Director seeks two FTEs, CRM replacement as 3-1-1 outlines rising translation and overtime costs

Muinden Zimbi, director of the 3-1-1 Service Center, told the Minneapolis Budget Committee on Sept. 13 that the mayor's recommended 2025-26 budget would reclassify the operations manager to a deputy director and requests two additional full-time employees to staff the South Minneapolis Community Safety Center.

Zimbi said the department now has 43 staff and that, while non-personnel costs are largely flat, translation services and overtime have driven recent increases. "Replacing Lagan with a modern CRM system is essential point for improving service delivery," she said, describing Lagan as outdated and limited in enterprise functionality.

Why it matters: The 3-1-1 operation routes resident requests and basic transactions across phone, web and in-person channels. Committee members pressed staff on how budget changes would affect residents' ability to access services, whether performance metrics justify added staff and how a new CRM could reduce manual work.

Zimbi gave several concrete figures: in 2023 about 17,600 people walked into the service center and the department recorded roughly 23,100 total transactions; the call center received about 288,000 calls and roughly 50,000 emails in 2023, and she said about 27% of those contacts (about 93,000) resulted in service requests. She said roughly 131,400 cases were entered into Lagan across channels. Zimbi said the web portal supports about 193 of 238 case types and the mobile app supports only 14, which she described as a limiting factor for residents.

On costs, Zimbi said translation spending rose from a budgeted $5,000 in 2023 to $25,000 actual and is expected to be $35,000 in 2024; the department plans to reallocate $30,000 for translation in 2025. She also cited increased overtime related to extended hours during large events, noting budgeted overtime in 2023 was $9,500 while actual overtime reached $25,000.

Budget staff gave context for year-over-year salary changes. Justin Carlson, principal budget and evaluation analyst, told the committee the roughly 11.7% salary-and-wage increase in 3-1-1's 2025 budget is largely driven by the two new FTEs for the community safety center, the reclassification to deputy director and a budget-neutral shift that moves previously contractual overtime into personnel; removing those items, Carlson said, leaves base salary growth close to 4%.

Committee members asked for follow-up data. Council Member Cashman requested the operational metrics and the SLAs that 3-1-1 uses to measure response and case-closure times; Chair Chuktai said staff would provide those figures in administrative follow-up. Council President Payne asked about weekend coverage historically and about potential integration between the council's Azure CRM and the city's future 3-1-1 CRM; Zimbi said weekend coverage was discontinued years ago for capacity and low call volume and that integration possibilities would be explored as part of the CRM planning process.

Zimbi highlighted several pilot programs and partnerships that shaped the department's requests: a 3-1-1 outreach pilot called "3-1-1 on the go" to allow agents to file requests on residents' behalf at events, a Metro Transit partnership enabling reduced-fare rides for some customers, and a pilot of external-facing smart lockers for secure document delivery.

Next steps: Zimbi said the RFP for a new CRM will be finalized in 2024 and posted in 2025; the committee asked for administrative follow-ups with metrics, IVR savings details and overtime hours. The 3-1-1 presentation was filed for the record and the committee moved to the IT/TIP presentations.

Ending: The committee did not take a formal vote on staffing or CRM funding at the meeting; members requested additional budget detail and performance metrics as follow-up.