ISSUE No. 6/1999

Five Bulgarian Municipalities Implement Pilot Innovative Initiatives For Better Services To Citizens

by Bill Guerrant, Consultant, Local Government Initiative and

Bogdana Sultanova, LGI

In the beginning of 1998, five Bulgarian municipalities established a team, which committed itself to "make local self-government an effective and friendly provider of information and services to the citizens". Representatives of the Municipalities of Blagoevgrad, Dobrich, Gabrovo, Haskovo and Stara Zagora, the Foundation for Local Government Reform and the Association of the Bulgarian Black Sea Municipalities joined in the Customer Service Team for improving services to citizens. The team, supported by the Local Government Initiative (LGI) Program of the US Agency for International Development and the Foundation for Local Government Reform got together as a result of the widely acknowledged contemporary view about municipalities and their new role as providers of services to the citizens, as well as the understanding about the new role of citizens: not just taxpayers but also customers of municipal services.

The municipal leaderships and administrations became aware that the local governments have a great potential for improvement:

by changing the behavior of municipal staff, so that they focus their work on citizens as customers, and cultivate a friendly attitude between the municipality and the public;

by changing the attitude towards citizens as clients paying for municipal services and entitled to receive quick and effective service delivery, as well as timely and useful information;

by applying the principles of private business marketing and communication to the process of decision-making and service delivery in the public sector.

The members of the Team undertook to develop, test and share approaches that could serve as models for contemporary and effective local self-government. They started work in February 1998 with a discussion and analysis of common problems. Two months later the team visited the town of Gliwice in Poland, as a relevant, applicable in Bulgaria, example of improved information and service delivery from the municipality to the citizens. In the Municipality of Gliwice, the members of the team directly and in detail acquainted themselves with the experience of the Center for Information and Services to Citizens, which had been successfully operating for a third year already. Following the study tour to Poland, a strategy was adopted for:

focusing local government on citizens as a permanent commitment, not as a single one-time project or program;

introducing clear, visible and measurable steps, that will make services available to the citizens more easily, more quickly, with higher service delivery standards;

identifying and allocating municipal financial resources, ensuring support from partners from the private sector, for that purpose;

acquiring direct and technical assistance from donors;

developing ways and means to assess progress and share experience.

In the summer of 1998, members of the team prepared a presentation of the accumulated information and experience in a pleasant and non-traditional way. The Road Show with slides and a "live" narrative about what was seen and heard in Poland toured many towns to win followers and to challenge the municipalities all over Bulgaria. The Road Show provoked genuine interest and was presented to over 450 people at 10 different locations.

In October 1998, a second study tour took place: the Customer Service Team participated in the annual conference of the City/County Communication and Marketing Association (3CMA, USA), and visited the city of Portsmouth, VA - a model of friendly attitude to citizens. The members of the team joined the 300 communication specialists at the 10th annual conference of the 3CMA in Orlando, Florida. At a special working session during the conference they shared the Bulgarian experience in information and service delivery to citizens in front of 150 members of the 3CMA,. The team was presented with the International Savvy Award of the 3CMA for its initiatives and innovative approaches towards improving municipal services, and encouraging citizen participation in local self-government.

In Portsmouth, Virginia, members of the city administration offered to the team extensive information about the structure, authority and functions of the local government in the United States, about the concrete organization and the work of the municipal administration of Portsmouth; the municipality's strategic communications plan; the initiatives for engaging the citizens in public security programs in the schools, and the activities of the municipal staff in providing services to the citizens. The visit included an observation of a staff retreat of the municipal team as a means for problem solving, strategic planning and decision-making, as well as participation in a working session of Portsmouth City Council.

The five municipalities, represented in the Customer Service Team, keep working on the initiative for improving service delivery to the citizens. Their specific achievements so far are:

Blagoevgrad* - The municipality has entirely automated the activities related to municipal services, developed a local network, and is currently using an effective document tracing system. The chief of the IT Department responded with a consultations and sharing of experience to the numerous requests from other municipalities. A concept was developed and a plan was prepared for establishing a Center for Information and Services to Citizens. The Municipality is ready to reorganize the main lobby of its administrative building to accommodate the Center**.

Stara Zagora - In October 1998, the first Bulgarian Center for Information and Services to Citizens was inaugurated in the town. The foyer of the municipal building was reconstructed, and was equipped with automated work places, counters and information desks. Prior to the opening of the Center, its staff attended training to acquire specific skills in customer service and customer-friendly attitude. Now they assist the citizens seeking information, construction licenses and document registers, and help them on issues related to municipal property. For the sake of convenience, and also as a way to generate income for the municipality, private companies are allowed to provide banking and minor commercial and copying services on the territory of the Center. It is becoming a model of local administration, which is open and friendly to citizens. The Municipality of Stara Zagora and the Center for Information and Services to Citizens are ready to share their experience with other municipalities.

Gabrovo - Gabrovo, was the second municipality in Bulgaria to start operating its Center for Information and Services to Citizens, which was opened in May 1999. To accommodate the Center, one of the conference halls on the ground floor of the municipality was renovated, and the unused southern entrance of the municipal building was open to visitors. The Center has ten automated work stations, eleven staff members, and offers over sixty different services. The personnel of the Center and the department heads at the municipality went through a training workshop in effective and customer-friendly service. Prior to the opening of the Center, a working meeting was organized with the Stara Zagora team, at which experience in customer service was shared.

Haskovo - In March 1998, a Civil Information Center was opened. The foyer of the Municipality will be further reconstructed to make more room for the Center and to enable it to provide various municipal services and information at the same place.

Dobrich - The city council has adopted a Strategy for improving the services to the citizens, and the city s 1999 budget provides for partial financing of the design of a Center for Information and Services to Citizens. The municipality regularly consults with the population on different issues of local importance through opinion polls. In the beginning of 1999, public discussion was held on the annual budget draft for the first time in Dobrich. A catalogue of the municipal services was prepared. It is already an established practice for municipal specialists in various sectors to take part in a weekly a local radio program and answer concrete on air questions from citizens.

The Customer Service Team has established the practice of holding bi-monthly meetings, to share experience and to plan concrete future initiatives, adopting the motto "Come on!" as an abbreviated version of "We already know what to do and how to do it, so let's do it!". The Ttam invited all the Bulgarian municipalities to join the initiative for improving municipal services, and is ready to offer assistance and help all those who would risk to experiment and to introduce the new practices.

The current achievements give no ground for conceit, and the members of the team see their future in transforming the group into a Innovative Practices Team, willing to introduce and experiment leading practices in the area of local self-government and share them with the other Bulgarian municipalities. A specific intention in this direction is the introduction of an Ethical Code of elected local government officials/councilors.

The Local Government Initiative Program and the Foundation for Local Government Reform will continue to support these efforts by extending consultations, training, technical assistance to other interested municipalities and by promoting cooperation with other partners.