After spending millions of taxpayer dollars to professional services contractors, in a secret bidding and award process, on the city’s 311 system, including an “upgrade” to connect the system to departments, Mayor Ray Nagin has shut down the 311 system, blaming budget shortfalls.

Citizens should now direct their questions and complaints directly to departments:

The 311 phone reporting system that handled city issues and problems has been dissolved.

Effective immediately, *call 658-2299* and follow the prompts:

Press #1 for Public Works (potholes, clogged drains, missing street signs and traffic signal outages)

Press #2 for Housing / Code Enforcement (status of a hearing, report a blighted structure)

Press #3 for Environmental Health (vacant lot with high grass)

Press #4 for Department of Revenue (property tax, sales tax, occupational license, sanitation fee removal)

Press #5 for Parks & Parkways (City tree trim request or downed trees)

Press #6 for Emergency Preparedness (house elevation, hazardous mitigation, city assisted evacuation plan, Dept of Homeland Security)

Press #0 for all other Department / Agencies

To report streetlight outages, call 658.2299 and follow the prompts for streetlights. You will be directly connected with Robinson Industries, the City’s contracted streetlight repair vendor.

Tags: 311, Contracts, Ray Nagin, Transparency

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 9:37 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.