311 sounds like wrong number
Thu, January 17, 2008
By JONATHAN SHER, SUN MEDIA
Two city council heavyweights say Londoners want better streets and lower taxes -- not a pricey new call centre to improve customer service.
Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell and Controller Gina Barber, an unlikely pairing on board of control, weighed in yesterday on a proposed 311 city hall customer service centre.
Gosnell has conservative credentials and Barber is rooted in the New Democrats.
But both joined to oppose the call centre -- accessed by dialing 311 -- whose chief advocate is the city's chief administrative officer.
"I've had lots of calls (from constituents). They feel the accessibility with city hall is there," Barber said. "They're worried about potholes and they're worried about taxes."
"Our priorities should reflect citizens' priorities," she said.
That's also the view of Gosnell, who said Barber captured his concerns precisely.
"We're not getting calls from people demanding a call centre," Gosnell said. "It's not a bad idea, but not this year."
Barber and Gosnell face a challenge convincing their colleagues.
Council in November voted 12-5 to endorse a call centre that would cost $3.28 million to build and $1.85 million a year to operate.
To make the call centre an easier sell during city budget talks this month and next, chief administrative officer Jeff Fielding has scaled back the centre's physical size and secured a commitment from union officials to allow part-timers to work there, measures he says will cut costs.
Fielding also reduced the amount of money the city would set aside to deal with unexpected costs -- the old plans placed $636,000 in contingency funds, while the revised plans have $372,000.
The revised centre would cost $2.69 million to build and $1.7 million to run, Fielding told the board yesterday.
It could also be operated, at that price, for 77 hours a week instead of only on weekdays, he wrote in a report to the board.
That $1.7 million would be enough to fill in London's massive downtown sinkhole four times -- and countless more potholes of the routine sort.
Fielding's plan has been supported by London Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, but she says she'll reserve final judgement until all competing budget demands are laid out.
"At this point I would support it but I'm open to debate," she said.
DeCicco-Best believes a call centre would make city services faster and more effective.
The costs of a centre could be lower still, she said, if the city can place it in the same building that will house its information technology department. City staff yesterday recommended the latter be placed in an office building at 201 Queens Ave., at the southwest corner of Queens Avenue and Clarence Street.
The mayor said other cities have call centres that allow dialing one number -- 311 -- to get questions answered and requests met at city hall. Computer tracking measures how bureaucrats reply.
But until Londoners see such improvements, its harder to convince them that change is needed, DeCicco-Best said.
"It's not as tangible as a watermain that breaks. It's a tougher sell," she' said.
Fielding opposes hiring an outside firm to operate a call centre, a position shared by the union representing city workers, which has vowed to fight any such move.
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