|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
NEW BEDFORD — Mayor Jon Mitchell showcased a new mobile app for city residents to pay bills, request service, and even apply for a city job. The app, NBConnected, is available in the Apple and Google Stores for download.
“It’s going to make New Bedford outstanding at delivering services,” Mitchell said Tuesday. App users can report a pothole, request tree-trimming, pay for parking meters, apply for permits, and pay water or tax bills, among other uses. Many services initiated in the app will re-direct to existing city webpages, but the new interface streamlines work requests and — crucially, according to Mitchell — notifies residents on progress.
For example, if a resident reports a pothole, they can now track their work request as it’s accepted and until it’s completed. “When people see the work, they gain appreciation, are more patient … and build trust” with the city government, Mitchell said.
Also launched this week is a 311 phone service, which Mitchell said allows for a similar one-stop shop for constituent services that will improve the city’s operations and residents’ experiences — especially for seniors or those without a smartphone. Now, anyone in New Bedford who dials 311 will be connected with options for all city services, presented in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
For Mitchell, these new services “reflect a greater integration” of city services and promote the city’s “data-centered” approach. All municipal service requests — whether through the app, website, or 311 — will be tracked in a spreadsheet that allows the city to evaluate their performance over time.
Eventually, the city hopes to build a public-facing dashboard where users can monitor all requests — which is a feature of 311 systems in other cities.
Jim Costa, the city’s superintendent of wastewater, said he partnered with Granicus, a software company with municipal clients, to build and refine the app for New Bedford’s needs. The company was chosen because of its easy-to-use interface and ability to integrate with existing city systems, Costa said. The contract to build the app was funded with $82,000 from the city’s ARPA funds, and the city will pay a yearly $100,000 subscription fee to keep the app running.
The new NBConnected replaces the now-defunct “See, Click, Fix” app that housed limited city services.
Most cities with integrated 311 systems are much larger than New Bedford, said Christina Connelly, the city’s chief operating officer. But New Bedford looked to cities like Worcester, Providence, and Boston for models. In the future, Mitchell said that both the city’s fire and police departments will look into apps or other digital technologies for interacting with the public.
One hometown feature of the new 311 service is Geovanny Sequeira, the 27-year-old New Bedford native who provides the voice-over for the telephone service. Sequiera works in the City Hall as a community relations specialist, and he welcomes callers in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Sequeira said it’s a bit intimidating to be the voice of his city, but he was excited to provide his services.
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
I myself prefer a live person. Yes, it will be able to get more done, is it going to cut staff. That upkeep of 100000 is possibly 2 entry level clerks pay. Silvie has always been the one I call when there are problems, she is always kind and helpful. Will we be able to ask if it is a human or robot on the other end of the phone. More of our personal info at risk.
Live people cost more.
Are city taxes too low?
Your personal information can, and is, stolen by live people.
The information is stored on computers which can be hacked. Although there are many dishonest people but many people can be bonded. I trust a person over a computer anyone can hack, any day. As for taxes, it is what it is. Computers and systems need updates, security and techs that know what is what. Many pays involved in that. Sorry, not sorry. Silvie is the best and she gets to the problem and solves it, almost instantly.
I did a call online years ago, the tree has still not been cut. The ups drivers and fed ex roofs are hitting the trees.nthey are connected to wires. They have since grown 2 feet. When the electric gets wiped out in the neighborhood, I’ll say I told you so. Oh yah, computer programs are great, NOT!
Ok, but when is the city going to fix the city website? Why spend so much on new separate apps when CoNB can just fix the website? And the seeclickfix site was useless because it auto-acknowledged but failed to show when the issue was resolved. Does the 311 offer more transparency? Can i use the 311 system on a browser without downloading more bloat to my phone?
Not sure ask AI, which will have you go through 10 different entry lines to get to what you need. Do you ever get directly in with anything now a days. First, do you speak English, then that will go into other languages, then you’ll get to what you want and it will say I don’t understand. Where just calling a person and asking a question in which they would have direct access to answers. I say person over computer any day.
Well i went to test it, and it’s as expected. On par with the awful city website. Did the city not pay for user testing? So frustrating.