Now you can request and track city services on the Internet.  The
automation of government has begun.  Yes, you can still call, but you
might be on hold for 10 minutes before talking to someone who will read
the same computer screen to you that you can find on the Internet.

Kelly


Chicago Sun Times
Need a city pothole fixed? Now, just point and click

July 11, 2001

BY FRAN SPIELMAN CITY HALL REPORTER

Callers to 311--whose No. 1 plea to the city is to get rid of abandoned
vehicles--can now click for service on the Internet and monitor the
responses, Mayor
Daley said Tuesday.

More than 3 million residents dial up the city's non-emergency number
each year. The three top requests for help concern abandoned vehicles at
90,358 calls,
followed by graffiti (68,608), tree trims (46,406), immediate tow
(44,431) and clean catch basin/gutter box (41,373).

The computer access "is a major re-engineering of the way service is
delivered to citizens," said Chris O'Brien, the city's chief information
officer.

Ten months after ordering a 311 shakeup in response to a barrage of
complaints, Daley pronounced the reforms a success and took steps to take
the load off
the city's 61 call-takers.

Instead of calling 311, a city department or aldermen, Chicago residents
and businesses can use computers to go to www.cityof chicago.org, the
all-purpose
city Web site that has fast become what O'Brien likes to call a
"municipal mall on the Web."

Those who click on the words "request a city service" will be asked to
chose from a pop-up menu of the 25 most popular services.

After typing in their name along with the address of the broken street
light, pothole or stray animal, computer users will get a computer
tracking number
that can be used to monitor the city's response. It's the same system
that City Hall uses to generate work orders and spot trends that
underscore a larger
problem.

The Daley administration released a list of the 25 most frequently
requested city services by 311 callers for the first six months of this
year at a City
Hall news conference.

The latest in a series of Internet services was quietly made available in
mid-April.

Since then, City Hall has received 1,000 service requests-- enough to
give Daley the confidence to go public with the latest advance in a 311
system that
has succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.

"The naysayers were very strong 2 1/2 years ago [when 311 went online].
They said it would never work," Daley said. "[But] it's clear that
Chicagoans have
embraced the 311 number."

Even with the Internet, the mayor said he does not foresee the day when
call-takers will no longer be necessary.

"A lot of people want to talk to someone. You need the human side," he
said.

Last fall, Daley hired 19 more operators and created a Cabinet-level
department headed by Ted O'Keefe, project manager of the city's community
policing
program, in response to a steady rise of 311 calls and complaints that
bureaucrats too often drop the ball on service requests.

A handful of aldermen said they have no problem with diverting service
requests to the Internet.

"We receive hundreds of phone calls every day asking for things to get
done. I say, the more forces you have at work, the better off we all are
as a city,"
said Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th).


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