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The Town of Essex’s “Report a Problem” online platform – that allows residents to relay issues related to Town-owned infrastructure, parks, facilities, and concerns with Short Term Rental Units and town by-laws – has been updated.
Essex Council learned of the revamp, and received a presentation on the changes, at the July 7 meeting.
The online portal, powered by CityWorks, was historically managed, supported, and fully funded by the County of Essex for all local municipalities, Marc Tortola, Essex’s Manager of Strategic Communications, explained.
In 2024, however, Essex was informed the County would no longer be providing – or funding – this service, leaving municipalities to manage their own service independently.
“In anticipation of this change, the Town of Essex proactively included an upgrade to this service request portal in the 2024 Capital Project Budget,” Tortola added.
Those funds covered the cost of migrating to a standalone platform, including the initial setup fees and operating costs.
After looking into the matter, Tortola noted Essex’s administration determined continuing with CityWorks was the most cost-effective and practical solution, as it offers the necessary tools and functionality to maintain a high-level of service for residents and is familiar to Town staff.
Previously, Essex’s data was hosted on the County’s servers, and Essex’s administration worked with the CityWorks team to migrate to a cloud-based solution, which resulted in improved performance, enhanced security, and greater long-term sustainability, he added.
In addition, Tortola relayed that several system enhancements have also been made to improve the overall user experience.
Residents can access the “Report a Problem” portal as usual. There is a “Report a Problem” tab at the top of www.essex.ca, or they can log directly onto. https://www.essex.ca/en/live/report-a-problem.aspx.
This online tool allows users to not only submit a request, but they can now check on the status of their service request.
It also includes a step-by-step instructional video to help residents through the process, and a Frequently Asked Question section.
Using the tool, residents can choose the category under which the matter they are reporting to the Town falls, and allows them to provide a graphic or image of the problematic issue to help relay their concern to Town staff.
When providing the exact address of their concern, there is a tool that allows the user to draw where exactly the issue is located on the property they indicated. They can also provide additional text to describe details, giving specific direction to staff, Tortola explained.
Residents wanting to use this tool will be required to use an email to send the service request. Once uploaded, they will receive an automatic email noting it has been submitted.
An upgrade to the website, Tortola said, allows residents the ability to check the status of their service request. They can do so by going back to the “Report a Problem” page on the Town website and selecting “Check Service Request Status.”
They will need to enter their service request number, provided through email when they initially submitted the application, and their last name.
Tortola added Town administration is working with CityWorks to allow Town staff to be able to add comments to this section in the future.
In answering Councillor Joe Garon’s question on how large of a file can be uploaded and if video could also be added, Tortola believes any file type can be dropped. He will look into it and check to see if a video will indeed work as he too sees that as a helpful resource.
Garon would like to see adding a phone number and address of the individual submitting the request be mandatory to ensure seriousness of complaints, and that the system require residents to type in their email twice to ensure it is correct.
He also believes Councillors should be notified of complaints made in their wards, so they will be in the know. This system was made to allow residents to go directly to Town departments with issues, and he noted Council has a right to know about the issues.
Councillor Katie McGuire-Blais would also like to be informed of complaints in her ward, and suggested that could be done in a monthly summary.
Tortola noted information can be pulled into a spreadsheet to create a report. Director of Legal and Legislative Services, Joe Malandruccolo, noted staff will have to ensure any data shared with Council complies with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
CAO Kate Giurissevich added that the Town already reports annually on the summary of tickets, and she believes this enhancement will allow for that to be done more frequently and provide Council with an idea where problem areas are.
McGuire-Blais also suggested a new page be automatic when telling residents their submission was successfully uploaded, so they do not miss it as that indication line opens up and disappears quickly.
Tortola said there is no way to change that currently, but the feedback was sent to CityWork to perhaps look into creating that option in the future.
Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley liked that the Town was moving in the right direction, and also would like a report sent to Council with data that can be shared on issues.
In answering Mayor Sherry Bondy’s question on whether this will be easier to use on a phone than the former version of the tool, Tortola said the new system is much more mobile-friendly.
In addition, Bondy asked if there is anything on the website about confidentiality, knowing some residents may want to complain about property standards of a neighbour, for instance. Tortola noted there is a confidentiality statement on the Report a Problem website.
Bondy had concerns with identifying information and ensuring confidentiality.
“I think we have to be really careful what format that information comes to Council in,” Bondy said.
Council received the presentation for information.
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