You can call 9-1-1 for emergencies and 3-1-1 for city services and information. Now Councilman Darrell Clarke would like a third line for people to access City Council.
"How hard would it be for Council to set up a system like 3-1-1, say 4-1-1 to get in touch with Council," Clarke asked today of administration officials during budget hearings.
The city's Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank told Clarke it would not be expensive to set up such a line, although then Council would have to decide if they would have operators staffing the line or an automated service.
Council members -- whose staffers traditionally take requests for city services from constituents -- have raised concerns with the administration about the year-old 3-1-1 line. Council has complained in the past that 3-1-1 operators don't always forward calls directly to Council offices when requested – a problem the administration says it has fixed.
Clarke said he was interested in exploring the line further, if it would work within Council's budget.
"People don't know who their Council person is," Clarke said.