RESOLUTION No. 36968

Establish City’s intent to create a 311 Non-emergency Call Center (Resolution)

WHEREAS, in June of 2006, the Bureau of Emergency Communications first introduced the concept of a 311 Non-emergency Call Center as a means to provide a single point of contact for the community requesting information or services; and

WHEREAS, the City has operated a City/County Information and Referral Services, 503-823-4000, providing a “one call to City Hall” number since 1994 to facilitate access to local government services; and

WHEREAS, 311 provides one easy to remember number to access all non-emergency city services; and

WHEREAS, dialing 311 will virtually eliminate calling wrong numbers and reduce the need for callers to be transferred – saving time and resources for both the City and the community; and

WHEREAS, of the nearly one million calls received by the Bureau of Emergency Communications in 2011, at least 30% were considered to be non-emergency and could have been handled by a 311 Non-emergency Call Center; and

WHEREAS, having non-emergency calls directed to a 311 call center will reduce call wait times at the 9-1-1 Emergency Call Center, making 9-1-1 responses more efficient and effective; and

WHEREAS, 311 will provide our community with easy access to City bureaus and City services, allowing their requests to be tracked and monitored until resolution; and

WHEREAS, the 311 system can serve as an important municipal tool to identify on-going problems that are repeatedly reported in neighborhoods; and

WHEREAS, the 311 system will allow bureaus and the general public to monitor performance based on detailed call response data, which will assist in keeping our government responsive, efficient and transparent; and

WHEREAS, our community will be better served by a 311 Non-emergency Call

Center and realize better City services in both emergency and non-emergency situations; and

WHEREAS, more than 80 cities throughout the United States, including Minneapolis, San Francisco and Los Angeles have instituted successful 311 contact centers and have realized more efficient city service delivery to both emergency and non- emergency requests; and

WHEREAS,  other cities have successfully used the 311 call centers as a way of addressing the collective needs of the entire city and have also seen greater cooperation among various city departments where it had never existed in the past; and

WHEREAS, implementing a 311 service will enhance the city’s emergency management plans and response for post-disaster information dissemination and relief of the 911CallCentercall load; and

WHEREAS, The Bureau of Emergency Communications allocated $400,000 in the Fiscal Year 2012-13 budget to hire a consultant to prepare an implementation plan for the City.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,  that City leadership will support a citywide effort to look at current service delivery efforts and how these efforts could be improved with the implementation of a 311 and common customer relationship management system; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City directs the Bureau of Emergency Communications and Commissioner Fritz to form a citywide advisory committee, made up of staff and community members, to ensure that City bureaus’ needs and concerns, as well as those of the community at large, are addressed; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the citywide advisory committee will work with the 311 steering committee and the consultant in devising an implementation plan that ensures a successful organization wide implementation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City is committed to learning from best practices of those cities that have already implemented 311 systems while tailoring our approach to the individual needs of our city and its community members.