PEORIA, Ill. — A chunk of revenue from Peoria’s public safety pension fee, set to take effect October 1, was approved Tuesday to go towards a related call center.
City Council voted 6-5 during regular session to approve a $90,000 allocation to Milan, IL-based Group O, Inc. to field phone questions about the fee for the first six months after its inception.
The fee was approved in December to raise money for public safety workers’ pensions.
Various officials said the idea for the call center stemmed from worries the city’s 46 phone lines could not handle the volume of calls expected.
Council Member At-Large Beth Jensen was one of the five “no” votes.
“It hasn’t been explained that we even need [a call center],” she said.
“I don’t know what they’re basing their thinking on that we’re going to get a thousand additional calls a day.
“I don’t see that happening.”
Jensen also cautioned past performance could be indicative of future results.
“For the stormwater utility fee [in 2018], we used a non-local group to field calls about that fee, we had a lot of complaints, it wasn’t handled well, and the group wasn’t responsive or answering the questions that came up properly.
“I don’t think we should be spending $90,000, either.”
Council Member At-Large John Kelly also raised the issue of the last call center used.
He suggested an analysis be done to determine which questions about the stormwater utility fee weren’t answered properly.
Kelly expressed a dislike of pulling $90,000 out of the fee’s revenue to fund the call center.
Despite his concerns, he still voted in favor of the call center.
“It was kind of a mixed feeling,” he said.
“I think this should have been part of the original ordinance [in December],” he added. “I just figured there really wasn’t another good opportunity.”
City Manager Patrick Urich said he sent a request for proposal to Hinduja Global Solutions, Peoria’s largest call center, but it was never returned.
Urich said the city then got a total of ten bids from the U.S. and Canada from companies wanting to house the center.
