WORCESTER— Concerns voiced by Balis Ave residents regarding uncleared debris on their street prompted inquiries into the processing of 311 work orders in the city during Tuesday night’s city council meeting.
During Tuesday night’s city council meeting, John Malvarose and Kerrie Schofield of Balis Ave. indicated that the 311 service is failing them. The couple said they filed reports on the 311 app, made calls, and sent emails notifying the city of rocks, dirt, mud, and debris, including crushed asphalt, that drains onto their street from a private road, but the work orders were closed out without any work being done.
Malvarose said the debris makes its way onto their street multiple times a year and some of the rocks are large enough to cause pedestrians to trip and cyclists to crash.
“My wife had called numerous times, had numerous emails back and forth with different members of the city government and the work order had been closed but the work had not been done,” Malvarose said.
Ultimately, after last week’s city council meeting, the city came out and cleaned up all the debris, but Malvarose said the issue could have been avoided if work and attention had been given to the 311 app.
The couple has been participating in public comment surrounding the app, according to Malvarose, who said Schofield was responsible for getting the street sweeping/washout portion added to the app.
“We’re definitely trying to be part of the solution to help keep our neighborhood safe,” Malvarose said.
“What we’re realizing is that the 311 app, 311 customer service, and the DPW frankly are failing us as of late,” Schofield said.
City Manager Eric Batista explained that the app is just a tool for residents to communicate with the municipal government. The city has a system, CSRS, that establishes the work orders and manages the workflow on everything from inspection services to snow operations.
Multiple departments log into that system, where they are assigned different tasks, some of which come from the 311 app.
Regarding the situation on Balis Ave, Batista said that someone in a particular department closed the order without proper communication, engagement, or action.
“That’s an issue we need to address and we need to address that internally to figure out where was the breakdown,” Batista said, “and why did that occur within the departments so that it doesn’t happen again.” He added that the city owes it to residents to not only take care of the issue but also communicate with them.
Councilor At-Large Khrystian King asked for an analytics report on the app including information related to responsiveness.
District 3 Councilor George Russell asked for a report on why the city was closing out requests to clear the debris without actually clearing it. During the meeting, the councilor called the situation “frustrating.”
Worcester launched the 311 mobile app in July 2023 as residents’ “one-stop resources for all non-emergency questions,” according to a press statement, allowing residents to make requests related to trash, streets and sidewalks, trees, and more.
In a blog post explaining the 311 app, Batista said that while the city was developing the app, it found it had a patchwork of systems and solutions to run different things such as payroll and municipal services without a long-term integration strategy.
“Integrating the back-end systems is important,” Batista wrote, “for efficiency, transparency, and convenience for you. Integrating each of our back-end applications will automate and streamline our processes so that we don’t drop the ball.” If the city’s systems aren’t connected it could also lead to duplicated efforts, according to the post.
Batista wrote in the post that the city has a lot of work to do to get all of the systems integrated but once they are, it will make the lives of residents and employees easier.
“We know glitches are always possible, but they will get resolved,” Batista wrote.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford, and Antigua and Barbuda. Her work has been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
