Yonkers Dispatchers to MOVE!

[Oswegowind 17]

From the Journal News Website LoHud.com

Yonkers' 311 hotline won't be answered for another year

By LEN MANIACE

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: July 5, 2007)

YONKERS - City officials acknowledged this week that residents probably won't be able to call Yonkers' proposed 311 information hotline for at least another year.

Plans to implement the 311 system, which had been slated for September of last year and then this past March, have been put on hold, said David Simpson, spokesman for Mayor Phil Amicone.

Though the introduction was initially delayed by the City Council's refusal to fund the system in 2006, the latest delay results from the city's plan to reorganize its communications operations, Simpson said. The city plans to move police and fire dispatchers, an existing city help line and an emergency response center at a new facility to be located at the i.park on the Hudson complex. There the city hopes to gain experience using the 311 software on its existing help line, 377-HELP.

"The plan is to get the operations center fully functioning, go back to the City Council, show them how we were able to implement the new technology, and then request the money," Simpson said.

Approximately $570,000 would be needed to hire a staff of 18 part-time workers to operate the system around the clock, Simpson said. When announcing plans for 311 in his 2006 State of the City address, Amicone said the service would cost only an additional $100,000 in operating costs by shifting existing positions into the program.

The City Council eliminated those positions, however, to save money and then voted not to hire the part-time employees, citing the need to curtail tax increases and the existence of the city's 377-HELP line.

Yonkers is paying $526,300 to Maryland-based Langan Technologies for the 311 software and a five-year maintenance agreement that begins February 2008, according to Linda Infante, director of management information systems for the city.

The 311 system is intended to provide residents with an easy to remember phone number for information, complaints and requests for city services that would operate around the clock. City officials hoped to operate the system on a reduced level with staff from the existing help line, Simpson said.

City Councilman Liam McLaughlin said this week that he believed Amicone was attempting to implement the 311 system despite the City Council's refusal to fund it. An opponent of Amicone, McLaughlin questioned whether the mayor intended to shift money in the newly adopted budget to hire the employees needed to make 311 operational.

"The mayor hides money all over the place. My guess is he will pull it out from somewhere," said McLaughlin, adding that the mayor had failed to update the City Council on the 311 system.

Simpson denied that money for the 311 system was hidden in the budget and said that McLaughlin could contact the mayor's office to learn about the status of the plan.

The 311 system, which is used in New York City and some other large U.S. cities, would improve city services by improving problem tracking, said John Fleming, executive assistant to the mayor. It should also reduce the number of non-emergency calls to the Police Department's 911 line, improving that service, he said.

Edited July 9, 2007 by Oswegowind

[x129K 1,393]

Must be nice...........

[Goose 188]

City of Pok dispatchers aren't moving to the new public safety complex?

[x129K 1,393]

City of Pok dispatchers aren't moving to the new public safety complex?

Negative k