A Threefold 'Thank You' to Los Angeles
Canter's & Ice Cream Sandwich Could Live in Perfect Harmony
Dear Los Angeles: I'm Thankful For...
-thumb-110x110-213475.jpg)
A Photo Gallery of the Things I am Grateful for This Year
7 Reasons to Love L.A.
In every budget, there is give and take, there are sacrifices and there are unintended consequences. When you add 100 more police officers or 20 new traffic control officers at bad intersections, something has to go. In the case of this year's city budget proposal from the mayor, the tree trimming cycle goes to 10 years (it really should be 3-5 and is currently at 8) and 3-1-1's graveyard shift go R.I.P. But more devastating is the cut of the development of 3-1-1's Citywide Service Request System, known as Phase II of the 3-1-1/E-Government Services Project.
Imagine a world such as this:
Phase II in particular is a critical next step in providing improved service to the public and better information for the City's elected officials and department heads to manage City resources more efficiently. The Citywide Service Request System (CSRS), when fully implemented, will enable anyone to simply call 3-1-1 to request any City service (pothole repair, bulky item pickup, street light out, etc). The 3-1-1 Call Center agents will be able to enter the service request into a centralized computer system, which will automatically route the service request to the appropriate department. Departments will have pre-set deadlines for responding to various types of service requests. Departments will schedule the work in CSRS and, after the work is completed, will log the completion date and time into CSRS.
The CSRS will allow anyone to submit requests over the Internet. People who have requested a service will be able to check the status of their service request. They can also call 3-1-1 to find out the status. Elected officials will be able to see all the service requests made in their district or anywhere in the City and can easily track the status on behalf of their constituents. Department heads will have a timely, effective tool for monitoring service requests to ensure that staff and equipment are scheduled appropriately to meet the deadlines. (Bill Fujioka, 04/20/05)
Without a system like this, the city is as good as a bunch of chickens running around with their heads chopped off. Each department has their own way of taking service requests, but the system as a whole is broken. With the new system, the city can be more efficient and fiscally lean in the long-term.
3-1-1's evolution to Phase II is critical to constituent services. Without it, the citizens are left in the dark.
Photo by brykmantra via Flickr.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Gah! This is like the 50/50 thing the Bureau of Street Services got rid of (neighbors put up 50% of the funds, and the BSS takes care of their problem). Or the LADWP's crime-fightin' public lighting thing (you pay a small monthly fee, and the LADWP puts up a light on one of their poles to illuminate a dark area).
The programs that work, sometimes get killed with extreme prejudice. Our local government in L.A. is not always designed to serve us - I guess this is just one more example of that. It is designed to keep people working for the city employed, and to let the winners in our city keep winning. The rest of us can get stuffed.
Thanks for the commetn ubrayj02. Just to clarify, DWP's Private Lighting program does still exist. And if you are referrning to the 50/50 Sidewalk Repair program, that still exists too, but it has been so successful, there is a waiting list and they might have cut the waiting list off until this next budget year.
Or maybe I am not aware, did they cut 50/50 and Private Lighting in this year's budget? I did not see that.
Come on, you write like some grave injustice is about to happen and the city will be worse off for this decision.
I'm sure it'll be great when CSRS is implemented but my experience with the 311 system has been great so far. The loss of the graveyard shift is far more of a concern to me. The last time I called 311 was around 11pm, when I noticed a sewer grate that had broken in half, fallen into the sewer and left a dangerous pit in the road. As I finished the call, a car pulled up. I signaled the driver and yelled "don't park here!!" He didn't listen and the front corner of the car dropped into the sewer. He backed out, car looked ok. I pulled down one of those signs used to direct film crew to sets and set it up like a warning cone. The grate was fixed by noon the next day.
It'll be nice to get all the departments automated on the same system, but until then I'm sure we'll be fine.