The legislation passed city council’s Finance, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee on Monday afternoon, before later being approved at full council without any dissenting votes.
The city’s 311 system allows residents to call 311 to file non-emergency complaints (such as reporting potholes and code violations) and request information on public services. Often, residents were calling city council members, which was bogging down members with calls.
A 2022 report from Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer’s office found 91% of calls made to city councilmembers required “no council involvement,” cleveland.com reported previously.
Elizabeth Crowe, who oversees Cleveland’s data analysis department, said during the finance committee meeting that the original customer relations vendor the city was using went out of business, which forced the city to use another software that was not designed to track 311 calls for information. The current vendor, Cityworks, tracks requests to fix a pothole or to have a tree trimmed but does not track requests for information. As a result, the city is not sure what information people are typically calling in search of, Crowe said.
The city plans to improve communication by requiring vendors to offer a mobile application alongside existing services and creating reports based on what people are calling to ask about, Crowe said.
The city plans to keep the 311 staff it has, plus add two new staff members, Crowe said. Councilman Mike Polensek questioned whether that would be enough staffing, since 311 has been understaffed in the past. Crowe said it should be because the city expects more people to access the service digitally, rather than dialing 311.
“The 311 system is only going to be as good and effective as the people answering the phones,” Polensek said.
Cleveland officials had planned to overhaul the city’s 311 system before legislation was introduced that allocated ARPA dollars to the project. In September, the city published a formal request for possible vendors to submit their proposals on how to best implement the upgrades.
The city received 12 bids and has narrowed the field to two or three finalists, Crowe said.
“This is a 2023 project,” Crowe said. “We’re doing it this year, as long as council is comfortable with this.”
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