ST. PAUL – County of St. Paul residents should be able to hear County staff members better over the phone soon, following a motion during the May 23 Public Works meeting.
“Our phone system is terrible,” acknowledged CAO Sheila Kitz. She said the County switched phone systems back in 2021 to a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system, which uses the internet to make calls.
While inexpensive to operate on a monthly basis, “we have people complaining all the time,” said Kitz. “We only get every second word in when we’re talking to a resident.” Kitz said County administration is looking to switch over to Telus phones.
Currently, the County pays approximately $400 monthly or $4,800 annually, and the switch to Telus comes at an initial cost of $5,460, and an estimated monthly cost of $1,332, “and that is fairly expensive,” Kitz said.
“But I think serving our residents and customers is more important than trying to only get every second word,” she said. “I ended up calling people on my cell phone all the time because our phone system doesn’t work.”
And “unfortunately, the people at the front desk don’t have the luxury of picking up [their cell phone] ... so they spend a lot of time not hearing people.”
Reeve Glen Ockerman asked if any efforts have been made to fix the issues with the VoIP system. Kitz said all attempts have been unsuccessful.
Coun. Ross Krekoski shared concerns that an internet outage might take out the County’s phone system when relying on the VoIP system, adding a dedicated line might alleviate the risk.
Coun. Darrell Younghans motioned to approve administration’s recommendation to negotiate with vendors to switch to a new phone system for the County, funded from its unrestricted surplus. The motion was carried.
