| Customer and Support Services |
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| Mission Statement
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| The Customer and Support Services Department is a self-directed work team guided by six division managers and reporting directly to the Mayor's Office. We are a diverse group providing administrative support services to all City Departments and managing several administrative processes (City Clerk Licensing and Parking Control) to the public.
Our mission is to be the service and resource of choice for our customers in a friendly, efficient and equitable manner. |
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| Trends, Issues, and Opportunities |
 | PARKING - There is concern over the impact as a result of the slow economy and decreased business activity downtown. The impact of these items has reduced revenues and activities. |
| PARKING - The electronic Parking System is outdated and needs to be replace in ordet to provide e-business capabilities and more efficiently address customer service needs. |
| COMMUNICATIONS - The division is currently working with the Information Technology Division to identify cost savings related to telephone services. |
| COMMUNCIATIONS - Revenue from various non-city government agencies (such as Meridian Police Department) may be impacted from the economic slowdown. However, the strong population growth of some of the outlying areas may offset this loss. This will be a key watch area. |
| COMMUNICATIONS - The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has mandated narrow banding requirements that must be considered over the next 5 years. Various solutions will need to be researched and subsequent actions taken to comply while maintaining the serviceability and interoperability of our radio systems. |
| COMMUNCIATIONS - The division is working with the Boise Police Department for the move to digital radio technology with limited financial resources. |
| MAIL SERVICES - It is anticipated that U.S. Postal Service rates and fees will remain constant until 2006. |
| MAIL SERVICES - As departments continue to build and occupy facilities outside City Hall, mail delivery expense (personnel time, fuel, vehicle maintenance) will increase. |
| PRINTING SERVICES - Requests for printed documents are becoming increasingly complex, and customers are expecting much higher sophistication than the simple black on white printing jobs of years past. Most significant in this regard are full-color printing and variable-data electronic printing. |
| PRINTING SERVICES - Blank paper purchases/usage by individual departments continues to remain high, probably indicating a more expensive route to document reproduction on small printers and copiers. Sales of blank white paper averages nearly half a million sheets per month. We are concerned about the "hidden" expenses being incurred by departments as they produce large quantities (2.43 tons each month) of printed material on smaller, less-efficient machines. These figures are for white paper only; we also sell blank colored paper to departments. |
| PRINTING SERVICES - Central Services is noting a marked increase in the employment of ink-jet color printers by various departments. The proliferation of these small machines throughout all departments has led to high volume "convenience" printing at higher costs per page. Color toner for ink-jet printers is very expensive, and the quality of the printed page is usually inferior. Use of high-quality laser color copies in the print shop is recommended for lower net cost to the City. |
| CITY CLERK - Technology: There is an increasing demand from the public for information. Staff is continuing to develop electronic systems that enable the public to retrieve more public information remotely 24/7. The ease of access will help promote community trust while reduce staff time for retrieval of information. |
| CITY CLERK - Quality childcare continues to be a very important component of a healthy community with a focus on childcare components through regulations, inspections, and education while leveraging opportunities through coalition building. |
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| Two-Year Budget Highlights |
| PARKING - Due to budget constraints and the slow economy, we are not proposing any changes in our current operation or budget. We are working to improve our technology and to streamline our processes to improve customer service and maintain our current level of services without dollar or FTE increases. |
| COMMUNICATIONS - Due to budget constraints and the economic slowdown, we are not proposing any changes in our current operational budget. We are working to meet customer needs without dollar increases. Our objective is to maintain current levels of service through increased efficiency and reduced workloads in some areas related to 911 support. |
| CENTRAL SERVICES - Staff will continue striving to provide excellent customer service in both printing services and mailing services. Budget constraints are severely taxing our abilities in these areas, but we're constantly shifting our resources to meet the areas of greatest need. Of concern is the aging of equipment in the print shop and bindery, much of which has far exceeded anticipated useful life. |
| CITY CLERK - We are not requesting any additional budget resources due to the economic times even though like other departments and divisions, there is a great deal of pressure for additional public requests. |
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| Accomplishments |
| PARKING - Grove Street Garage: Exterior renovation of GSPG has made significant improvements to safety, appearance, street and traffic function, signage and public art. |
| PARKING - We began accepting credit/debit card payments at the counter and over the phone for parking tickets. The public response has been exceptional. |
| COMMUNICATIONS - Telephone services for City Hall have been consolidated and inventoried resulting in cost savings for the city. |
| COMMUNICATIONS - The entire fleet of radio equipment for Parks, Public Works, Boise Fire Department, and Boise Police Department has been reprogrammed to the new Public Safety frequencies. This was also an opportunity to do a physical inventory of equipment, thus updating our asset inventory. |
| PRINTING SERVICES - Overall turnaround time for printing jobs has improved dramatically, primarily due to the new electronic publishing system. Many customers comment favorably on the "immediate attention" given to their requests, such as publishing the Forensic Audit overnight. Staff is increasing its expertise on the system, and more printing jobs are now being produced directly from computer to our high-speed printers. As an example of increased capability, time required for utility bill printing has been reduced from three days to three hours. |
| CITY CLERK - Records Center - We completed an audit of the facility and with the support of city departments were able to reduce the number of stored boxes by 15%. |
| MAILING SERVICES - Wrote and published comprehensive Boise City Mail User's Guide. This 40-page reference manual covers all aspects of inter-department and U.S. mail, and is posted for the use of City employees on the "Inside" intranet webpage. |
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| Human
Resource Summary |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
| Actuals |
Revised |
Base |
Base |
| Administrative Support | 26.91 | 26.91 | 25.91 | 25.91 | | First Line Supervisor | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.00 | | Key Business Managers | 5.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 | | Professional | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | | Service and Maintenance | 9.84 | 9.84 | 9.84 | 9.84 | | Technical Specialist | 11.00 | 11.00 | 11.00 | 11.00 |
| Total |
57.75 |
57.75 |
56.75 |
56.75 |
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