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Council and staff agree to fix customer‑service triage and reduce operational calls to elected officials
Summary
Councilmembers said they're often contacted directly about operational problems; staff said bypassing departments disrupts queues. Speakers proposed 311 improvements, automated routing, and public education so operational requests go to staff, not elected officials.
Multiple councilmembers described receiving frequent calls about operational matters and expressed a desire to be more strategic. One councilmember summarized the concern: "I don't want my mayor and council getting those requests...I want it coming to staff and coming up the chain" (Committee member, S4).
Staff acknowledged existing tracking systems for calls in some departments but said misrouted calls and social‑media escalation often create duplicate work and delayed responses. Participants discussed practical fixes including technology improvements to the call center (311), automated routing links, and clearer public messaging directing residents to the correct operational point of contact. A staff speaker said that if the city could route issues correctly, "we can get a great deliverable by the time budgets are in place where our dollars match priorities." (Staff member, S11)
