Mayor's office shifts 311 to DPW, creates neighborhood liaisons and holds to no-tax proposal

Councilwoman Marilyn E. Rossetti opened the committee's budget hearing and introduced the mayor's office presentation.

James Wolf, the mayor's chief of staff, told the committee the administration "made the strategic decision to split off 3 1 1, from community engagement and place it under DPW" to improve responsiveness and get answers to residents faster. He said the call-center manager now reports directly to DPW's deputy director and that the shift is intended to route the large majority of DPW-related calls more efficiently.

Wolf said the administration will not move forward with a single director for community engagement and instead will "hire community liaisons that have geographic responsibilities." Those liaisons, he said, will provide constituent services in defined neighborhoods, attend NRZ and community meetings, and support boards and commissions that need administrative help.

On finances, Wolf said the mayor's office recommended an FY27 budget that includes "no tax increases or cuts to services" and highlighted partnership work with Hartford Public Schools and monitoring of federal funding that could affect city programs.

Council members pressed for details: Council President Clark asked which specific mayor's-office positions are nonresident employees; Wolf identified a social-media communications position and an executive assistant to a special assistant as examples and offered to provide exact residency counts on follow-up. Clark also asked whether the universal child-care initiative would rely only on city-run early learning centers; Deputy Christian Corzo said the goal is an overarching model that starts with city-operated slots and would expand with state collaboration.

Why it matters: The 311 administrative move changes how residents' service requests are routed and may produce faster response times for DPW-related issues. Replacing a director role with dispersed liaisons shifts staff resources toward neighborhood-level outreach and may affect how the city staffs constituent services going forward.

What's next: The mayor's office agreed to follow up with the council with precise staffing counts and a timeline for appointments to the Hartford Next board.