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File #: 060745    Version: 0 Name:
Type: Resolution Status: ADOPTED
File created: 10/5/2006 In control: Committees on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight
On agenda: Final action:
Title: Authorizing City Council's joint Committees on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight to hold hearings on whether the City should establish a 311 Constituent Contact Center to unburden the current 911 emergency call center and make Philadelphia more responsive to it citizens' concerns.
Sponsors: Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember Rizzo, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember Miller, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Krajewski, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember Ramos, Councilmember Clarke, Councilmember DiCicco
Attachments: 1. Resolution No. 06074500.pdf

Title

Authorizing City Council’s joint Committees on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight to hold hearings on whether the City should establish a 311 Constituent Contact Center to unburden the current 911 emergency call center and make Philadelphia more responsive to it citizens’ concerns.

Body

WHEREAS, Many cities throughout the United States, including New York, Chicago and Baltimore, have instituted enormously successful 311 contact centers and have realized more efficient city services to both emergency and non- emergency complaints; and

 

WHEREAS, Other cities have successfully used the 311 call centers as a way of addressing the collective needs of the entire city and have also seen greater cooperation among various city departments where it had never existed in the past; and

 

WHEREAS, 311 call centers provide the public with quick, easy access to all government services and information and provide insight into ways to improve City government through accurate, consistent measurement and analysis of service delivery citywide; and

 

WHEREAS, As in other cities, 311 call center features may include calls answered by a live operator, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and immediate access to language translation services; and

 

WHEREAS, In 2005, there were 3.28 million calls received by 911 operators, many of which were non-emergency and could have been handled by a 311 Constituent Contact Center, thus taking pressure of the 911 emergency call center; and

 

WHEREAS, Our citizens may be better served by a 311 Constituent Contact Center and realize better City services in both emergency and non-emergency situations and should have both options available to them within the near future; now therefore

 

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That authority be given to the joint Committees on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight to hold hearings on whether the City should establish a 311 Constituent Contact Center to unburden the current 911 emergency call center and make Philadelphia more responsive to it citizens’ concerns.

End