City Council lukewarm on 2-1-1 hotline

The Scotts Valley City Council said last week it might not have the money to help pay for a countywide hotline that would quickly connect residents to community services, volunteer centers, suicide prevention and disaster relief.
The United Way of Santa Cruz County asked the council for support in offering a 2-1-1 hotline to residents in the county. In much the same way as 9-1-1 connects callers to emergency services and 4-1-1 connects people to information, 2-1-1 would connect callers to health and human services.
The hotline is already available to 84 percent of California residents in 21 counties and garnered notice after it sped up aid during the San Diego wildfires of 2007.
“An example of when 2-1-1 would be efficient is when you need to send a reverse 9-1-1 telling people to evacuate an area. Some people need and want more information, and if they all call back, it overwhelms the 9-1-1 system,” said Mary Lou Goeke, executive director of United Way in Santa Cruz.
Goeke said that if the hotline were available, many call operators would be on hand to give out the needed information, such as what routes to take and what to do with large animals, like horses, in an emergency.
The 24-hour hotline is already available in much of the nation, including the San Francisco Bay Area. Santa Cruz County callers would be served by a dispatch center that already provides information for five Bay Area counties.
United Way is trying to raise about $142,000 in local and state grants and donations to set up the line.
“What has really held us back in California is, even though 84 percent of the state has 2-1-1, not all counties do. We don’t, Merced doesn’t, Alpine doesn’t,” Goeke said. “So until all of California is covered, the state won’t do business with us.”
In Santa Cruz County, the big barrier is money. With service costs estimated at between 50 cents and $1 per person annually, 2-1-1 could run at a cost of $250,000 a year. The Santa Cruz County Office of Emergency Services has already pledged to help through a federal grant.
Organizers hope to have the hotline in play by next February.
Goeke requested a letter of endorsement from the Scotts Valley City Council on Wednesday, Feb. 3.
United Way is also asking the city for $5,000 by or before July, which the council would decide during budget evaluations in May and June.
Goeke said United Way would need both the letter and money for the service to be put into action.
However, city leaders questioned how they would pay up later.
Mayor Jim Reed said his initial thought was to support the service and produce the letter, but money is tight now more than ever.
“At a time when we have furloughs, have had to lay people off and we don’t know what this next budget cycle is going to bring, we’ve got to make choices that few of us want to do,” Reed said.
The city’s final budget is approved in June, with this year’s total at $8.3 million.
Vice Mayor Dene Bustichi said he couldn’t commit to any extra spending.
Councilwoman Stephany Aguilar suggested sending a letter that would obligate the city to give $5,000 only if the money were available.
“The letter of commitment would at least help United Way apply to the California Public Utilities Commission for the service license,” Aguilar said.
But Reed disagreed and said it would be a de facto promise.
Councilman Randy Johnson said the city should offer the service, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it.
“If we didn’t have this and there was a huge earthquake tomorrow, would we be serving our residents well without 2-1-1? I think no,” Johnson said.
After discussion about taking money from other nonprofits and a bit of argument back and forth, the council finally agreed to have staff draft a letter of commitment for a future meeting and decide on it then.