City rolls out Access Albany 3‑1‑1 app; staff outlines features and first‑year cost

Miss Monk and colleagues showcased the new Access Albany 3‑1‑1 app (CivicPlus/SeeClickFix) and explained it will replace the legacy QAlert system for public service requests. The presentation highlighted automatic routing of issue types by department, geo‑routing between Albany and Daugherty County using GIS, real‑time status updates for registered users, anonymous submissions for those who prefer not to register, multilingual support, customizable dashboards and internal work‑order integration.

Nicole Sprawl, 3‑1‑1 call center supervisor, explained that a ticket entered by a resident will route automatically to the appropriate department and to a supervisor if SLAs are not met; she said departments can set their own escalation rules. Staff said the app and website are soft‑launched; staff will begin a hard launch and media campaign in September (TV, social, billboards, local access channel). They said the legacy QAlert app will be removed from app stores starting Sept. 1 and public access to QAlert will be deactivated Oct. 1 (staff will retain back‑end access while contracts remain active).

Staff disclosed an initial annual subscription cost of roughly $39,382.58 for year one with a typical 5% annual uplift thereafter; the CivicPlus arrangement was described as an annual subscription with options to consider longer multi‑year terms later. Board members asked about ownership, API/access to source code and potential interfaces with the city’s AMI/other systems. City IT said the vendor retains the application code but the portal can be embedded or linked from other city apps and offers rich customization for business processes.