, many, many years.
1:50:55
But we're so we really wanna target those older full apartment paint work orders.
1:51:00
Number 1, to see if the work is still needed.
1:51:02
Sometimes the residents might just say I'm gonna paint the apartment myself.
1:51:05
Or maybe maybe they actually it was created for another reason, and they actually don't need a vendor work order.
1:51:09
We're doing verification, but then we also wanna get that work done.
1:51:12
I would note that that's really not micro purchase work.
1:51:14
We have paying contracts and and things of that nature, maybe a couple micro purchases here and there, but mostly it's through paying contracts.
1:51:20
But again, strategic targeting of critical areas is essential to bring that backlog down.
Gale Brewer
1:51:26
Okay.
1:51:27
Thank you.
1:51:27
And then vacancies.
Daniel Greene
1:51:29
Yeah.
1:51:29
Let me just find it.
1:51:30
I have all those numbers.
1:51:31
I just gotta pull it up in this.
Lisa Bova Hiatt
1:51:32
I have it handy.
1:51:33
Oh, yeah.
Chris Banks
1:51:33
I have it handy.
1:51:34
Yeah.
Lisa Bova Hiatt
1:51:34
Just Please.
1:51:36
So currently, we have 15 property managers that are a vacant, 8 superintendents, 25 sister in superintendents.
1:51:48
All but 10 have candidates starting on May 4th or sooner.
1:51:54
And as you can imagine, we were fortunate to be able to work collaboratively with DOE.
1:52:00
So once we knew the titles that were needed.
1:52:04
Our HR department has really been working to get these vacancies filled.
Gale Brewer
1:52:09
Okay.
1:52:10
And then I have you changed the staff evaluations based on what's the scandal.
1:52:14
That's my last question.
Daniel Greene
1:52:17
I I welcome more ability to evaluate our staff.
1:52:21
Right now, those rules are pretty prescriptive due to some of the some of the contracts.
1:52:27
And as you go as a good negotiate over time, there's really, you know, just a provisional period that we have that opportunity.
1:52:32
We need more evaluations.
1:52:33
I can say that myself, I'm at a nitrile property every single day, literally for an entire day.
1:52:39
So we are assessing staff.
1:52:41
We're making moves.
1:52:42
Where we see the staff falling short on quality of work, performance, etcetera.
1:52:50
But we do I do support the more structured evaluation process at night, and hopefully we can get there one day.