People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process Romania Lucian Ovidiu Micu- Mayor of Roman City May 16, 2017

ROMAN CITY occupies a strategic position in the north- east People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process 1. A BRIEF PRESENTATION ROMAN CITY occupies a strategic position in the north- east region of Romania, a convergence zone for many important European, national and regional communications. Inhabitants: 71.254 Area of 29 km2 Education: 17 schools and 11.938 students Culture: four museums, public libraries, cultural associations and foundations ROMAN

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process Economic and business environment: Roman city has a tertiary-side economics, the prevailing industrial activities, trade and services. 1600 companies are registered here. Roman City can produce by itself the electricity needed to power public lighting, becoming the first local government in the Romania that owns and produces electricity using micro-hydropower plant on the Moldova river. International cooperation: Roman Municipality has signed contracts along time, also made-peace pacts and several partnerships with : Cortona – Italiy, Tielt – Belgium, Grugliasco – Italiy, Gedera – Israel, Kameneț-Podilskiy – Ucraine, Dilijan – Armenian Republic, Ștefan Vodă – Moldavian Republic and Sunchang – South Korea.

2. PROJECT BACKGROUND Citizen involvement in the public policy process has become locally established to ensure success in implementing measures. Good governance is characterized by participation, transparency, accountability, rule of law, efficiency. The "PEOPLE FROM ROMAN DECIDE!" - Assessing citizens' satisfaction and their involvement in the decision of the process making, developed by Roman City offered citizens a platform to express clear opinions about the quality and integrity of public services. People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process 3. The project started with the following identified problems: The low level of involvement of citizens from expressing their opinions on improving the quality and integrity of public services, in defining strategic visions or regarding consultation in decision-making. Lack of institutional practices polling citizen satisfaction level to broaden the possibility of anonymous complaint by any person outside the institution, the irregularities and possible corruption regarding the quality and integrity of public services. Reduced mechanism for identifying vulnerable sectors to corruption.

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process 4. THE MAIN OBJECTIVES : Debt Integrity, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency; Promote good governance and the participation of citizens in decision-making at local level; Increase degree of motivating citizens to improve the quality and integrity of services within the institution; Development Mentality citizen participatory development and public administration reform; Modernization of the organizational management of the institution by taking citizens' proposals; Develop efficiency mechanisms to prevent corruption in public services and public interest.

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process We chose to monitor satisfaction questionnaire for citizens and not another instrument because it is practical, fast and handy to answer questions that set up the evolution of the community. Satisfaction questionnaire was posted electronically to citizens www.primariaroman.ro site, where it was accessed and completed online by the people from Roman, but it also could be found printed on the Unique Office. Through the questionnaire that contained 10 questions (7 closed questions and three open questions), citizens were able to mark the Municipality Roman activity evaluation.

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process Media coverage - Assessment of citizens' satisfaction and their involvement in decision-making was done through press releases, press conferences held by the mayor on the institution's website www. primariaroman.ro and on society. Questionnaires were centralized quarterly / annually and analyzed by management in order to sense where there is a problem. By involving citizens in evaluating and modernizing local government activities, it was made a first step toward developing participative mentality of the citizen.

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process 5. The project carried out resulted in: Increasing transparency in the decision making process of the institution;  Improving the quality of public services provided by local government; Awareness, the civil servant, the perceptions and proposals of served citizens; Modernization of the organizational management of the institution by taking citizens' proposals; Decrease of written petitions and complaints expressed by citizens through the questionnaire were resolved by functional structures where citizens have reported various problems; Applied analysis of risks and vulnerabilities to corruption and remedial measures; Integrated Development Strategy by actively involving citizens; The questionnaire proved to be a tool to support decision-making for the purposes of modeling and adapting solutions to the current needs of society.

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process 6. Joining forces and breaking silo’s towards a better performing, transparent and inclusive public administration The development of Europe as well as globally development, creates challenges for the public sector. On the one hand, citizens and businesses have high expectations in terms of service, accessibility and efficient administration. On the other hand, resources are limited. The project presented is a tool that can be choose in order to achieve a better and more efficient administration. Electronic media is part of e-government, providing a specific potential to develop more efficient ways, centered on the citizen, of public service designed to break barriers and lead to an efficient public administration, that is transparent and inclusive.

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process Public administrations from everywhere must provide effective and inclusive services that are available to all. We believe that the activities presented are very powerful and they can become, for example, by acquisition and adaptation models of territorial insurance plan of good governance, self-evaluation for the public institutions to improve the quality of services, information management in relation with citizens and ensure transparency through partnerships with civil society representatives.

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process 7. OPTIONS FOR FUTURE Effective to address the problems identified by citizens and improving their perception about the quality of provided services, envisages the following: Further probing and satisfaction citizens; Sending ratio satisfaction citizens to functional structures where people have reported various problems and suggestions submitted; Informing citizens about the measures implemented on proposals; Prioritizing community in development programs based on ideas and projects identified through the questionnaire; Improve document management, which will allow an easier radiography and streamline their activities; Develop a mechanism for identifying vulnerabilities to corruption and ensure transparency and integrity of the administrative act. 

People from Roman decide People from Roman decide! Assessing citizens’ satisfaction and their involvement in decisional process

Thank You Lucian Ovidiu Micu Contact Roman, Roman Voda Square, No. 1 Romania Phone: +40740076428 E-mail:primar@primariaroman.ro