Elgin moves to next phase of 311 project

Elgin City Council members preliminarily approved a $36,000 agreement with Stern Consulting to continue into the next phase of a citywide 311 communication project.

City Manager Sean Stegall presented a progress report to council members Wednesday night, advising them to move forward with a system the city hopes to implement in July 2013.

Though Councilman Robert Gilliam and Mayor David Kaptain expressed concerns over the expense of a system that is projected to cost up to $500,000 leading up to implementation, Stegall said the city can’t afford not to do it.

“The 311 system unlocks the door to efficiencies and cost savings that we can’t even anticipate right now,” Stegall said.

Stegall assured the council that the work is not time-sensitive and if the city does not have the money to purchase software and implement the program on schedule, this preparation will not be in vain.

Right now the city has more than 70 published numbers for people trying to contact various staff members and departments. Stegall said the city should only have two: 911 for emergency calls and 311 for everything else.

Implementing the program would mean incorporating customer relationship management software to track requests by individuals as well as give the city constant data tracking of its performance.

Councilman John Steffen highlighted this data opportunity in his support of the plan. He said it will give officials the ability to make use of the software technology during budget planning instead of overwhelming staff with data collection.

The next phase of the program will include pilot projects in four different departments, following on a test project in Public Works that started in July 2010 and saw success during the February blizzard.

Council members voted unanimously to support moving forward with the program at their committee of the whole meeting Wednesday. That meant approving a contract with Stern Consulting, the founder of which Stegall called the foremost expert on 311.

“This is a good thing,” said Councilman John Prigge. “This is going to put us on the cutting edge of citizen service.”