City workers to get technology update

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is preparing to launch a technological overhaul of city government, with plans for sensors on city vehicles to detect and map potholes, and a major investment in the city's 24-hour call center to make sure that complaints get to the departments that can help more quickly.

To implement the program, which Menino calls ''New Urban Mechanics," Menino will create the post of chief information officer, whose job will be to make Boston one of the most technologically advanced cities in the country, according to an aide who helped develop the initiative and another aide who was briefed on it extensively. The initiative will be unveiled at a speech this morning before business leaders at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

''The mayor talks about technology at every turn," said the aide involved in developing the initiative. ''He talks about it in every context, what we're doing to change the city and move it forward. But it's not technology for technology's sake. It's about the basics that go on in the city."

Among the proposed new technologies is a pothole-detecting system that the aides called ''a digital street assessment tool." It includes instruments attached to all city vehicles that would measure vibrations created by rough roads. The data would be sent to a computer that would map their locations using a global positioning system.

''It would create a perpetually updated map of the conditions of the streets in the city," said one of the aides. ''Every day you'd have an updated map."

Another detection system could be used to track burned-out street lights, officials said.

The mayor, who regularly phones in pothole complaints from his car, is expected to test a prototype of a street assessment device next month. The small device can be attached to the exterior of a car or to its shock absorbers, aides said.

In addition, a renovated call center will employ new technological measures to make sure that problems, once detected, are resolved more quickly. New web-based software will track and manage calls, getting complaints to the departments that can help, the aides said. The city will also invest in a ''knowledge database" that will keep track of constituent calls and complaints.

The new software will bring relevant information to call center operators' computer screens and help them recall how similar problems have been dealt with in the past.

The operators will feed new information into a database, which the aides said will make it more effective over time.

The aides said the new program will require a significant investment by the city, but they would not provide a dollar estimate.

Even with the new technology, residents will not be able to check the status of their complaints online.

After breaking her ankle in a pothole, Councilor at Large Maura Hennigan launched a website for people to report potholes. During her unsuccessful campaign for mayor, she argued that the city should let people track city services themselves.

Officials ''should embrace the concept of empowering the public to have legitimate access to information, whether it be snow removal or pothole repair or anything else," she said. ''People should be able to do that."

To oversee the new technology, the mayor will hire a chief information officer who will report directly to him and be a key member of his ''leadership team."

Currently, William ''Bo" Holland, acting director of the city's Management Information Services, reports to chief financial officer Dennis DiMarzio.

The mayor also wants to create a new fellowship program to attract students to city government and ''restore the prestige that should come with a job in public service," said the Menino aide who helped develop the initiative.

Under the New Urban Mechanic Fellowship program, a dozen recent graduates, with backgrounds in areas like civil engineering, computer science, public health, and public science, will be offered what officials call ''significant" paid jobs at City Hall. Officials are hoping that outside agencies will fund the program, officials said.

The city, which has come under fire for being slow to adopt new technology, has recently announced other changes.

It plans to revise its website, which officials acknowledge is difficult to navigate.

It has also launched an interactive system that allows residents to apply for building permits or pay property taxes, online.