During a budget meeting in February, Chief Technology Officer Roy Fernando said he hopes to modernize city government. Specifically, Fernando’s sights are set on 311.
311 is a non-emergency line Cleveland residents can call when they have a problem or concern about a city service. For example, they could report a pothole on a city street or request assistance with trash pick-up.
Ward 14 Council Member Jasmin Santana asked during the budget meeting how many 311 support specialists are bilingual. Santana, who speaks Spanish and English, represents an area with a high concentration of residents who speak Spanish.
At the time, city officials said none of the specialists were bilingual, but callers could access translation services through LanguageLine.
Federal civil rights law requires governments and agencies that get federal money to take reasonable steps to make services accessible to folks with limited English abilities. For example, an agency cannot require someone to provide their own interpreter or refuse services because a person does not speak English.
Cleveland Documenter Dean Jackson covered the meeting and wanted to know:
How many Clevelanders use the city’s 311 LanguageLine translation service each year, and what are their needs and demographics?
Dean Jackson, Cleveland Documenter
What we learned
The city still has no bilingual support staffing the 311 line, according to city spokesperson Marie Zickefoose. Call takers for 311 still rely on LanguageLine to meet the needs of non-English-speaking residents.
In 2022, LanguageLine handled:
- 497 calls to the 311 line
- 5,271 minutes of conversation
- 85% of the translated calls were Spanish
Using the current system, the city can’t trace the reason for each call. But when a $4 million upgrade of the 311 platform launches – possibly next year – it will track the reason for calls and how the calls were resolved, Zickefoose said in an email.
The Follow Up
Issue 38 debaters used the same study to prove points about voter engagement. Who was right?
The study debaters cited found that people who voted in a PB election were more likely to vote in a regular election in the future.