Council and staff agree to fix customer‑service triage and reduce operational calls to elected officials

Multiple councilmembers described receiving frequent calls about operational matters and expressed a desire to be more strategic. One councilmember summarized the concern: "I don't want my mayor and council getting those requests...I want it coming to staff and coming up the chain" (Committee member, S4).

Staff acknowledged existing tracking systems for calls in some departments but said misrouted calls and social‑media escalation often create duplicate work and delayed responses. Participants discussed practical fixes including technology improvements to the call center (311), automated routing links, and clearer public messaging directing residents to the correct operational point of contact. A staff speaker said that if the city could route issues correctly, "we can get a great deliverable by the time budgets are in place where our dollars match priorities." (Staff member, S11)