City Council Service Excellence Committee Advances 311 Modernization Initiatives

The Service Excellence Committee advanced two 311-related items: simplifying how residents submit service requests and improving how the City uses 311 data and follow-up updates. Staff presented a phased modernization plan for online and mobile service requests, while councillors pressed for clearer public messaging on potholes, noise complaints, and sewage treatment plant odour complaints. The committee also heard requests to improve animal and wildlife categories in the 311 system.

Topics Discussed

1. 311 MODERNIZATION: SIMPLIFYING INTAKE AND TRACKING

Staff outlined a phased redesign of the 311 customer experience. Daniel Sarapim, Executive Director of the Customer Experience Division, said the City is "focused on modernizing our mobile and online applications" and on "improving how customers access and track 311 service requests by enhancing follow-up communication and status transparency throughout the lifecycle."

Staff said the current system is difficult to navigate online. A presentation to committee stated: "Today we know that customers who try to submit service requests online have a hard time finding the right tile, searching for the right service request and understanding if the eligible to submit that request," adding that "about 50% of customers who try and submit service requests online at some point give up and most of them end up submitting it by phone or email."

The modernization work will be rolled out in phases, beginning with selected service areas and expanding through 2027.

2. "CLOSING THE LOOP": NEW STATUS UPDATES FOR SERVICE REQUESTS

Staff said the second major initiative is "closing the loop," aimed at giving residents more information after they submit a request. Sarapim said the project will improve "follow-up communication and status transparency throughout the lifecycle."

Committee members heard that new features include notes and milestone updates. Staff said: "Customers will see two new features this month, notes and milestones. Starting today, updates about park service requests written by city staff will be available over email and online." Staff also said, "By Q4 2027, these closing the loop improvements will be available across all divisions, providing more consistent, transparent updates for selected service requests."

Rachel Chernos Lin said one problem is that the City already has useful internal information but has not been sharing it with residents: "We have this information. We haven't been relaying it to the customers and this is why going forward with closing the loop, we will start fixing these."

3. POTHOLE REPORTING AND COMPLETION STATUS

Committee members questioned how pothole complaints are classified and communicated to residents. Councillor Josh Matlow asked, "So, sometimes there's a crater, sometimes there's a middle-sized one, and sometimes there's just a little one that's annoying. Are those classified differently? And does somebody know that, you know, there's eight ahead of you because we have a crater on a bus route?"

Councillor Paula Fletcher also criticized the way repair timelines are explained to the public, saying residents are not getting customer-friendly information about how potholes are prioritized. She said, "I don't understand why that's not a common messaging system," and added that what she had heard "it's really not customer friendly it's staff friendly it's not customer friendly."

The discussion focused on making the app and follow-up messages better reflect the actual repair process rather than simply marking a request complete.

4. NOISE COMPLAINTS AND JURISDICTION

Noise complaints were another major topic, particularly confusion over where residents should report them and what happens after a complaint is filed. Public speaker Ingred Budet said her group wants the City to focus on "the noises that wake us up, keep us up and disturb us day and night."

Miguel Aila Valarde described repeated unsuccessful attempts to get action through existing channels, saying, "Please direct all noise complaints to the 311 service. No more useless calls to the community safety unit. As I said, I logged 275 calls and nothing got done."

Councillor Neethan Shan asked staff to describe the ideal complaint process: "So, I'm going to ask a bit of a blue sky question, which is how do you think it should go if a member of the public either calls in or uses an online tool or an app if if that's what it is to report a noise issue?"

5. SERVICE CODES, MESSAGING, AND SPECIALIZED COMPLAINTS

Councillor Fletcher raised the lack of a 311 code for sewage treatment plant odour complaints after a recent issue at the city's main sewage treatment plant. She said, "there's no code for the sewage the largest sewage treatment plant probably in the entire country when there's an issue with odor," and asked, "how does that work when that's been identified 3 weeks ago and there's still no code?"

She later argued that the complaint category should reflect the area affected by the odour plume, saying, "there's an air shed that that code affects and that should be part of 311."

The committee also heard requests to change how animal-related complaints are categorized. Public speaker Nicole Curado said residents should be able to reach wildlife help more directly through 311, and suggested changing labels in the app: "change animals, insects and pests and wildlife and add animal adoptions and fosters," and "promote it would be promoting animal services rather than animal patrol."

Motions

Approved with amendments: - SE 12.1: Simplifying the 311 Intake Experience

Approved / received: - SE 12.2: Using 311 and other data to identify trends and improve service delivery in parks, recreation, transportation, and municipal licensing

Passed: - Motion to receive the report with approval, moved by Councillor Paul Ainslie

Attendees

Named participants in the meeting materials included: - Councillor Paula Fletcher - Councillor Neethan Shan - Councillor Josh Matlow - Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin - Councillor Stephen Holyday - Councillor Paul Ainslie - Councillor Vince Crisanti - Councillor Parthi Kandavel

Also appearing in the meeting: - Daniel Sarapim, Executive Director, Customer Experience Division

Note: This list reflects only participants identified in the provided materials.