City Council debates new 10-agent customer service addition amid call diversion challenges

The San Francisco County government meeting on July 4, 2025, focused on a significant proposal regarding customer service agents within the city’s 311 system. The city administrator's office is requesting the addition of 10 new customer service agent positions, which would amount to 7.69 full-time equivalents (FTE) in the first year and 10 FTE in the second year. This initiative is projected to cost $2.41 million over two years and aims to address approximately 84,000 annual non-emergency calls currently managed by 911 and police services.

These calls include issues related to the unhoused, noise complaints, intoxicated individuals, and traffic congestion. However, calls that will be directed to specialized response teams, such as the proposed street crisis response team, street overdose response team, or street wellness response team, will not be included in this transition.

The determination of the number of positions needed is based on the current average call length. The department anticipates implementing this call transition within the first budget year, although there is currently no operational or implementation project plan or timeline in place. Each call type will necessitate the development of new workflows, protocols, and coordination among 911, 311, and other relevant agencies.

The mayor's office noted that transitioning a simpler call type, such as illegal dumping, to 311 took about five weeks to plan and implement. There are also dependencies on other departmental initiatives that are still in development, including the coordination and project management for call diversion, which will be managed by new staff in the mayor's office expected to be hired in October.

Given the complexity of the proposed call diversion transition and the significant dependencies on other initiatives, the committee views this proposal as a policy matter. They may consider denying the proposed appropriation or placing some of the positions on reserve pending further information on implementation. Additionally, a recommendation was made to delete or deny two of the proposed customer service agent positions, which the department has agreed to for the first year.