Boston Council Presses for 311 Quality Team, Better Abutters Notices in FY24 Hearings

BOSTON — June 2, 2023 — Boston's City Council budget panel scrutinized 311 and neighborhood services funding at a June 2 hearing, with no votes taken but several policy commitments extracted from the administration. Councilor-at-Large Julia M. Mejia chaired the Ways and Means session, which featured Brianna Malora, chief of community engagement, Enrique Pepin, executive director of the Office of Neighborhood Services, and Ergie Boudo, director of Boston 311. The administration's headline ask is a quality-assurance team of two agents and two supervisors within 311 — currently the office handles roughly 377,000 calls a year with no dedicated mechanism to flag overdue service requests or report case closures back to council offices. Council President Edward M. Flynn pressed hard on the city's abutters notification system, warning that developers who defer zoning hearings face no legal obligation to re-notice neighbors and that ONS's new plan to post meetings in its weekly newsletter must extend to deferred dates, not just initial ones. Mejia announced co-sponsorship of budget amendments with Councilor Brian Worrell to fund civic associations for technical assistance and to create mini-grants for Boston Public Schools students to improve school culture and climate.