Asking for help

City announces plans for new customer service office
Many people have wandered into City Hall with an important task in mind, but entered the historic building with befuddlement because they had no idea where to actually go.

In the main corridor, visitors are greeted with displays of children’s art and historic pictures, but not with signage telling them where to perform certain errands.

With the intention of making City Hall more user-friendly, Mayor David Roberts announced Tuesday that that the city will establish an office of constituent services. The office will serve as a centralized “customer service” office for visitors.

“The foundation of a government that is open to the people is a City Hall that is accessible,” said Roberts last week. “With the opening of this office, Hoboken residents will no longer have to navigate Hoboken City Hall through a process of trial and error in order to find information or have their questions answered.”

The office will be located on the first floor, to the right of the entrance. The new office will include the Hispanic Affairs and Tenant Advocacy departments.

The office will be created as part of a city ordinance that that was introduced by a 9-0 vote at Wednesday night’s City Council meeting. If it passes a second and third reading at the next council meeting on Sept. 19, it will be under the auspices of the Department of Administration, giving the mayor direct control and oversight.

“This office will make the city more accountable,” said the city’s business administrator, Laurie Cotter, at Wednesday night’s meeting. “Right now we have no way to monitor if residents are being served, and unless we have a central place for them to come, we will never know. This will be that central location where people can come with everything from taxi cab complaints, to questions about bus schedules, to affordable housing lists, to questions about tenant rights issues.”

According to city sources, the office could open as early as the end of October and will definitely open by the end of the year. Currently, the city is in the process of buying furniture, computers and office supplies.

The office will be staffed by individuals with specific responsibilities for a specialized area. However, every staff member will be trained to provide all services offered by the office.

While final hiring for the office has not been announced, it has been rumored that Public Information Officer Michael Korman will move down to the office. He will be joined by two new employees to fill the Tenants Advocate and Hispanic Affairs positions.

Other rumors have said that Lynda Walker, who had angled for but didn’t get a 4th Ward City Council seat, and Sandra Ramos might get the jobs.

While the Mayor’s Spokesperson Michael Estevez would not confirm or deny if those names are under consideration, he did say Thursday that there has been no final decision made and no one has been hired as of yet.

He also added that the city’s personnel office is still taking applications for those positions and that they can be filed at City Hall during normal business hours.

Both jobs are paid positions, but Estevez declined to release exact figures.

The positions have to be filled since former Tenant Advocate Tom Oliveri retired earlier this year and former Mayoral Aide Robert Crespo, who also served as the Hispanic Affairs director, was terminated due to the recent change in administration.

Also included in the same ordinance that created the Office of Constituent Services is the reorganization of several municipal divisions into the newly formed Department of Community Development, headed by Director Fred Bado.

The Division of Oversight on Waterfront Development, which had previously been the responsibility of the Human Services director, will now be under Bado’s supervision. He will also be in charge of the Division of Grants Management, the Historic Preservation Committee and will be the liaison between the Planning and Zoning Board.