Odd Calls Challenge Houston`s 311 Operators
Jan. 02--The questions on the other end of Houston's help and information line often stump city operators.
"I've had people that ask me can I change their channel -- of their television in their house," said Naymond Roach, an 11-year telecommunication veteran for Houston 311. "For some reason they think we can do that."
Like the plethora of calls that the phone line receives about non-city services -- questions about aliens and requests for legal advice -- Roach had to disappoint the caller.
The city receives about 8,200 calls daily, ranging from questions about broken water mains to messages for Mayor Annise Parker, but among them are a fair share of odd requests and often surprising inquiries that can test call agents' patience and poker faces.
"You just expect the unexpected every day, every call," said Cicelyn Davis, an agent who has worked for the line for four years.
Sometimes the questions are surprising, but legitimate. Other calls are just plain insane, agents said.
"I had one guy who called me and he said he needed an Amber Alert on his self," Davis said, "because he could not possibly be from the family that he was with because they're all crazy and he is not."
One call, about a dog that was stuck, had Davis struggling to keep her composure. The caller seemed terrified and screamed hysterically, Davis said.
"I couldn't figure out why she was crying, and it was because her dog was stuck with another dog," Davis said. "They were mating."
Davis forwarded the call to animal control.
While the 311 line does answer questions related to municipal courts and relevant citations, other legal questions have to go unanswered.
Davis said one caller wanted to know, "what should I do about my baby daddy who wants to see this child but he don't pay child support, so should I let him see the child?"
Emergency or not?
Sometimes the calls are serious, but should be directed to 911, which also gets its share of unnecessary calls, officials said.
Callers sometimes complain about being beat by their significant others or call about a medical emergency, which agents transfer to 911. Sometimes even emergency calls can be hard to discern, agents said.
"I had a guy who called and just gave his girlfriend's whole medical history and then said, 'She's bleeding. What do I do?'" Davis said.
She transferred the call to emergency services.
The service also gets some regular callers who sometimes have mental disabilities or are just plain lonely.
While the calls are a distraction, they represent only a fraction of phone traffic and do not significantly affect operations of the service, which lost $1 million in funding this year as a result of city budget cuts, said Frank Carmody, assistant director of operations for Houston's administration and regulatory affairs department.
Alligators to rings
The $4 million 311 operating budget pays for 49 agents, down from 75 a year ago, he said.
Other public services also receive their share of unusual calls and requests. One resident asked Houston's solid waste management department how to dispose of a dead alligator, said Marina Coryat, a spokeswoman for the department. Another called asking for help recovering a wedding ring he had accidentally thrown away.
"Talk about finding a needle in a haystack," Coryat said. "A haystack would have probably been easier than trying to find that ring in the landfill two hours after it had been disposed."
zain.shauk@chron.com
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