Information Services Advisor Board
MINUTES
September 8, 2008
Council Executive Conference Room #10035
316 N. Academy Street, Cary, North Carolina
Call to order
The meeting was called to order at 6:01 p.m.
Present
Mary Margaret Barnes, Bruce Brown (6:06 p.m.), Lee Douglas, Thomas Eck, Mark Evangelista, Helen Hutchings, John Nolander, Council Liaison Julie Robison (6:42 p.m.), Staff Liaisons Susan Moran and Teri Peralta
Absent
Terra Brown-Shelton, John Fitzpatrick, Vijay Raghavendran
Approval of Minutes
Mr. Douglas moved to approve the minutes from the August 4, 2008 meeting. Ms. Hutchings provided the second and the motion carried unanimously.
Old/New Business: Development Process
Ms. Moran provided members the materials from the case they asked to research and indicated that the videos of the related public hearings and council discussions would be provided on a DVD at the next meeting. As a follow-up to the board’s request to be included on a current case, she explained that, while there was a good case, it had already started leaving no time to bring them into the process. She added that staff would continue to watch for an appropriate case.
Mr. Brown arrived at 6:06 p.m.
Old/New Business: Citizen Communication
Ms. Moran asked that the board consider the idea of a 3-1-1 one-stop, a staffed information telephone number, stating that the Town currently has separate call centers. She noted that this has been considered by the Town before, but has not been pursued. If it were to be implemented, she explained that a public information center would likely be staffed with several people who have a good understanding of how the various departments work so that the caller could get an answer to their question without being transferred. Ms. Moran observed that this would require a lot of resources and a lot of training, but it would provide a high level of service. Mr. Nolander observed that many businesses and organizations are moving away from 3-1-1 operators and moving toward client self-assist programs.
Ms. Moran continued by noting that Mr. Coleman tasked Mr. Stice, Director of Technology Services, with setting up a team of staff members to officially review 3-1-1 in a timeframe that would allow it to be considered as part of FY10 budget. She suggested to the board that they would want to determine if this is something they would want to do some research of their own and contribute their findings to the staff team.
The board made several observations concerning the use of call centers by other municipalities and by corporations. When asked if dissatisfaction with the current process has been expressed, Ms. Moran stated that Mr. Coleman has noticed a national trend and was looking for additional information on the subject, specifically to determine if there is a need for one central number to get anywhere in Town, and, if so, who would answer it and what the expectations would be for such a program.
Ms. Moran added that at this time there are no cross-platform systems in place, no process for tracking calls between departments. She added that council and administration might benefit from such a system so that if a call is received from a citizen with unresolved issues, they would have a way of assessing the situation quickly and providing the citizen an accurate response.
Ms. Robison arrived at 6:42 p.m.
The board turned attention to communication with citizens, both reaching out with information and receiving information from citizens, and discussed some of the barriers that hinder effective communication. Ms. Moran encouraged members to continue discussions about how to overcome problems with communication.
Statement of Findings
Mr. Eck observed “we are a hammer looking for a nail,” adding that the board needs to identify what it is they want to address regarding improving communications with citizens. The board agreed that they need to have a clearer understanding of what citizens want before a concise plan to move forward can be established.
Watch List: Web Site Overhaul
Ms. Moran indicated that there have been a lot of discussions about the comments the board made concerning the launch of the updated Web site. She noted that until recently they were still targeting a September 30 launch date but, with approximately 22,000 files needing to be tagged, staff agreed with the ISAB that a soft launch of the new site made sense so that both sites are up simultaneously with the new one temporarily having a different URL. She explained that access to the new site would be limited to those providing feedback and it is hoped the new site will become finalized January first and the old site removed. The board supported this approach.
Watch List: Dynamic Message Signs
Mr. Eck observed that the sign on NC 55 is now operational. Ms. Moran confirmed that it has now been hooked up to power.
Watch List: Open Meetings Legislative Action
Ms. Moran stated that nothing is currently happening with open meetings legislation. She noted that a local bill was passed by session granting Hyde County authority to conduct open meetings electronically and explained that it would be up to council when they set legislative goals this year to determine if they want to get added on to that bill.
Watch List: Citizen Issue Review Commission
Ms. Moran indicated that the CIRC have had their orientation meeting and their first official meeting will coming up next week. She noted that at the last operations committee meeting one of the items for discussion had to do with the Town paying for decorative street lighting and the committee directed staff to have this to the CIRC. She explained that council did not set up the commission for staff to direct issues through this group, but was designed for citizens to bring issues forward to the review commission, and then for the review commission to decide if it is appropriate to be brought to council for authority to create a task force. Ms. Moran added that the CIRC is not ready to receive applications at this time because their procedures are not yet in place, and once it is up and running it will be a six or seven month process for an issue to be resolved.
Citizen Comments
Ms. Robison stated that she was speaking with a vice president at Progress Energy who told her that Cary is a great place and the staff is so easy to work with, the VP asked how the plans for the downtown streetscape project and Cary Elementary were going and then said, “I don’t even have to tell you what to do, you just do it and you seem to know what citizens want.”
Member Comments
Mr. Nolander stated that adding flashers to the school signs is wonderful, adding that he’s even seen adolescent boys slow down. Mr. Eck noted that he appreciated the door hangers being placed in his neighborhood 24 hours before smoke testing. Ms. Robison added that the Wake County PTA president came to Cary with an award to thank the police department for the upgrade to the school zone signs.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 7:18 p.m.