Albany unveils Access Albany 3-1-1 app; first-year subscription about $39,383

City staff presented Access Albany, a new 3‑1‑1 and service‑request platform powered by CivicPlus (SeeClickFix) during the Aug. 14 Albany Utility Board meeting and outlined features, rollout timing and pricing.

Ms. Monk, who led the presentation, said the app (branded Access Albany) offers automatic routing of requests (potholes to public works, tall grass to code enforcement), geo‑routing to differentiate city vs. county requests, real‑time status updates for registered users, an anonymous submission option, duplicate‑request suppression and multilingual support. She demonstrated the user flow (address autocompletion, optional photo upload and structured questions) and internal dashboard capabilities for KPIs by ward.

Nicole Sprawl, the 3‑1‑1 call‑center supervisor, explained that once a constituent submits a ticket it will route to the appropriate department and, if not completed within a department‑set SLA, escalate to a supervisor. Staff said the legacy QAlert app will be removed from app stores beginning Sept. 1 and publicly deactivated Oct. 1 to allow open tickets to clear, while staff will retain backend access to historical data.

Mister Dawson and other board members asked about ownership, customization and integration. Staff said CivicPlus/SeeClickFix retains ownership of the product but the city can extensively customize workflows and embed links; staff also said they will negotiate integration options where possible. The first‑year subscription price cited in the meeting was $39,382.58 with a planned 5% uplift in subsequent years; staff indicated they will bring the contract to the commission for approval.

Next steps: staff will move the subscription contract to the commission for approval, begin a marketing campaign in September, and continue to test and refine the soft‑launched app before the public deactivation of QAlert on Oct. 1.