By my last count, the City maintains 21 separate "call centers" for different services.  

Want to report a street light out? You have to look up a number for that and you will be routed to a call center in the Streets Division.  You have a problem with a water leak?  You have to find a different number and you reach a different call center in the Water Department.  See some grafitti in your neighborhood?  Yep, go find yet another number and you can reach another service desk.  You get the point.

For a time city staff had been participating in a "planning process" sponsored by the City's Customer Service division to develop some ideas on how to improve customer service across city departments.  Here is a link to a 2007 status report.  Notice how the City is committed to a 311 Service Center.  Here is the 2008 status report one year later.   Gone is the 311 Service Center idea.  What are we left with?  Pushing NBC 7-39 to publicize "good deeds" of city employees.  Oh and by the way, the Customer Service department has now been eleminated.

As the city spins its wheels on a year-long "planning process" other cities across the country are not only moving to the "311 Service Center" model they are going even further.  They realize that you have to transform the process by which we serve the taxpayers.  A 311 Service Center is not just about giving the public a one-stop shop.  Cities across the country have learned that the one-stop experiments usually result in integrating and streamlining various service processes.  It is not just an end, it is a means to an end.

A recent article in the American City and County Magazine talks about how some cities are taking the 311 model a step further and creating one-stop service portals online.  Looks like the City of San Diego is two generations behind customer service.   Citizens deserve better....