Committee on Technology

Thank you. Good afternoon and welcome to the New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Technology. At this time, as a reminder, please put all devices on silent. At no time anyone should approach the dais. If you wish to testify, please see one of the sergeants at arms. Chair, you may begin.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our oversight hearing on 311. I am Councilmember Carmen De La Rosa, Chair of the Committee on Technology, and today we will be discussing New York City's 311 system. New York— NYC 311 is New York City's 24-hour, 7-day-a-week non-emergency services connecting New Yorkers and visitors with city government, providing necessary information, and taking complaints.

Launched in 2003 as a centralized telephone call center, 311 has evolved significantly over the past 2 decades, expanding the ways in which the public can communicate with city government as technology and public expectations have changed. Today, 311 handles millions of interactions each year through phone calls, text messages, its mobile application, and website, providing assistance to more than— in more than 175 languages As the largest 311 system in the country, NYC 311 plays an essential role in making city government more accessible and responsive to the people it serves.

New Yorkers rely on 311 for a broad range of issues, from questions about parking regulation and sanitation services to filing complaints about heat or hot water in their building. In many instances, 311 serves as a starting point for resolving an issue by directing a complaint to the appropriate city agency for action. Today, 311 is more than a customer service system.

The information generated through millions of service requests provide an important source of data for city agencies, elected officials, researchers, advocates, and members of the public through the city's open data portal. The data can help identify patterns in service delivery, inform discussions about allocations of resources, highlight community needs, and reveal areas where the city may, may be improved.

Given the central role 311 plays in the day-to-day functioning of our city, we must continually examine how the system can be improved and modernized. 311 should serve as a tool for accountability and communication between New Yorkers and local government. Today we will be considering 3 bills intended to improve New York City 311. and its services and the services it provides.

In relation to the use of global positioning systems coordinates for 311 complaints and service requests. By Deputy Speaker Williams in relation to referring 311 non-emergency traffic condition complaints to the Transportation Bureau of the Police Department. And by Councilmember Schulman requiring the 311 Customer Service Center to to redirect requests for services or complaints to the appropriate agencies. We look forward to hearing from the administration, advocates, and members of the public about these bills, as well as broader opportunities to make NYC 311 more resilient, accessible, user-friendly, and effective for all New Yorkers.

I'd like to thank the committee staff, Policy Analyst Eric Brown, Legislative Counsel Irina Bobosky, and Chief of Staff James Burke and Hiba Imad. Thank you. for working in and putting this hearing together. I'd like to recognize Technology Committee members Councilmember Juan Gutierrez, and we've also been joined by Councilmember Dinowitz and Schulman. I will say there are more than 15 other bills that we're not considering today on 311.

So even though we're light on folks today, I want to be sure to emphasize that 311 is an important issue that this council cares about, especially Specifically, there's a lot of legislation to try and make it work a little better. I'll now turn to Councilmember Dinowitz to deliver his opening remarks.

Lynn also reached. We weren't sure who you were going to call first. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you, Chair, for the hearing and for hearing my bill. Of all the issues we face in our city, the one that rises to the top time and again is is quality of life. And I'm often reminded of this because during COVID during the height of when there was fear surrounding all of us, and I was doing, before I was in office, doing wellness calls to our older adults, I started out these calls expecting to hear the tragic stories of people losing loved ones, of being afraid to go out to get eggs and milk.

And the vast majority of my calls really were about quality of life, were about the noise or about the cracks in the sidewalk. They wanted to go out for a walk and the cracks in the sidewalks were preventing them from safely doing that. You know, illegal dumping places. So, you know, I think about this because at the height of when fear and death was permeating our city, quality of life still rose to the top as this critical issue for many New Yorkers.

And quality of life speaks to our ability to live with safety and with dignity in our own city. Streets rife with potholes, hydrants that are running and wasting water, darkened streets due to broken street lamps, flooded homes due to blocked sewer lines, broken fences in our parks. These are just some of the quality of life issues that, when not addressed, do impact that safety and quality of life and dignity that we cherish so much.

Here in New York City, of course, we have 311, a system through which New Yorkers can report and address our quality of life concerns. But we know 311 is in need of improvement. Today we are discussing my bill, Intro 173, which will require 311 to use GPS data to pinpoint exactly where a constituent wants to report their issue.

Time and again, constituents call my office because 311 was used, but the city agency either couldn't find the location or went to the wrong location. We had a missing hydrant reported, but DEP repaired a separate hydrant down the block. On a service road in my district, a constituent was unable to file a 311 complaint because the stretches on the service road have no street address.

Lights on an overpass in my district were out because there was no address On the overpass, the constituent called 311 instead of using the app. The report was logged manually, and 3 months later the lights were still out. And when there was follow-up done, we eventually were given the response that the lights weren't fixed because the location could not be found.

A constituent who reported a blocked sewer line had to describe it as 100 feet from his house toward the direction of the sewer plant, which is Hardly an efficient way to describe a location. Bell Tower Park in Riverdale had a broken sidewalk, and the constituent had to use the nearest address, which isn't really close to this bell tower.

There are obviously more cases in my office alone. Each of us in the council has dealt with similar issues. Countless New Yorkers who haven't called our offices have dealt with this issue time and again. As New Yorkers, we deserve a more responsive and efficient experience with our government. If 311 is the vehicle by which New Yorkers address their quality of life concerns, we must ensure that it is as efficient and responsive to the needs of our constituents as possible.

Adding precise GPS location ability would allow for that to happen. Intro 173 would allow for that to happen. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. And now I turn over to Councilmember Schulman for her opening remarks. Thank you, Chair De La Rosa. Today I'm here to speak in support of my bill, Intro 800. This legislation would create a clearer, more transparent way to track complaints about conditions in our city jails. Currently, when someone in a city jail has a complaint about the conditions of their confinement, there is not a clear public-facing system for tracking that complaint from submission through resolution.

Without that transparency, it can be difficult to know whether a complaint was received, whether it was referred to the appropriate personnel, or whether the underlying issue was ultimately addressed. My legislation would require the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications to establish a dedicated 311 service request category for complaints and service requests related to conditions in city jails.

It would also require the city to publish records of those requests and provide updates on their status. This legislation is fundamentally about accountability. A transparent system for receiving and tracking complaints can help identify recurring problems, ensure that concerns are directed to the appropriate personnel, and provide the public with greater visibility into how these issues are being addressed.

Everyone in our city deserves to be treated with dignity, including people who are incarcerated. I believe this legislation is an important step toward greater transparency and accountability, and toward ensuring that our city jails are humane and habitable.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Schulman. I will now read a statement on behalf of Deputy Speaker Dr. Natasha Williams. Thank you, Chair De La Rosa, and members of the Committee on Technology for the opportunity to submit testimony on Intro 669. New Yorkers rely on 311 as their primary point of contact with city government. When residents take the time to report a concern, they should have the confidence that the complaint will reach the agency positioned to respond.

In Southeast Queens, traffic concerns are among the issues residents raise with my office regularly. We hear about chronic speeding on residential streets, illegal truck traffic, dangerous driving, congestion, and other conditions that affect both quality of life and public safety. Many of these are not isolated incidents. They are recurring problems that residents experience day after day. Intro 669 would require NYC311 to refer non-emergency traffic condition complaints to NYPD Transportation Bureau.

This includes complaints involving drag racing, chronic speeding, congestion, gridlock, truck route violations, and other non-emergency traffic conditions. The goal is simple: when New Yorkers report a traffic concern, that complaint should have a clear path to an agency responsible for addressing it. Residents should not have to repeatedly report the same condition without understanding where the complaint is going or whether appropriate agency has received it. 311 should be more than a system that generates service request numbers.

It should help residents navigate city government, help agencies identify recurring conditions, and create a clearer connection between a complaint and a city response. Better routing is an important part of making the system more useful and accountable. I look forward to hearing from the administration about how traffic-related complaints are currently handled through 311, where gaps may exist, and how the city can improve coordination when residents report recurring traffic conditions.

I thank the chair and the committee for, in, for hearing Intro 669 and for examining how we make 311 more responsive and effective for all New Yorkers. In service, Dr. Natasha Williams.

We thank our Deputy Speaker for her statement, and today we will hear testimony from the Office of Technology and Innovation, followed by testimonies from the public. I now want to welcome Jo Morrisroe, OTI Deputy Commissioner for 311. Good afternoon. Before we begin, I just kindly want to request you to raise your right hand. Do you affirm to tell the truth and respond honestly to Councilmember's questions?

I do. Thank you. You can start your testimony.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair De La Rosa and members of the City Council Committee on Technology. My name is Joe Morrisroe, and I am the Deputy Commissioner of New York City 311. Over the last 20 years, I have overseen New York City 311's transformation from a call center to the multichannel, multilingual platform that it is today. I'm pleased to join the committee today to discuss our operations, highlight our recent successes, and discuss today's proposed legislation.

As you know, NYC311 delivers fast and easy access to government services and information with the highest possible level of customer service. 311 is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. through multiple channels, including the call center, online portal, text, mobile application, and social media. Originally launched as a call center, New York City 311 has evolved into the most comprehensive municipal government customer service platform in the nation.

Through— 311 received 37 million customer contacts in 2025, and on an annual basis receives more calls than all U.S. city 311 call centers combined. I'm also pleased to share with the Council a recent report by an independent third party on the public satisfaction with New York City 311. Call center representatives received a customer satisfaction rating of 93%, and 90% of the respondents stated they are likely to recommend 311, which outperforms best-in-class private sector companies.

The level of public satisfaction is a testament to the dedication and the commitment of the New York City 311 team that serves their fellow New Yorkers every day. It is important to note that 311 serves as the platform to provide information and services to the public. With few exceptions, public interactions with 311 result in one of the following outcomes: the customer has an information request, such as a garbage pickup day, and the information is provided; A customer is referred to an external entity, which can include a utility or a state or federal agency, and a customer's inquiry is submitted as a service request to the designated agency, and a confirmation tracking number is provided.

We rely on our collaborative relationships with each city agency to build out service request forms and information pages, which we also call knowledge articles. Those that properly reflect the mission and services for each agency or office. 311 does not create service requests unilaterally. There must be an agency that will accept the request, investigate, and if applicable, undertake appropriate action or resolution.

Once a service request is submitted through New York City 311, it becomes the responding agency's responsibility to address and respond. When an agency decides that amending a current service request or adding a new one is necessary, it contacts 311 to create, test, and deploy a service request form. Agency feedback partially informs the update we implement to the entire 311 platform.

User feedback is also extremely useful to us, which is why we deploy customer surveys that inform the Resolution Satisfaction Dashboard. which goes by the acronym RSAT, which is available on the city's website. We also value the input we receive from council members as frequent 311 users, and I'm happy to continue the conversation. I will now turn to the legislation associated with this hearing.

Intro 173 would require the use of Global Positioning System GPS coordinates for 311 service requests. We agree that our user interface would be improved with the capability to capture a user's coordinates with the familiar pin drop that many location-based applications use. Currently, 311 service requests collect GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude, based on the customer enabling location services in the mobile app or on the website, and the customer confirming the address that is identified.

If location services functionality is disabled, 311 collects latitude and longitude based on the address entered by the customer. We have been exploring how our geolocator service could collect lat and long based on a pin drop, then identify the address in the format required by the agency based on the service request. For example, an address, an intersection, or a block face.

I am looking forward to working with the council to find the best path forward for this enhancement. Introduction 669 proposes to refer 311 non-emergency traffic condition complaints to the Transportation Bureau of the Police Department. As I noted above, we work with each agency to develop service requests to work best for the customer and agency policies and workflows that support their responsibilities.

For the types of complaints listed in this legislation, the protocol is similar. If a customer describes an emergency condition in progress, the call is transferred to 911. A call describing a non-emergency situation will generate a service request that is routed to the appropriate NYPD precinct. NYPD has determined that this is the course of action to occur for such complaints.

While the New York City 311 system is capable of changing the way such complaints are routed, Neither OTI nor 311 can comment on the merits of the proposal, as the underlying policy and procedures belong to NYPD. My colleagues at the NYPD have told us that they believe many of the calls contemplated by the bill should be routed through 911, and that many would call for responses from other bureaus within the department.

Therefore, I urge the Council to discuss this proposal directly with NYPD who would be happy to meet with the sponsors. And finally, Intro 800 would require New York City 311 to redirect service requests to the appropriate agency. While a vast majority of service requests are appropriately assigned and routed to agencies, there are some exceptions that it appears this legislation is seeking to address.

A common example is when a customer reports a street cave-in. The Department of Transportation, or DOT, initially investigates reports of cave-ins, determines who is responsible for restoring the roadway, and then refers the cave-in to that agency or utility for repair. Information about the agency or utility responsible for repairing the cave-in will be available within 10 to 20— sorry, 10 days of submitting a service request.

That said, I do understand the customer's frustration when this occurs, which is why we have been identifying solutions for these kinds of scenarios. I'm happy to talk you through how we have been thinking about implementing solutions to this problem and align on the best next steps to make this process better for New Yorkers. In closing, on behalf of the dedicated team at 311, thank you again for the opportunity to testify today.

I will now take council members' questions.

Thank you so much for your testimony. I just want to say 20 years is a long time, so we thank you for your service. And we're looking forward to this conversation. As I mentioned, there's a ton of bills that the council wants to pursue around 311. And I think Dinowitz said it best, my neighbor to the north, that, you know, our constituents are often calling us about quality of life issues.

And, you know, 93%, I think you said, satisfaction rating is impressive. It doesn't feel like that on the street. I feel like we get the brunt of folks telling us, like, service requests are being closed and not being fixed. And I know that there is a process here. So we hope today to dig into some of those questions.

And I know we've been joined by my colleague from the Bronx, Councilmember Riley, as well. I'm going to ask a few questions about staffing, and then I'm going to open it for committee members for questions, and then I'll come back. But what is the present headcount for 311? The budgeted headcount is 248 call center representatives. We use the term CCR, and that's the folks who are on the front line answering calls.

So those are the call center operators, 248? 248, yes. And how many work on the 311 website? We don't have any call center representatives on the 311 website. It's actually supported by folks at 311 as well as the broader OTI team. Okay. And about how many? It's a good question. It's a— it's— I would have to come back and come up with a figure because it's work that's done by different people and it's piece-part work.

So I don't have a single answer for that, but it's something we could estimate for you. Okay. If you could come back to us, that would be great. And what about on the 311 mobile app? That would be similar to the website where there's a group of folks both on the— we call it the business side, right?

The 311 side as well as the application side. We had a number of 10 people, but we're not sure if that's accurate. We can check that. Okay. Text messages, same answer, sort of? That— appreciate that question, because I can give a little bit more context on that one. The text messages are handled by the same call center representatives that handle calls.

So that's part of the broader call center representative group. Okay. And then is that process, the text messaging process, automated, or are people manually replying to text messages? Thank you for that question. They are manually replying. When someone texts 311, which you can do by texting 311-692, 311-NYC, that request is going to be served by a person, by someone who works at 311, a call center representative.

Is there a plan to automate the process? We have looked at different plans that would automate that, ideally for something that would serve the customer better. For now, though, the Q&A, as we call it, serves very well for customers. We get very good quality scores, customer satisfaction scores in that area. And there is that element of kind of back-and-forth questions.

So the customer knows that they're dealing with a representative as opposed to perhaps an automated assistant. Okay. And how many vacancies are there at 311 right now? Currently, as of this week, there are 53 vacancies in the call center representative position. Do you know what's the starting salary for call center representative? Thank you for that question. Yes, I do.

It's $40,600 a year. More than paraprofessionals. Did the number of call takers change in the last 2 years? Over the last 2 years, the budgeted headcount has been 248. That's been consistent. Okay. It's consistent. And what about outsourcing? Are call takers outsourced? Thank you for that question. The 311 call takers or call center representatives themselves are not outsourced.

However, the agency has a contract with an overflow vendor that's based in Brooklyn to handle calls. Which is the vendor? The vendor is King Teleservices, Inc., K-I-N-G. King Teleservices. And then you said, so that's for an overflow if the number is higher than capacity? Correct. So we use that vendor as what we call our overflow vendor. They are trained to do the same work that the City 311 call center staff does.

And when is that overflow triggered? Yeah, so they actually operate in a steady state, so they take calls every day. So in that way, we have a baseline that there's always going to be someone there. The vendor serves as one of our backup locations, basically our continuity of operations plan. So if something were to happen, we have the ability to have that vendor kind of hot and ready as opposed to having to stand them up so that they are there in effect every day.

Okay. Are those— the folks who work for the vendor paid the same as the city workers? I appreciate that question. I don't have the answer on how much they are paid. The city has a contract with the vendor, we pay what we call a production hour rate. So that's the information that we would have. The vendor, as a private company, would work that arrangement with their employees.

Okay. Let's see. Was the contract— the contract term, we have information that the contract term ended— was ending February 2026. We're now in September 2026. Was the contract renewed? With King Tele Services? That is a very timely question. Thank you. The current contract that we're in was extended last year for the period March of 2026 through February 28th, 2027.

There is no extension on that. Okay. The expiration date is March 2027? Correct. The current end date of the contract we're under ends March 2020— I'm sorry, February 28th, 2027. Okay. And what is the contract value? Do you know? The contract value, it's— I would have to get back to you with the exact figure. The contract has had different iterations over the years, so I would want to zero in on what the current one is.

Okay. All right. I'm going to stop there for now. I have a lot more questions, but I want to open to Councilmember Schulman.

So what the— what I— the statement I read was for a different 311 bill. There was some confusion. as to what was on the agenda. What— okay, anyway, sorry. I, I caught it, but then I, I just caught it now. Um, I have a different bill that's going to be in another committee for people who are incarcerated.

Okay, um, this one I don't have questions on. I do have an oversight question though, um, Deputy Commissioner. So the new regulations around 311 and homelessness, can you explain that to us? Because I will tell you that in my district there's confusion in the NYPD as to what exactly it is and isn't. Sure. Well, thank you. I appreciate the question and I appreciate the clarification on Inter-800.

Thank you. Yeah, Inter-800 is fine. Well, we could— that's fine. Okay. Thank you. With respect to the question on the homeless handling and NYPD, I can speak to the 311 piece where we play a role, which is to perform the intake from a customer's request. Which could be the calls they could call. They could use a mobile app or they could go online.

And then our job is to get that request to the responding agency. In this case, as of recent, the responding agency for an encampment request, which is what I believe you're referring to, does route now to the Department of Social Services, DSS. Exclusively, right? Not— Thank you. Yes. Clarify. Yes, exclusively to DSS. Okay. And other 311 calls in terms of people that are homeless on the street other than an encampment, that still goes to NYPD or?

For other calls, we typically refer to what's known as homeless outreach assistance or homeless service assistance. So if it's more of an individual in need of support services, those currently go and have gone directly to— I say DHS, I should say DSS, Department of Social Services. So those, there's been no change in that. Those continue to go to DSS.

Okay. Yeah, my questions are more like for NYPD now because your role is your role, so that's fine. Let me ask just one question about, is there a definition of what an encampment is? Thank you for that question. We do provide information both for the call center rep and on our website that kind of defines what— Can we get that?

Can you share that with the committee? Sure, we could. Thank you. I can take that and we'll get back to you. That would be very helpful because we get asked questions about that. All right. Thank you. That's all the questions I have.

Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Dinowitz. Thank you. Thank you for coming for your testimony, Deputy Commissioner. I want to ask first about the GPS Location. On April 25th, 2024, if you can remember back that far, you had testified that NYC 311 is exploring a new geolocator, ESRI, which is referenced in your testimony today, the service that will take a step further and collect latitude and longitude based on a pin drop, then identify the address in the format required by the agency based on the service report.

So I just want to make sure that's the format that's being used now. Thank you for the question and the background. I appreciate the timing, the date reminder. Yes, that's the current state that we're in now. So this is different. So I want to just explain the difference between what you're describing, your testimony about using geolocation to find an address, and the actual problem that so many of our constituents are facing, that is, is that that latitude longitude doesn't always line up with an address.

So what steps is the 311 prepared to make to actually use the geolocation, not to align it to necessarily an address, but to GPS coordinates, much as you would, you know, if you're getting an Uber or Lyft. Right. Thank you. And again, for the context around that, it's helpful. That's the work that we're doing, the work that I referenced in the opening statement.

That's the work that we're continuing with our partner, Esri— use that acronym— to determine how we can do that for the public side, for the customer side, but then also be able to collect that and pass that to the agencies in the format that they need. So that's the crux of the work that's underway. Okay, but just to be clear, essentially you are supportive of the bill?

We are supportive of the GPS locator, the pin-drop locator. Pin-drop locator, right? If it's good enough for Uber, it's good enough for a New Yorker, right?

I have one other question. I may come back to the GPS, but in your testimony, you said you're pleased to share with the council a report by an independent third party on the public satisfaction with NYC 311, that it's a rating of customer satisfaction rating of 93%. A little while back, I passed legislation that required. Customer satisfaction feedback surveys to be done at the end of the calls or allow people on the app to fill those out.

And on that, in your internal surveys, this— the customer satisfaction, uh, just looking at now is 33% strongly agree or regularly agree that they're satisfied. Can you explain the discrepancy between the system that we enacted per law and this outside firm that you hired for customer satisfaction? Yeah, I appreciate that question. And yes, I can. So we'll start— there's 2 sides, so to speak.

So I'll start on the information that I shared. The customer satisfaction survey that we do is a third-party resource, CFI Group Inc. That's their name. They are the leaders in American Customer Satisfaction Index survey and science. We've been using them for several years. It's a really nice independent approach to having someone contact customers who have interacted with the 311 call center.

It's a pretty robust survey, multiple questions, and pretty robust response, statistically valid response rate. And that's— their methodology is what evaluates how the customer feels about their experience with the 311 call center representative. Okay, so I just want to be clear. The representative themselves, we're talking about satisfaction with their interaction with the representative, not necessarily their satisfaction with the way their service request was fixed or not fixed.

That is fair. I'll amend it just slightly. The experience with the representatives themselves, but also that whole 311 experience, right? Okay. Calling, reaching, having the conversation, that the rep is polite and professional, all of that. That's what that score is for. Good. And I think that's an important clarification. You hire great people who have very good interactions.

And at the same time, people's quality of life concerns Only 35% satisfaction score are really addressed in a meaningful way. And that was the purpose behind that previous legislation, to make sure there's transparency around how the service requests are being not handled by the call service person, but handled really by the agency if the problem itself was fixed.

Both things could be true at the same time, that the person on the other end of the line is great, and the agency didn't live up to the standards we expect. So that was a previous 311 bill that I passed that I think really sheds a lot of light on this. And this other one going forward, the GPS location, is going to make life a lot easier for New Yorkers, maybe even get that satisfaction score on your website up.

All right, thank you, Chair. Thank you so much. Good points. Um, I pass it on to Councilmember Gutierrez, followed by Riley. Oh, and we've been joined by Councilmember Hanif as well. You want to— Councilmember Riley. Thank you so much, Chair, and thank you so much, Councilmember. I have another hearing I have to run to. Deputy Commissioner, it was great seeing you and hearing your presentation.

Just to follow up on my colleague from the Bronx, Councilmember Dinowitz, a request marked closed does not necessarily mean that the underlying problem has been fixed. And that's a concern that we're hearing from many constituents that come to our office, that they'll put in a 311 complaint and then miraculously is closed but the issue isn't fixed. So does the city have any performance measures that they assess whether 311 requests are being resolved?

Great, thank you. I appreciate the question, and I can actually leverage Councilmember Dinowitz's previous update to provide some context around that. So as I mentioned, we do have the front-end survey which I described, but the survey that Councilmember Dinowitz mentioned We kind of have a shorthand for it. We call it Resolution Satisfaction Survey. It has an acronym, RSAT, that gets at what you just asked.

When a customer submits a service request to 311 and provides contact information, typically an email address, after that service request is closed by the responding agency, a survey is generated to that customer. It can be a 1-question answer or a 3-question answer. Basically, it comes down to, were you satisfied? If the customer was, it's just the 1 question.

If the answer was no, it gives them an option to explain why. That information is then collected, and that's what's posted on the city website under what we call the RSAT dashboard, and that's what Councilmember Dinowitz was referencing. Thank you. Repeated complaints about the same location or issues can be a signal of persistent service failure that individual case closures may not address, and aggregated 311 data could help agencies identify patterns and take preventative, broader action.

So does the city identify patterns across individual 311 complaints? For example, repeated reports of illegal dumping, broken streetlights, dangerous traffic conditions. Is there any way that you could use that information to prompt agencies' actions and their responses? Thank you for that. I appreciate the question, and I can talk to that a bit. I'll do the 311 side first.

So all complaints are captured, and then The vast majority of those complaints are available on what's known as NYC Open Data, which then allows you to do location information, you know, a borough, a zip code, but right down to an address so that the city as well as the public can track that to understand what's repeatedly there or if there is a common trend or anything to that effect.

That information also goes to each agency that accepts the service request. So while I can't speak to the agencies' tools and practice in terms of how they identify not only their workflow, but in this case, the repeat or recurring locations, the information that 311 provides is there. Okay, thank you, Deputy Commissioner. 311 is an amazing asset to everyday New Yorkers, and I think, you know, we always refer our constituents to utilize it.

So just making sure that it works a little bit more efficiently is something that we're always trying to gear towards. So thank you for your testimony today, and looking forward to continue working with you.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you. Councilmember Gutierrez. Thank you. Good to see you, Joe. Um, I just have a couple of questions. One ties into a topic the council heard earlier today in the Women and Gender Equity hearing. Just curious from your side, um, the Office of Community Safety is now the umbrella, um, office that is kind of folding in a bunch of other offices, one of which is the Mayor's Office to End Gender-Based Violence.

I had asked today earlier in the hearing if because of this new classification, essentially they're still working out through kind of what the new office will look like for them, if they have communicated to OTI or 311 about kind of what a call would look like now serving under not its own separate office but under, you know, a whole nother office, and whether or not that would place a delay on a call center representative potentially if they're in the know.

So I just wanted to ask you, how up to date are you on this office consolidation? And do you know if there's any reason for a 2, 3-second delay in a call center representative potentially redirecting a call now that it's not a standalone office? Great. Thank you for the question and especially for the timely this morning update.

They scheduled it perfectly. I can speak to the first part of your question, which is essentially, have we been in touch? I think if I can frame it that way, and the answer is yes. We've actually had the Office to 311, as you know, as you know from the location. So we've not only had them on site to see our operation, but have started discussions about the work that they're doing, how 311 can help and inform that work, and how we would be a vehicle.

You've had the Office of Community Safety come see you? Office of Community Safety. Correct. Well, there's— I mean, I think there's still, to my understanding, I feel like they're kind of restructuring. And I don't know, I don't think what we know today, September 30th, I'm not sure if it will look structured the same way. So that's— and I know that oftentimes, even when the council passes new legislation, right, if that communication is not directed to 311, that's not necessarily changing the way that these service requests are captured.

So they've visited, you've been in communication. Do you feel like I don't know, was it a constructive conversation? Is there any reason for New Yorkers to feel like, I don't know if I can call 311 now for this because now they're under a subset, they're not even a standalone office anymore? Okay, great. I appreciate that distinction there.

So I will say yes, my colleague came, my peer colleague came for the meeting. We've had those discussions. But more importantly and more structurally, the 311 process works well in this situation. So we have a group called Agency Relations. They deal with every city agency, a number of state and federal agencies, but every city agency, every office, every mayor's office, there's a contact.

And the purpose of that is to exchange information such as a new program, a new policy, and make sure it gets into the 311 system. So if there's something that's not there, we have vehicles that identify that, and then we raise it up with the agency. And if the agency has something new, or even if they're not sure what they do or may not have, They come to 311, and then that's when our collaborative work starts.

So if there is anything available, anything that an agency needs to provide available to the public, there's a vehicle to get that into 311. And in turn, we get that into the system. I always like to tout that for the public, what's online and in the mobile app is written in a plain language standard. Mm-hmm. So it makes it fair and equitable for everyone.

And we have all in, we have over 7,000 discrete pieces of information in the system. all having gone through that process at one point or another. Okay, and so is it fair to say that all the 200-some-odd service representatives at this point are aware the Office to End Gender-Based Violence is— if someone calls in asking for Office of Community Safety or whatever, that they'll understand, they know what that is and they know how to direct it?

I can address that in terms of how our process works. So yes, as long as the information is in our system, the representatives are trained on how to use the tool How to use the system and count on and rely on what we call the content, the content in that system. So they would be able to search as long as it's in our system.

They would have information in a standard structured way and they can give that to the public. But it's in the system to your knowledge? To my knowledge, I believe it is. I would have to be double-checking. If you can just confirm, that will just be helpful for us to confirm.

And then my next question, and I'm sure the chair will kind of expand a little bit more, but I do have the app. living in Bushwick, a frequent trash service requester. On the— I noticed that there's like the AI Smart Select. Sorry, this chair is malfunctioning. Can you share a little bit about— and I think it's helpful.

I think it's been helpful because I think for a long time, especially if you're putting in a complaint about trash, there was a lot of miscommunication about what is illegal dumping, what is just a dirty sidewalk. There's versus a dirty street. Can you share if that feature or if the AI Smart Select tool, was that designed in-house or did you all contract with a vendor?

And whether or not— yeah, whether you use a vendor and what information does this tool capture? Because I think while you're putting it in, obviously it's prompting you to put your address, your information. How much of that is the tool capturing and how much of your personal data is it holding on to? And is it a different data privacy agreement than the standard 311 app.

Thank you. I appreciate the user feedback in that situation. I take your kind of the different points in kind of in order if I can, if I can remember it. So first off, I'm glad you're using Smart Select. It is— I don't think it gives me a choice. I want to be honest. If you go to the app, I think it like— The first one at the top.

It's at the top. Yes. So a little bit of context behind that. I feel like we have a tremendous CX team at 311, a customer experience team. And this is one of the things where over time they're constantly looking at what more do we need to do, what else can we be doing. So we know a lot of people come to the mobile app.

We've seen it grow over the years, obviously the growth of smartphones. But people like to submit things in different ways. So we were giving them one way. What the Smart Select does is give them another way and actually gives them 3 other ways, right? So if you go to it, pull it up, you can take a picture, you can use a picture, you can upload a picture, you can take a picture, and now you can actually type in some text about a condition you're seeing, you're near, you can observe.

The SmartSelect will then determine what it is. You confirm and then you submit it. So now you don't have to go through the step of having to fill out a form because it's doing it for you. The work to do that was done by a combination of the OTI organization and its contracted MWBE vendor. Do you know the name of the vendor?

I don't. I know we call it an MWB vendor, so I don't know the name offhand. Oh, that's the most generic. Okay, we'll follow up. I'm sure I shall get the— okay. And that went into effect last year. The text was just an enhancement this year. Okay. But the picture version was last year. And then very much falls under the same purview of privacy.

We are very serious about privacy at 311. I personally believe it's what drives the public trust in 311 and has over 20-plus years. That is very important to us. So any tool that we use falls under that same purview with that OTI and 311's privacy policy. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Um, so I want to ask sort of a question that follows the, the frame of thought of Councilmember Dinowitz and Riley around the closing of requests by agencies. Obviously none of us were here in 2003. I was in high school. I don't know where other people were, but— Me too. Yeah. So why is it that 311 was, like, when it was originally, I guess, put together, right?

Obviously, I know that there's limit in capacity, but it doesn't feel like there is a system that speaks back to agencies for accountability if an agency is closing a ticket, right? I get it often in my community, like for noise complaints, right? It gets rerouted to NYPD, and NYPD goes out and they do whatever they do, and then it appears closed, and then constituents are telling us, hey, the issue was not resolved.

So is it more of like when 311 was imagined, it was a call center, a call center model? Has there ever been a conversation about like how to hold agencies better accountable to closing tickets? All right. Thank you for the question. I was also not there in 2003, but came shortly after. So I can't speak to the very beginning.

But I think there's 3 or 4 things that I can share that gets to what you're asking. But on an intake side, if I can do that first, there's a couple of things that happen, whether you're self-serving through the mobile app or online, or whether you're talking to a call center representative. There's 2 key things that you'll get what we call the expectation, right?

As a matter of fact, on the online, it says what happens next, and that's a description of what happens next, which agency is going to respond, and what the typical turnaround time is, or the due date, to use that term. Technically, we call those service level agreements. So those are 2 things that happen on any service request interaction.

Then in addition to that, all the service level agreements that an agency— that agencies have really with the city, right, with the public, are available on open data. There's a list called 311 SLA. So for every complaint, every complaint type, it will say how many— what's the expected time to resolve. That can be hours for some dire situations.

It can be days. And in some cases, it can be longer than that because there are seasonal cycles. Okay. So that's available. And then the other piece that talks to, I believe, what you're talking to is the aforementioned RSAT dashboard where a customer can say, I opened this service request, the agency told me here's the status, I get a request, I can now say whether it is or not.

And then that customer's point of view may be different than the agency's point of view. One of the things we try to do is define that— what does that mean? So in the service request that the customer gets an update on, if they take the confirmation number, if they get it emailed to them, or if they call and look it up, we have what we call a resolution description.

It's a kind of a, you know, a field and it's got a literal in it. Those, some of those do date back to 20 years. So there's a work effort that started a couple of years ago that we tried to do. We've done it successfully with NYPD, is to refine those resolution descriptions, frankly put them into plain language terms so the public can actually understand what the city is saying.

So that's something that has, we believe, has helped. It's hard to get data on that, but we believe has helped. help just clarify that situation. Like, what does this mean? What does this agency response mean? So, those are a number of things we do where we can control that, and just all under the guise of trying to make it more informative and more understanding to the customer.

I also think that it's important, like you mentioned, like setting expectations, because I think people think once you put in a 311 complaint— like I heard another agency say one time, we're in a meeting, well, only because it's closed on 311 doesn't mean it's closed on the agency Right. But it would be great to like explain that to the person who's experiencing it.

Sure. Because they see the closed status and they think it's done, no one's following up. It might be closed on 311, but at the DOT or at the Parks Department, it's still open. Is there a mechanism right now where people can like drop down and see that like it's with the Parks Department and they're still working on it or no?

Thank you for describing that. Yeah. I would say that just as a point of how we operate, 311 doesn't close any requests. So 311 opens and submits to the agency, but the agency owns all the status from that point on, whether it's in progress, updated, you know, closed or resolved, whatever term they may use. But I agree with you with respect to informing more and more that we can, right?

Setting that expectation up front. But yeah, the opportunity to see what's happening, there's at least 2 ways for the public. One is if you have the confirmation number. Again, if you did it online, if you have an email, that's the best way to look it up. You can actually do it on the homepage of the app, just cut and paste your confirmation number, put it in, and it's going to give you the status.

If you don't have that, you can contact 311. So that's one way. But also the open data portal, and I'll give a compliment out to my colleagues on the data analytics team at OTI who do a tremendous job with the open data portal for so many things in New York City. But there are several rich 311 datasets on there.

The 311 service request dataset is probably one of the most popular ones, and that has a lot of information that can give you an update on your status of your complaint, but also if there's a collection or, as Councilmember Riley had said, if there's a focus in a certain area in your neighborhood. That open data tool is really, really powerful.

Is there like an end-of-year meeting where 311 sits with the agencies and it's like, these are the patterns we're observing, or once that data is sort of uploaded to the open data portal, is the expectation that the agencies kind of do that type of analysis for themselves? I really appreciate that question. If you allow me to kind of brag on the teams at 311 in answering it, I'd appreciate that.

That happens every day and it happens quarterly and it happens over the course of a year as well. I alluded to earlier, we have a group that's called CX team. They look at the customer experience. We have a quality assurance team making sure things are handled correctly. We have the agency analysts, we have content writers, we have business relations.

So there's a lot of folks all focused on, are we doing it right today and how do we do it better tomorrow? So that happens more on a workplace basis. But we do have structured reviews. Some of our surveys get to that. We bring the whole team together, we do the readout of the survey, and then our agency relations team carries that to their respective agency counterparts.

Great.

I do want to ask some questions about language access. And I do have some concerns about the app right now is just in English. Can you speak to sort of is there a function to translate the entire app? Like if you're a Spanish speaker, for example, and you want to access the app, like can you translate the app?

I understand the question, appreciate it. I'll speak to that specifically. So now the app has kind of 2 components to it. What you see is there. It is mobile optimized. So if we link you to the 311 online, the website, then you have all the benefit of what's on the website, including the Google Translate tool. On the app itself, if you're using a service request and you're submitting a service request that's embedded in the app, we call that native to the app, that's in English only.

Okay. So it's something that only exists in English. If a customer does want to use the app, they can go to the mobile site— I'm sorry, go from the mobile site, quick link right to the website, and then use the website to be able to, one, convert to the language they wish to and then access anything in that language.

So what's the challenge in making the app sort of just switch languages? Understood. And it ties back to the work we do with the mobile app in total. So whether it be trying to do better with the GPS, Councilmember Nowitz had reference to trying to find better way of presenting the information and then just trying to do enhancements.

There's a lot of work that constantly goes on in the mobile app, and it's just getting to that work. Okay, okay.

I, I do want to ask a few questions about passport procurement and other things. On the passport procurement website, there is an RFP for outsourced Contact center services for NYC 311. We have the RFP number. Please tell us more about the need for outsourcing the contact center. Great. Thank you for the question and for the context with respect to Passport.

I thought you were going to ask me a Passport question. So I'm glad it's a 311 question. So yes, I can speak to that. We talked previously about the contracted vendor, also known as the overflow vendor. So that contract ends February 27th, February 28th of 2027. The city, the approach is that we're going to solicit bids for a new contract that would start March 1st, 2027.

So that our, I'll call it the RFP that you referenced, that is to solicit vendors for that purpose. Okay. And so as of right now, you're just soliciting, you're in the process of soliciting? Correct. Okay.

On August 18th, 2026, New York City experienced a significant 911 service disruption after Motorola, the city service provider, performed a routine software update. Approximately 1,700 calls were impacted during that outage. If I recall correctly, IBM is the principal vendor supporting the 311 system, and during prior testimony, you stated that— a joint team of OTI and IBM is responsible for 311 system updates.

Can you walk us through the standard process for implementing software updates to 311? Thank you for the context, and yes, I can give you some of that perspective. I probably can't go deep as some of my colleagues at OTI would, but I can give you a flavor of that. And I think the starting point would be to make a distinction.

So the work that we do with IBM and what was previously referenced We do that mostly for what we call applications development. So for the system that you see online or the system that gets used in the call center, the application side of that, not the telephony system. Okay. So those are 2 separate. And then most recently— The telephone system.

So the telephone system is actually the source system. The platform is a Cisco platform. Cisco. Which is pretty common across the city. And then back on the application side, As we in the past when we would have referenced IBM, the OTI is now using MWBE contracts more so than the IBM contract. Okay. So that work though is similar.

We're contracting for specific skill sets and specific work that can help us develop and build out in our application. In some cases, you know, you bring it on, you help build it, and then you don't need it anymore. But all of that gets overseen and managed by the OTI organization. Okay. Obviously, you know, given what happened at 9/11, we have a few more questions about updates performed on the regular.

Are, you know, software updates of that nature happening on a regular basis? Are they predetermined? And then who determines when an update should occur and who within OTI or 311 must approve before it is deployed? Great. Thank you for that question. I get to expand a little bit on the work that we do. So there are a number of levels of approval.

Software updates are very much our focus, as you can imagine, even without the reference to the earlier August event. But this one, I would say, goes back 23 years as well. It's grounded in 311's approach that we must always be available. And there's always times where you're going to have scheduled updates and scheduled outages. then you got to have a backup and you got to have a backup to the backup.

So that's something that we take, whether it's the telecom side, whether it's the application side, take very serious. And therefore we have a number of processes in place. I'll just speak at a high level. And I have the privilege of also supporting the city's internal customer service desk, the citywide service desk. Within that team, there's a number of folks who focus solely on change management, as we call it.

Mm-hmm. So I can kind of speak to that in both ways. But there's always a need for software upgrades, software updates, software changes, software upgrades. It's a very controlled process. The teams that need to do it put forth what they need to do. There's a body that understands what's happening. So your change, you have to think about your change, but also will it impact somebody else's change?

They all go through an approval process. It's pretty standard. It can be on a daily basis. It can be on a cycle basis. But there's a pretty standard protocol of being able to go back and look at here's the changes we need to make, here's why we need to make them, and has everybody signed off on making those changes?

Since the 911 outage, has that prompted you all to review or change procedures governing software updates to 311? Thank you for that. I will say yes, because any event that occurs forces us to do just that. So this winter when we had, you know, extreme winter weather, This summer, when we had heat waves, you know, dating back again, you mentioned the history of 311, but dating back to their earliest days when there was a transit strike in 2003.

That causes us to think about things, whether it's a natural disaster, whether it's a city— sorry, whether it's a technical change, but anything that occurs, we have a process through our emergency management resources on our team. Mm-hmm. We also partner with New York City emergency management, but within our own team, we'll evaluate anything that is out of the norm and say, how would this— how would we handle this?

Are we covered? Are we set? Are we able to do that? So one of the questions that we asked of OTI when we were doing the 911 hearing was if there were any redundancies or failover procedures if something is failing, like live, like something is failing and someone, like for the 911 outage, it wasn't clear that something was failing until some of the 911 dispatchers began to notice things that were happening that were out of the ordinary.

So can you walk us through what that looks like for the 311? Yeah, sure. Thank you for the framing of that. So we do have a number of alerts and flags that are designed from a system perspective, right? So it's built into our operating systems, our alerts, and then there's systems that do monitor just for alerts. So that's a necessary requirement, somewhat of a standard requirement.

But we also have built in over the years tools that will alert us if something were to happen. Our telecom platform is very robust. It operates very well, but things can happen. We have built in— I'll give just a simple example. If a call has not been received for X minutes, there's going to be a trigger and an alert and an email generated to one of our 24/7 operating people.

So during the course of a day, you know, if that were to happen, it would be very quickly detected simply because there's a lot of calls during the day. But we also tweak it so even on the overnight when there may be gaps in calls because not a lot of people are calling, if we go for a certain period of time, minutes, there is a trigger and an email report and it goes to a live person to be able to say, now what do we do?

The city has a very structured process that OTI oversees. I mentioned before the citywide service desk. That's the first step. Open up a ticket. Let's get everyone involved. Let's start to understand what it is. But the identification of that is something we have built in over the years.

Okay. Going back to language access, how many of your operators are fluent in other languages? Thank you for that. In total, the only languages operators speak other than English would be Spanish. So we have a small number of, I'll say, bilingual English-Spanish language speakers. Everything else, we rely on a third-party interpretation vendor, LanguageLine. LanguageLine. Okay. Okay.

What is the current protocol if a need arises of having a staffing surge of 311 call takers, such as during an emergency? We do have a protocol for that. We've actually used it several times this year because of the weather emergencies that I mentioned before, but this is where our contracted vendor resource comes into play more so than ever.

Because they do steady-state work, they're already in the 311 program. They have the 311 systems, they have people who are trained on that, but we go to the vendor and say, we need more, we need it quickly, and we need people who are qualified. Because the vendor is a private organization and they have other business, they have the ability to have resources, right?

They can have them available quickly. So we'll anticipate something's coming up. This past weekend, we had the nor'easter. My executive director who runs the call center said, yep, weather's bad. We're going to get more calls. Let's see what we can do about adding some staff. So if people are calling for downed trees, for example, we've got some additional staff to be able to do that.

So we go to the vendor for that. They can turn that resource up pretty quickly from their pool, but then equally, they can then also take that resource down when it's needed. Right. So that is our primary response to— that is our primary approach when it's responding to a surge. We tend to call it a surge. Great.

My colleague, Councilmember Gutierrez, spoke a little bit of artificial intelligence. I just wanted to dig in more. Can you tell us more about your current plans for AI within 311 mobile app and website? Like, what's the vision? Thank you. I do appreciate that one. Like Everyone, right? We're looking at how does that affect every aspect of the work that we do and the work and what we deliver to the public.

So we've had a few exercises and activities where we've worked and seen what AI can do. We've had different demos that we've been able to take a look at. So we start with the principle, though, that AI working in our call center is designed to augment the work that the representative does. Not replace the work that the representative does.

And we've seen a number of ways that can help. If AI can handle some— can help the agent identify how to navigate or be able to pre-pop something, or even we have a very older version of it today that exists in our call center called natural language, where it can detect— if you interact with it, it can detect what you are asking about and it'll do a screen pop for the rep to say, You know, it's a garbage recycle question.

That's 10-plus years old technology, but the concept behind that is what we look at with AI as well. How could AI help us better help the agent to better help the customer?

Okay. Okay. So I'm going to switch back to legislation-related questions. I know that Councilmember Dinowitz asked about the geolocation. I think we have a good understanding of that, but I wanted to ask Why might an agency determine that a service request is outside of their jurisdiction? It is my understanding that service requests are sent to agency based on the problem type.

So if the request is determined to be out of jurisdiction of the assigned agency, is that an issue of how the problem is set up at 311? Like, what is the genesis of the confusion? Right. Yeah. Yes, that situation does exist. So I'm happy to be able to talk to that. We would— the kind of a term we use is reassign service request in that situation.

So there's at least a couple of flavors to it. Some are by design, and it typically is something that happens where a customer is self-serving rather than if they call the call center. The human aspect on the call center can help kind of put it in the right bucket. But a very simple one is a cave-in on the street.

So to the public, it's a defect in the street and I want to report it. And from a 311 perspective, We want to make that simple for the agency to go fulfill on that, especially in infrastructure situations like that. It's not always clear who has authority on it because it's not— you know, a customer could describe it one way, but it could certainly be something different or the agency needs a different— It could be a pothole.

Correct. So by design, some of those complaint types go to DOT first. DOT does the assessment and then DOT may in turn assign it to another agency or utility that's contracted to go do that work. That's probably the most common one. Some other ones may be, again, because a customer has described a situation and it'll get coded as such.

I can say it's relatively rare. While I appreciate the impact for those it does affect, just from a context perspective, it's about 1% of all service requests that are processed that go through a reassign process. Okay. Does OTI look into like which problems are often marked out of jurisdiction and if so, Which requests are responded to? Well, you already said that the street caving is the most popular one.

We heard from Deputy Speaker Williams the one about traffic tends to be problematic as well with the Traffic Bureau versus the NYPD. Can you speak to some of that? Yes. Again, not maybe on the specific level or the Traffic Bureau one because I think that would go to NYPD. It's just a matter within NYPD. But yet we do look at that.

My CX team that I keep referring to have done analysis over the years, including recently, to look just at that. Do we have reassigned service requests? Why do we have them? What could be done about it? And as I said in the opening testimony, that's something we're looking into. How can we do that better? And can 311 do more?

Can we enable an agency to do more? And if it is a necessary step that has to happen, how can we make that better for the customer? Is that data on the reassignment on open data? It is embedded in open data. I would say you can't— it's not a field you can click on. It's going to give you the number that I just quoted, the 1%.

But in what I called the resolution description earlier, it will have that in there that Agency A has reassigned this to Agency B. Okay. Again, going back to Deputy Speaker's question, but if a request is assigned to the correct agency but the wrong unit within an agency, Not, you know, I know NYPD is kind of a different situation, which we can talk about, but in any agency, what happens?

That can happen. There's probably 2 sides to that as well. I can't speak to the agency side of that, but from familiarity, I can say a lot of the work that agencies do, their workflow is designed to handle it. But if it goes down a different pipe, let's say, it's within the same agency, they have the ability to communicate, which you with each other in that respect to be able to respond to it.

That's a generic kind of observation, but it happens. What our role is, though, is if that is happening on a more than a one-off basis, agency contacts their agency relations counterpart. We dive into that, we'll look at it, and do we need to change the routing? Has something changed on the agency side perhaps? And if so, do we need to change the electronic form that goes to them to get it to the right workflow.

Okay. I imagine that happens often. We get a lot of feedback and then a lot of times we're digging into it. So I think a lot of the agencies are very mature in their processes, especially the infrastructure agencies who, you know, do this work on a regular basis. So I think it's pretty standard, so much so that if it does happen and we get notified, it's more of a, oh, let's jump into this and figure it out because it's not the day-to-day.

I alluded to earlier that we have a lot of bills that my colleagues want to hear on 311. Some of them are to like add categories, right? Like I have one that is my pet peeve one, which is about dog runs. Like we can't, um, report stuff that's happening in dog runs right now. There's not a category for that.

Can you walk us through the process of like what would it take to add categories? That's a simple one, but some colleagues have bills, for example, around SNAP benefits being stolen, right? Like things that are— really critical for someone who's not getting a benefit from the city that they deserve. So what's the process of adding a category?

I can definitely speak to that. There's a few different drivers that could trigger it. So yours is a great example, right? And I assume we'll hear more in a future hearing on some of those suggestions. But legislative-driven is some. Last year there was a great partnership between the council and 311 and OTI to create the new cannabis retailer complaints.

So we worked with Councilmember Brewer and then the entire process. So that's one way, right? It gets brought up in that respect. Our own team will figure it out. Hey, there's something gapped here, there's something missing here. We have a vehicle for the public to submit that situation. Council passed Local Law 97 a couple of years ago.

Mm-hmm. So that's a process that the public can identify something, and then we'll put the 311 resources and the agency resources to assess it to see if it needed. And then the agencies themselves, which is often a way to not only bring something new but also to tweak something that may be in place. So all of those are different ways, but they all at one point or another come into 311 as similar to what we do with the public as intake.

We're going to assess that, we're going to confirm it's not in place, and then what does it look like it could be, and then work with the agency or work with the mayor's office and/or work with council to be able to figure out How can we now get that into the system? Got it.

Privacy and data. So 311 privacy policy has been updated from last year? Has it been updated? I guess that's the question. It has been. Can you share with us if there has been changes to prior policy? Thank you for that one. Yes, it has been. I have to check myself on whether it's a year or a couple of months, you know, give or take.

But the privacy policy has been longstanding, as I mentioned before. Last year, we took the opportunity to strengthen it on behalf of customers. So we put some language in specific to the section that speaks to how we use your data, how we won't use your data. And I can't recall the exact language, but the goal of that was, as I said, to strengthen it on behalf of the customers.

So the following questions were— it's kind of a follow-up, but the following questions were asked of our last committee hearing, during which you respectfully offered to get back to the committee with answers. One of the questions is, according to the privacy policy, 311 does not sell, rent, or otherwise use information for marketing purposes. So for what purposes do you share users' information?

What third parties are receiving the user data? And what kind of data is being sent and for what purpose? Great. I'll do the first one. We don't share user information, and it's something that's interesting with 311. The user information, name, contact information, right, is very rare that it's needed. Most of what you can do, you don't need to provide user information, and that's by design.

Again, going back to the history of 311, because it then contributes to helping people feel comfortable and confident to be able to do that. But we do have limits around what can be shared. It's really in the interest of fulfilling that service request. So if you want to make a heat complaint, you can do that without giving your name.

If you want to make a heat complaint in your apartment, then the HPD needs your contact information. So you'll include that, but that information is not shared then with third parties. Okay. And so even your contractors, your third-party contractors, any information that is picked up in any of those scenarios is not shared? Right. So there are strict protocols to prevent that from happening.

Okay. Can OTI ensure that the mobile app data is encrypted in transit, or is that up to another party? That's a good question. I'm pausing because I don't know if I can give you a definitive answer, but OTI could give you a definitive answer. If I can get back to you on that, I'd feel more comfortable. So we'll follow up with that one.

And then, can OTI allow for user data from 311 app to be deleted if requested? I'd like to take that same approach, if you don't mind, if I can just get back to you so I can make sure we get you the correct answer. Okay. So when looking at the privacy policy, there is no set retention policy listed for personal information except for voice recordings, meaning that personal information is possibly stored indefinitely.

We retain user information for as long as is necessary to fulfill user-submitted requests or to provide ongoing assistance to a user. If a user has set up an account with 311 Contact Center, the user's information will be retained until the user deletes the account. For compliance reasons, some users' information may be retained after deletion of the account.

That's a quote from the privacy policy. Would you agree that we should set a data retention policy for personal information? I appreciate that question, and I appreciate you mentioning on the voice side there is a purging tool. Say that again. On the voice side, sorry, the call system side. The recordings, the voice recordings. And conceptually, yes, I think we should look at that, and we'd be happy to work with you on that.

Great. Do you think— okay, that's fine. Okay, I think you answered our questions. According to the privacy policy, the domain names associated with a user's device are collected. What is the purpose of the collection? Thank you for that one. I think I would prefer to be able to get back to you, if you don't mind, because I The answer I'm going to give you is based on my knowledge, but I'd rather get our experts to give me the answer to give to you.

I imagine it's the same reply, but for the cookies. Does the cookie banner provide options for users to opt out from using the nonessential cookies? Do you plan to provide that option for New Yorkers? With respect, I would appreciate being able to do that and get back to you on that one. Okay. So those are more like OTI Yes, that's why I talked to my colleagues who are very proficient in that.

Okay.

So let's talk a little bit about future plans. According to your testimony, on June 30th, 2022, and 2023, 311 will extend services to the WhatsApp messaging platform. Further, on April 25th, 2024, you confirmed those plans as it's still part of the roadmap for 311. Did it happen? It has not happened yet. We have a WhatsApp account, but we have not moved it forward to make it a channel, make it publicly available.

So it's still on our roadmap and still work in progress. What are some of the challenges there? A couple of different challenges. It's a new channel for us, right? And we don't have a good baseline on what kind of volume we would have. We have— obviously, we size it based on what we can. So we really have to figure out if we open that channel or when we open that channel up, what is going to be the demand, and then how do we staff up to meet that demand?

We don't want to be understaffing it, and especially if we're going to— even if we launch it on a pilot basis, right, we want to be able to make sure we can handle what comes in. So that's one of the pieces. And then working through the process with the WhatsApp tool itself is something that we're very cognizant of.

Yeah. So how would the WhatsApp privacy policy and terms of agreements align with 311 privacy policies? Do you know? I can't answer the question, but I can tell you that that's one of the things that we're looking at as far as the roadmap. How do we reconcile those 2 things? Okay. Okay.

Going into complaint types, Local Law 97 of 2022, can you walk us through from the beginning to the end the process for creating a new complaint or service request type for 311, which we kind of talked about a little bit? Thank you for that clarifying. Specific to the Local Law 97 process? Yeah. Okay. So since Local Law 97 has been in effect, the public can recommend or suggest or request a service request.

I'm kind of generalizing that, but there's a vehicle where they can do that. It comes into 311. We have a team that receives that and does the initial intake on it. And basically everything that comes in is considered the starting point, right? Our team, that fabulous CX team that I keep referencing, they have a group called Customer Relations who takes the first kind of look at this.

And one of the first things we do is, does this already exist? You know, it's just in a different way. And if a customer is given contact information, we can even get back to the customer and explain that. Right. But then that gets logged in a tool within 311. After that assessment, it goes to our Agency Relations team who then talks to their agency counterparts.

This is what the public is asking for, what do you think? And typically what they'll do is assess first, does it already exist? Does it exist in some form or fashion? And then it then is on the agency to look at that, consider that, and determine if they should add a service request. And keeping compliance with the local law, we provide an update every year on whether anything has moved from a suggestion to a service request.

Okay.

I want to ask a few questions about NYPD and sort of the relationship between NYPD, 311, 911. You testified earlier that— I mean, I'm saying it seems like there's some challenges in terms of oversight at NYPD because that's a different operation, right? There were some questions that the colleagues asked that you said that's better suited for NYPD to answer.

Can you explain sort of the dynamic between your 311 operation and NYPD when there are complaints that are Directed towards NYPD that are not fulfilled? Yes, I follow what you're saying there. What I can speak to is the 311 side in terms of the intake that we do. Our goal then is to make sure we're getting the information accurate, the forms are working.

We calibrate with NYPD on a regular basis to make sure, you know, they're getting routed correctly. So that's where we put our energy and our focus. We have feedback mechanisms. We have a dedicated liaison at NYPD who works with our agency relations, our senior director there. So there's always that combination. And I think I would characterize both groups as being very public-centric and using data to kind of exchange.

So I think we have a pretty good feel in that respect. But everything we do is focused on the intake and getting them what they need. And then our role kind of ends at that point and we defer to the agency. Okay. And then if someone calls 311 instead of calling 911, are they automatically routed over to 911 if it's an emergency?

I do appreciate that question. That's one of the things that we, from day one of training, that's one of the things that's reinforced to everyone in the call center. So it does happen. Someone could call 311 not knowingly or just choosing to call 311. In short order, we train and reinforce and reinforce to, if any suggestion of an emergency, any suggestion of anything dangerous, threat, incident, Transfer to 911.

We actually call it a hot transfer because all they do is hit a button and then the 911 operator comes on. So our approach is get that to the expert, get that to 911, let them make the determination if it's an emergency or not. Within the call center, we have a jargon, but it serves the purpose: when in doubt, route.

So make sure that 311 agent is not making that determination. The professional at 911 is making that determination. And I'm assuming that your training for the call center staff is robust in that area? Yes, it is. The training itself is very robust. And then even our contracted vendors follow the same protocol. But it is something that is reinforced, as I said, I think literally day 1 of training, if not day 1, day 2, because it's so important.

What about when, if there is a, let's say, We see that, for example, for the nor'easter, right? Obviously, you were expecting there to be an increase. We've seen for when there is emergencies, like weather-related emergencies, Notify NYC has a robust, like, public education campaign. I think I even did one of those PSAs where I'm like, Notify NYC.

Do you all have a similar budget or plan for PSAs around 311 and how 311 works and like what the purpose is. I find that in government, one of the things that we're often doing is clarifying for people like the expectations of what your city council member could do, what 311 can do. So is there a communication strategy behind 311?

I do share that same feeling, right? We clarify a lot of times what each one does. I will say on the NYSOM side, we work very closely with NYSOM. We have actually operational protocols where we have their command centers contacting our command center every day just to make sure our lines are communicating, right? And then everything after that, we work very closely with NYSOM.

With respect to an operating budget, no, 311 does not have a marketing budget or an outreach budget, and it's actually not ever been part of a 311. I think that that's an interesting something to look at, and I know that this is, you know, a budget question as well in the future when we have budget hearings. But I do think that it's important that New Yorkers understand the expectation and the capacity of 311 and where things lie in the ecosystem of getting them help, especially as we expand offices like the Office of Community Safety, for example.

Right. And there's some changes that are coming down the line in this administration which are exciting, but I'm not quite sure if the entire city really understands where jurisdictions fall. So more to talk about on that. We're grateful for your time today for answering all of our questions, and we look forward to a part 2 for more legislation.

And thank you so much.

You may be dismissed. Thank you. Thank you. I now open the hearing for public testimony, and I remind members of the public that this is a formal government proceeding and that decorum should be observed at all times. As such, Members of the public shall remain silent at all times, and the witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify.

No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table, and furthermore, members of the public may not present audio or video recordings as testimony, may— but may submit transcripts of such recordings to the sergeant-at-arms for inclusion in the hearing record. If you wish to speak at today's hearing, please fill out an appearance card with the sergeant-at-arms.

And wait to be recognized. When recognized, you'll have 2 minutes to speak on today's topic on New York City's 311 system, Intro 173, Intro 669, or Intro 800. If you have written statement or additional written testimony you wish to submit for the record, please provide a copy of your testimony to the sergeant-at-arms. You may, you may also email written testimony to testimony@council.nyc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing.

Audio and video recordings will not be accepted. Our panels is Jennings. Next panel. Thank you so much. Wherever you want. Wherever you'd like. Jennings. Hi. Okay, Miss Jennings, you may begin when you're ready. Oh, oh, give us— I'm sorry, 2 minutes. Yeah, okay.

Thank you so much, Miss Jennings. Miss Jennings speaking. Thank you. Hello, Mr. Barroso. I called one of the people on the committee this morning. I forget who. And the person answered, who is this? I said, constituent. And it was interesting. There were a lot of phone beeping on the other end. The wonderful man that just left, I've been stalked since 2006. 311 got so many calls from me.

And they always said that they're gonna get back to me in 2 weeks. I've been assaulted. I'm chased by mobs on every corner. I'm staying somewhere that now was H-E-L-L. Now he has cameras in there and a tracking device on me. Last week I went to family court to get what do you call it, order of protection and such.

I can't imagine where my calls are going. Because I'm gonna say something that's— in 2007, I spoke to a private eye. The private eye said he couldn't help me, but my phone would blow up. I have a joke that's not funny. FBI and NSA are the least on my phone. I can't imagine where my calls are rerouted to, 'cause it doesn't take 20 years for 311 to reach out to whatever department in NYPD, the horrible 47th Precinct, and the wonderful Riley here that's not here today, that's around the corner from where I'm at, that I've gone many times, asked for help, and gotten nothing.

And the wonderful Jumaane Williams that I saw at the oversight committee the other day, and I asked to meet with him, I don't hear from anybody. I couldn't— if I said for you to spend the day watching me, your jaw wouldn't drop. You wouldn't have a jaw. I would love to know who's sending these people messages to chase me in mobs Down on the streets.

And when I call for 311 like I did last night, because I sat and I couldn't move, I'm working on a 3rd heart attack caused by this. And I called 311 and I said, don't give me 911 because I was going to see you assess them out. It's finished?

Yes, your time is up. If you could just conclude, thank you. I beg your pardon? What? If you could just conclude. You're talking to my mic. I'm just wondering, what is Joe Morrisville doing with those 311 calls and where are they going? Because Eric Denowitz tried to get a CARE 311 that you get an assigned number. I get nothing.

So yesterday, the 25 letters went to the White House, and there's been 5,000 so far that's gone under every bus and train camera because I fear for my life and safety. Now, I would like to meet with you if it's possible, but everyone that I ask to meet with, I get pointed to the Chief of Staff, and I never meet with Okay.

Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much. If we have inadvertently missed anyone in person, please let the sergeant-at-arms know. But we do have one person on Zoom. Okay. Chaudhry Hassan. Hi. Hello? Yes, are you here to testify? Yes, thank you very much.

Good morning, Chair and distinguished member of the Committee on Technology. My name is Chaudhury Mahmood. Thank you. Please, please provide your testimony. You have 2 minutes. Thank you. Yeah, I am Chaudhury Hassan Mahmood. I'm a permanent civil service employee who is a computer specialist software at FDNOI for Board of Enterprise Technology. I have failed USMCT and I am certified PMP, CISM, and CISA.

I have previously submitted the written testimony to the Committee for Technology Oversight Investigation, Civil Service Labor, and Fire and Emergency Management, all documenting the same systematic failure somewhere in the system for the 311 and 911. I would say, like, how does it route it out? I return to raise this specific technology issue that's directly affecting everyday New Yorkers who use the 311 reporting a fire hazard.

Or fire safety complaint. So 311 is the front door of the fire safety in the city. When a resident reports an alternate fire escape, a missing exit sign, or block, you know, block entrances, this service request flows through 311 to FDNY for inspection and action. The accuracy of the routing and classification determines whether a violation gets issued, whether inspection happens, and ultimately whether a building is safe.

So the classification system depends entirely integrity on the, you know, technology infrastructure, both on FDNY, OTI, and also 311 system, as I said. The same infrastructure I documented operated without independent QA, which is competitive procurement accountability, and also, you know, requests without functioning internal audit. So these are the major issues I have found. And the misclassified 311 complaints do not inspect it.

Uninspected hazard become fires. This is a major issue nowadays. So the Committee on Technology should require FDNY and OTI to report how many 311 fire-related service requests closes out without inspection. What are the classification error rate? And are those errors— Thanks for your testimony, but your time has expired.

Thank you. Thank you. If you, if you have a suggestion for legislation or anything else, you can send that as part of your written testimony, and we'll, we're happy to review it. Thank you so much for— Sure. I, I'll send that written testimony by, by 72 hours. Thank you. Thank you so much. If we have inadvertently missed anyone who is registered to testify today and has yet to been called, please use the Zoom hand, hand raise function, and you will be called on in the order your hand has been raised.

There's no one on Zoom. So thank you all for your testimonies today, and this hearing is adjourned.