🚀 go-pugleaf

Here is an article that might tell you what it will be like living in DC.  ITs 
from the Washington Post.  If you like paying more in taxes to a corrupt 
government that cant keep the streets safe, and have no representation in 
Congress, then I suggest you move to DC.


Dialing for the District: Lots of Wrong Numbers
                  On Dozens of Calls, Phones or Questions Go Unanswered

                  By Susan Levine
                  Washington Post Staff Writer
                  Sunday, February 7, 1999; Page A20 

                  The phone rings. Once, twice, 15 times. It's late Thursday 
morning at the  District's social services headquarters, and in the chief 
administrator's office at  Emergency Shelter and Support, no one bothers to 
pick up.

                  Elsewhere, a second phone rings. Once, twice. A woman 
answers: "Office of Employee Appeals." What type of appeals do you handle, 
please? "Grievances  suspensions," she begins. She is uncertain of much past 
that. "I don't know   what jurisdictions are covered. . . . You need to talk 
to a judge."

                  Another office, another ringing phone. "Office of Tax and 
Revenue Forms. How may I assist you?" The voice is female and pleasantly 
competent. Is this the place to get paperwork for filing 1998 taxes? "Yes, 
ma'am. We're at 442    Fourth Street Northwest, and this is Suite 550 North." 
Are there other locations with those forms? "Yes, ma'am, neighborhood 
libraries should have them." 

  Three calls, three different experiences. These days, dialing D.C. 
government  offices is like sticking your hand in a school carnival grab bag: 
You never know what you're going to get.

                  The inconsistent service -- often lacking -- was quickly 
obvious last week as  Washington Post reporters made nearly 300 random calls 
to city agencies,  boards and commissions, checking phone numbers, confirming 
addresses,  requesting the kind of basic information about an office's 
programs or procedures that the public might seek.

                  The elections and ethics office was asked whether someone 
who hadn't voted   in a while should register anew. (It's not necessary.) 
Youth Employment   Programs was asked about helping a teenager find an 
after-school job   (Assistance isn't available now, but a young person can 
register for the 1999  summer jobs program.)

                  The reporters did not identify themselves unless questioned. 
Their goal was to   anonymously test Mayor Anthony A. Williams's pledge that 
his new and  improved government will be much more responsive to residents and
                  consumers alike -- starting with its telephones.

                  "We need to reduce the time that citizens are put on hold, 
or bounced through purgatory, only to find that no one can answer their 
question," Williams said during his inaugural speech on Jan. 2. "We need to 
replace 'I don't know' with 'I'll find out,' and 'It's not my job' with 'Let 
me try to help.'

                  "One way or another," he promised, "those phones will be 
answered promptlyand professionally. They will be answered."

                  A month into his administration, that's still far from the 
case. Certainly,  Williams would be pleased by many city workers' manners. 
Except for isolated  instances of glaring rudeness -- "Why'd they transfer you 
up here to me?" one  receptionist complained -- the women and men on the other 
end of the line   were polite and even gracious. They said ma'am and sir. They 
thanked callers   for waiting or apologized for putting them on hold. They 
wished them a nice   day.

                  Several volunteered the names of the nearest subway station, 
in case the caller  was traveling to a city office by Metro. Others offered 
their names in case the  caller needed to contact them again.

                  Still, the niceties and etiquette in some offices can be 
overshadowed by the ineptitude and inefficiency in others.

                  Throughout city government, dozens and dozens of telephone 
numbers ring  futilely, no matter what the hour of the morning or afternoon. 
No recording  saying whether the office or board has been reorganized or is 
out of business.  No suggestion of another number to try. No voice mail so the 
caller can leave a   message.

                  The Board of Appraisers never picked up; nor did the 
Elevator Inspection  Branch within the Department of Consumer and Regulatory 
Affairs (the "new    DCRA," stressed employees who answered in other sections 
of the agency).     The number for recorded program information at City Cable 
16 didn't connect,   and after 13 rings at 202-724-5396, the line for burial 
information simply went  . . . dead.

                  Dial the listing for Employee Consultation and Counseling 
Service within the    Alcohol and Drug Abuse Service Administration, and 
suddenly you're talking to  a secretary at Benjamin Banneker High School. She 
gets lots of calls for the  alcohol and drug abuse service.

                  "Oh, my goodness, every day," she says. "If I have 15 
messages, nine of them  are for that." Could she pass on the right number? "I 
don't know it. I've tried to  find out. I'd love to give it out. . . . If you 
get it, will you call me back?"

                  Or try 202-727-0438, supposedly for the Geriatric Day Care 
Program within   the Commission of Mental Health Services. And wait, wait -- 
until suddenlythe  painful squeal of a fax machine pierces your eardrum.

                  Maybe the commission's administrative office at 202-373-7166 
might have aggestion. What geriatric day care is available in the District, 
please? "I have
                  no idea," a woman there replies. Who would have that 
information? "Let me
                  transfer you to our community services office at 
202-373-7297."

                  At the community services office, there is another woman, 
brusque and
                  impatient, who passes on 202-673-9000, where another person 
passes on
                  202-673-9030, where someone finally confirms that this is a 
geriatric day-care
                  center at D.C. General Hospital. Would she have information 
on how to reach
                  other centers in the city?

                  "I have no idea," she says.

                  Excluding schools and the University of the District of 
Columbia, the 1999
                  D.C. One Book includes nearly a dozen pages of city 
government entities --
                  more than 1,400 telephone numbers for everything from the 
Animal Disease
                  Control Division to the Office on Zoning. The Post used the 
One Book because
                  the Williams administration, despite several requests, did 
not provide a
                  complete and current printout of city offices. (The list it 
finally sent on the
                  third day listed only Cabinet officials and high-ranking 
contacts for the mayor.)

                  These numbers represent the voice of city government. As 
much as any
                  face-to-face contact, perhaps even more than Williams 
himself, they signal
                  whether Washington is a city that works, whether its 
government is there for
                  the people rather than the other way around.

                  Handling the phones according to the mayor's three-point 
plan -- correctly,
                  courteously and knowledgeably -- may not seem that 
difficult. But in the
                  District, it long has appeared to be a quixotic, even 
impossible quest. As far
                  back as 1982, then-Mayor Marion Barry acknowledged the 
challenge. "If I can
                  just get everybody to answer the telephone right, that's 
drastic, that's
                  revolutionary," he said.

                  At least now, most offices in city government have replaced 
those limiting
                  rotary phones with touch-tone models.

                  Williams reiterated yesterday that he will not tolerate 
inaction. "I made a
                  commitment to professionally answering the phones a top 
priority not just
                  because of the volumes of complaints but because I've had 
personal experience
                  with unresponsive District agencies -- every agency, even my 
own office," he
                  said.

                  The bar for improvement is even higher when it comes to 
serving
                  Spanish-speaking residents. Few offices seem to have 
bilingual employees
                  available for telephone queries, even at critical service 
programs such as public
                  housing complexes, the motor vehicles department or Head 
Start. Bilingual
                  recordings that refer callers are rare.

                  A woman at the customer service number at the Department of 
Human
                  Services responded, "No espa�ol, not at the moment we don't. 
Sorry," when
                  pressed, in Spanish, for someone who could help in that 
language. At the
                  information number for the Department of Employment 
Services, the answer
                  was not even that elaborative, only a terse "no" and then 
silence.

                  The situation is no less confounding for the public schools, 
with many
                  administration numbers no longer good because the school 
system moved from
                  its headquarters on 12th Street NW to 825 North Capitol St. 
last fall.

                  People who call the old central number, 202-724-4222, are 
guided through an
                  automated system. If they press the right buttons, they are 
connected to one of
                  six offices in the new building or to an operator. But other 
directory numbers,
                  including the one for the Board of Education, ring 
endlessly. Student records
                  has an out-of-service recording with no forwarding 
information. Ditto the
                  superintendent's office.

                  For some, the solution could be the Internet site that the 
District government
                  plans to launch soon; a Web page lends maximum flexibility 
for keeping
                  numbers current. But for the many city residents without 
computer access,
                  phone books will have to suffice.

                  "We are going to have to make sure that the information that 
the telephone
                  books have is accurate, and we will do that and update it," 
said Peggy
                  Armstrong, the mayor's director of communications.

                  Even when a telephone number is correct, however, the 
simplest question can
                  fail to elicit a simple answer -- or any answer at all.

                  Yet another phone call. A woman's voice: "Boxing and 
Wrestling Commission."

                  Could she please provide a brief overview of what the 
commission does? "You
                  need to talk to the deputy commissioner, Mr. Ware," she 
says. Gilbert Ware
                  gets on the telephone.

                  "What do you need?" he asks. An overview of what the 
commission does,
                  please. Mr. Ware says he is tied up and that it is hard to 
give an overview over
                  the phone. He hands the receiver to another woman.

                  "May I help you?" this woman inquires. Could she provide an 
overview of
                  what the commission does? The woman turns back to Mr. Ware: 
"She wants
                  to know what y'all do."

                  Mr. Ware takes the phone one more time. "You have to come to 
the office for
                  an overview." 


In article <XB%o3.65$dP4.1283@dfw-read.news.verio.net>, "MrKablooey�" 
<mrkablooey@hotmail.com> wrote:
>While I can't give you specifics, DC is a great place to live if you find
>the right spot.  Good luck in your search.
>mrk
>
>