The City of Burlington, VT Meets Spike in COVID-19 Related Needs with Creativity and Empathy
Known for its quaint shopping areas, miles of scenic lakeshore, and the University of Vermont, the City of Burlington is home to nearly 43,000 people. Nearly 50 percent of the state’s population lives in and around the Queen City. Unsurprisingly, the area is also home to 50 percent of the state’s recent COVID-19 cases.
“We definitely have not been spared,” said Bill Ward, City of Burlington Director of Permitting and Inspections. “Most of the victims here have been older. We had two serious outbreaks early at local area nursing homes.”
Believing that every newly reported case of Coronavirus is one more too many, Burlington’s leaders have been working tirelessly to flatten the curve. This includes deciding early on to have city staff work from home. To avoid public service disruptions, the City quickly adapted its administrative workflows to accommodate a now remote workforce.
“Mayor Miro Weinberger has been great,” said Ward. “Thanks to his work with our analytics team, he saw the risk coming and stayed ahead of it. It’s great to have a hands-on person in that position — a decisive leader, and someone who is directing things and not just sitting back and telling people what to do. He’s been a rock star. I think people will look back on this time and be glad that he was our leader.”
In his role as the Director of Permitting and Inspections, Ward manages a department that has wide-ranging responsibilities from rental housing, to construction permits, to zoning administration. His department also coordinates with other City departments on residential time-of-sale inspections, the illegal dumping of solid waste, the maintenance of greenbelts, illegal yard parking, and nuisance abatement.
During the COVID-19 crisis, the department has needed to stay flexible while responding to a variety of new concerns like virus testing and reporting and a shift in city-wide building priorities. All while turning into a remote workforce virtually overnight. The City has relied on its existing service request management solution, SeeClickFix by CivicPlus®, to help manage the influx of inquiries and to redeploy City staff.
Using Technology to Connect, Serve, and Respond
SeeClickFix has served as a critical element of the City’s citizen engagement and response solution suite during its COVID-19 response. “Early on, our Mayor created a Resource Recovery Center, and we decided to run it through SeeClickFix,” said Ward.
While many of the categories citizens typically use to report non-emergency concerns within SeeClickFix are marked “public”, like pothole repairs and downed power lines, COVID-19 related issues like housing and food needs, or positive diagnoses, are marked “private” with the information only being visible to City staff managing those requests.
As evidenced by the City’s all-hands-on-deck approach, the City’s Electric Department, which had excess capacity due to paused project work, has been converted into a temporary call center. That department, along with the City’s Community and Economic Development Office (CEDO) is now fielding phone calls and emails and entering those inquiries into the SeeClickFix for reporting, tracking, and resolution. Ward says that SeeClickFix has been easy to learn for those using it as part of their temporary work assignments.
“Between the Burlington Electric call takers and CEDO, none of the staff had any previous experience using SeeClickFix, and they all took to it like fish to water,” said Ward. “We’ve had roughly 750 issues entered since March 23.”
With requests ranging from food assistance, to the donation of supplies, to the making of face masks, to help needed picking up a prescription the need to be resilient and responsive has never been greater. “As requests come in, we are trying to respond within 24 hours, making sure they are getting to the right person,” said Ward.
An Empathy Engine in a Time of Need
Ward directly handles all requests associated with physical health needs. He tells the story of personally responding to a woman waiting for her COVID-19 test results, who was fearful that she contracted the virus when it was reported that there might be an outbreak in her housing unit. Thanks to comprehensive testing of building residents from the City’s Health Department, and the data visible in SeeClickFix, Ward was able to reassure the caller that only two people out of the 150 residents in her building had tested positive.
“I told her, ‘I can’t tell you your test results, but if I were you, I would feel comfortable that my test results will be negative.’ She immediately started crying. She had been worried to death. She thanked me for everything we were doing and said it was just such a relief to talk to someone.”
Like the concerned resident, he spoke with that day, Ward and his team have offered a reassuring ear to many residents who are fearful and want to do their part to report concerns and possible threats.
“We’ve had citizens call in to report that they have seen groups of three or four people together on the bike path,” says Ward. “We let them know that we will notify our parks and police departments and that we will continue to provide guidance on social distancing. In these cases, people just need reassurance. They need someone to talk to — and to feel that they are not alone. It’s a challenging time, so I’ve been telling my staff, ‘Don’t underestimate the impact you’ll have simply by talking to someone and getting to the heart of their concern.”
