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Q&A
Dedicated staff and systems for handling permitting issues
1:00:10
·
116 sec
Council Member Krishnan inquires about dedicated staff for handling permitting issues. The Parks Department representatives explain their current system for addressing permit-related problems and responding to urgent situations.
- Each borough has dedicated ball field coordinators processing permits
- 311 system routes urgent issues to central communications
- Parks has a 24/7 central communications division for handling immediate concerns
- PEP officers can be dispatched or relevant staff notified for responsive action
Shekar Krishnan
1:00:10
Have you all considered having maybe a dedicated team as well there to work with organizations that run into permitting issues, you know, aside from all the other, you know, communication tools you have in place?
1:00:21
But when issues come up, when people are not able to get access to a field, I think it also could be really helpful to have, you know, a regular, you know, routine conversation back and forth with Parks about this issue.
1:00:35
So have you all thought about, you know, having some dedicated staff to be able to help with those issues as they come up?
Margaret Nelson
1:00:40
So we do have dedicated ball field coordinators in each borough.
1:00:44
So again, big shout out to them because it's really only one or two people in each borough who are processing in total 14,000 permits
Shekar Krishnan
1:00:53
a that's lot.
Margaret Nelson
1:00:54
But they go above and beyond to be responsive to people when they have questions, to answer questions.
1:01:01
They're also out there when we get complaints about specific permits.
1:01:05
They are the ones that are going out there to try to get a sense of what's going on.
1:01:10
And those are the folks that, you know, I think anybody who is having a problem and if they are not getting an answer through their ball field coordinator, they can go through 03:11, like you said.
1:01:21
Like sometimes on Saturday morning, they're like, the field isn't available, there's an urgent problem.
1:01:26
That's when our 311 system will route it into our central communications, and we'll see if somebody is available to respond immediately.
Shekar Krishnan
1:01:35
Mhmm.
1:01:35
Okay.
1:01:37
Mean, 311, I understand that many New Yorkers have a lot of concerns, agree with them about it.
1:01:42
But do you all feel that that gives you a responsive way quickly, to your point, when issues come up, to troubleshoot in that moment or respond right away?
Margaret Nelson
1:01:49
If it's something that's like, you know, something going on in the field, we have a twenty four seven central communications division that takes those incoming 311 calls.
1:01:59
And if, say, a PEP officer is just you know, can be dispatched or an email goes out to the relevant folks to see who could be responsive.