311-Data for Community Boards does not compute

On January 31, 2002, Mayor Bloomberg announced the creation of the 311 system in New York City. “By introducing the 311 phone system, the City will end the frustrating bureaucracy New Yorkers encounter when they need help,” he said. More than four years later, 311 IS the frustrating bureaucracy for local Community Boards.
If you call 311, you are dealing with Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT). Last May, Mayor Bloomberg signed a law which amended the Charter to require that DoITT supply monthly reports of 311 calls to Community Boards, the Public Advocate and City Council. Eight months after the law took effect, DoITT is still “working on it.”
The reports are supposed to break down calls by type, agency, and time elapsed for disposition. Unfortunately, at the first meeting with the Boards held on March 30th, the Department offered read-only document files, instead of more useful computer “spreadsheets.” Only about half of the Community Boards were represented at the meeting. District Managers and Community Board Chairs all over Queens are expressing concern that after all this time, they have no better access to 311 than the general public.
Councilmember Gayle Brewer, the originator of the legislation, and 10-year member of CB 7 in Manhattan, defended the Department, saying, “They’re making progress,” and indicated that more meetings would follow. “This is only the beginning,” she said, adding that DoITT has been “waiting until the data is ready,” and suggested that their goal is the end of April.
The District Managers, for the most part, are unimpressed. According to Frank Gulluscio, District Manager of CB 6, “A year is too long. This is the 21st century - we should all be interconnected.”
Yvonne Reddick, CB12 District Manager observed, “You would have thought we’d have this meeting last year. She added, “When this first came up, we asked for direct access to the 311 system. They said ‘no.’ We asked for some 311 operators to be specially trained to work with Community Board staff. They said ‘no.’” District Managers, staff, and many Board members have been in their positions for years, longer than the elected officials on the Council, or most 311 operators.
According to Betty Braton, the chairperson of CB10, “We’ve been here - 311 might have a “new” complaint, and we have a 5-year-history of the same situation.” She noted that the operators have to follow the book. “311 doesn’t follow up like we do,” she said.
Richard Hellenbrecht, Chairman of CB 13 in Queens is disappointed in the report. “It’s not what we need,” he says, “but it’s the beginning of something.” His office has been tracking complaints with powerful computer spreadsheets since 2000. “This helps us spot trends, so we can see if a problem spans more than one agency, or if a situation calls for a capital budget recommendation.”
Diane Cohen, district manager of CB 8 is resigned to having been in the dark. “Every time we call from the Board Office, we have to give them our name and address. They should at least know where the Community Board is.”
Brewer “totally” agrees with the operator training suggestion, and agreed that for most New Yorkers seeking direct access to city government, the Community Boards are “where the rubber meets the road.”
Most District Managers also agree, but feel under-appreciated. According to Richard Italiano, the longtime manager of CB 4, “Sometimes we feel we’re an orphan agency. We’d like to input complaints directly into the system, and get specific information about complaints and locations.”
Sources familiar with the process have said that “adamant” privacy concerns from the Mayor’s Office have prevented more specific data on addresses, but that progress is being made to resolve them.
Another part of the problem is that some City agencies have so-called “legacy” computer systems, which are not fully integrated with the 311 system. For example, at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), 311 puts complaints into the system for follow-up, but they have their own complaint and callback systems.