New data released by a freshman Cleveland City Council member confirms an unwritten, unglamorous rule of city politics: Whether they like it or not, council members have become Cleveland鈥檚 de facto customer service department.
According to the report by Ward 12鈥檚 Rebecca Maurer, residents often bypass the city鈥檚 311 phone line and direct nuisance complaints instead to their council members 鈥� even if council has no formal role in solving the problem.
鈥淐ouncil offices manage a really high volume of calls,鈥� Maurer told 海角破解版. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not just responding to complicated resident issues, neighborhood problems. We鈥檙e the front line of defense for basic city services like replacing garbage bins.鈥�
By Maurer鈥檚 count, her office receives nine requests for service each day for such problems as illegally dumped garbage, wide-open abandoned homes and high grass in vacant lots. By contrast, Cleveland鈥檚 311 line averages five-and-a-half calls a day reporting issues in Ward 12.
In her first 110 days on council, Maurer鈥檚 office received more than 1,000 requests for service, the report found. But almost 91% of those calls didn鈥檛 require a council member鈥檚 involvement, by her estimation. Instead, Maurer had to cajole city service departments to respond to the problems, adding to their hefty workload.
In one example highlighted in the report, Maurer wrote that it took four months and 26 emails to six different offices to fix a single lamppost in her ward.
鈥淲e鈥檙e asking, 鈥楶retty please, fit this into your already busy schedule,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e making it less efficient, too, for the city to actually get through the work.鈥�
The deluge of quality-of-life complaints also gets in the way of council members鈥� other work, making it harder to work on policy legislation or bring new businesses to the ward, she said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want anyone to read this report and think that I don鈥檛 want to hear from my residents. That could not be further from the truth,鈥� Maurer said. 鈥淲hat I want is better services for my residents. I want them to be able to call one place and actually get the responses that they need.鈥�
Mayor Justin Bibb has also said he wants a 鈥渙ne-stop shop鈥� for city service complaints. During last year鈥檚 campaign, he said he wanted residents to be able to track their service requests as they would an online purchase.
When Bibb took office, one of the city鈥檚 complaint lines 鈥� the Mayor鈥檚 Action Center 鈥� was unstaffed, Now, calls to the action center redirect to 311.
The mayor鈥檚 press secretary, Marie Zickefoose, wrote in an email to Ideastream that the administration appreciated Maurer鈥檚 work and also wanted to reduce the volume of calls to council offices.
鈥淪ince day one, we have been evaluating 311 鈥� identifying process improvements, investments in technology, increased staffing, expanded partnerships and better communication,鈥� Zickefoose wrote. 鈥淲e are currently developing a comprehensive plan to improve service delivery, responsiveness, and public awareness of 311.鈥�
The administration plans to create a 鈥渃itizen-facing鈥� digital portal that will allow the city to follow up with residents about complaints. The project would include service request data, resident surveys and an artificial intelligence 鈥渃hatbot,鈥� according to a summary from the city鈥檚 information technology commissioner that Zickefoose shared with Ideastream.
A request for proposals to begin that work is expected to be released later this year.
Maurer鈥檚 report diagnosed four problems that have led, over the years, to the city鈥檚 predicament. One, city departments don鈥檛 always communicate directly with residents. Two, council members have encouraged residents to call them first. Three, the city lacks the resources to handle service complaints quickly. And four, outdated city systems don鈥檛 manage those resources efficiently.
She is proposing a campaign to spread the word about 311 to Cleveland residents. Council members and the mayor鈥檚 administration must also be on the same page about how complaints should be handled, she wrote.
And finally, the city should start by tackling a few key problems that lead to a high volume of calls, taking a first step toward changing the City Hall鈥檚 communication culture, she wrote.
For example, the city faces a backlog of requests for new garbage bins, which has been exacerbated by supply chain delays, Maurer said. She even illustrated her report with a photo of her neighbor鈥檚 broken black garbage bin, now held together with a tourniquet of duct tape.
But the city has left residents in the dark about this backlog, and council members have made themselves the middle-man between neighbors and the Division of Waste Collection and Disposal, she wrote.
Instead, the city could send out mailers about the delays, direct residents to 311 and work with council to appropriate money to stock up on new bins, the report says.
Maurer thanked the city workforce in her report, writing that it was City Hall鈥檚 procedures 鈥� not employees 鈥� that needed to change.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e been trying to keep this city glued together, almost like one of those garbage bins, over years of just not enough resources, not enough time, not enough support,鈥� Maurer said of city workers. 鈥淚 want to make the job for our workers easier, smoother. I want them to know what to expect on a daily basis.鈥�
