 Good afternoon. Thank you everybody for being here. Very excited to be here flanked with our city manager, our council members, Dr. Bussells, Reverend Ed McDowell, Will Brennan joining today, other council members, Ms. Herbert, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Duvall couldn't make it today, but believe me this is a group effort as we move forward. As we promised starting this year that we're open here in Columbia and a large part of that is about being transparent and accountable for what's in our control. And that's also talking to everybody directly about the issues that we're facing, the problems that we have and how we plan to fix those. We currently have staffing issues in several key departments that are in the range of 550 to 600 employees. A lot of those 200 or plus are in our water department. Solid waste has been short and close to 30 employees and obviously our call center has been close to 14. And these shortages have created massive backlogs for us. We're still working on our steel plates, which we all promise to get rid of cones and steel plates. We've gone from 60 to 38, so we're making some real efforts and improvements in that. We're 4,000 customer repairs backlogged at the city. We were three weeks behind on yard waste collection. And by coming out and talking to everybody about that, we also let everybody realize we have an opportunity for positions to be filled and we've started getting applications because of that. So part of why we want to keep being transparent and talking through everything is to make sure that people understand where we are, how we're addressing it. And I want to commend both the city manager, city council and the staff for working together to look at things from a different angle so that we can improve the customer service for our employees and for our citizens and our employees. Part of that is what we've discovered is that there are things that can be fixed by us just addressing the issue and understanding the root cause. Why is that? 17% of our backlog at water and sewer work orders are around landscaping. Landscaping of fixing repairs, sod and other things that could easily have been fixed, but our process required those landscapers have additional insurance requirements that prohibited them from bidding on small jobs. By eliminating those and making the correct adjustments, it allows us to take advantage of the private sector that's out there that can help us. By contracting with small businesses and filling the voids that we have, we're able to provide a more efficient and effective business solution to these problems. We've talked heavily about getting them more engaged and helping them solve at the same time allowing us to grow those small businesses and really advance because businesses that grow in a community hire within that community and stay with that community. That's how headquarters are built. So by starting at the base and growing up is what we're pushing hard to do and at the same time serving our community in a much better capacity. Waterline, we're getting close to 1200 phone calls into our water department through our customer service by sitting down with our customer service reps and understanding the shortages there and how we can address that and making a difference so that when we're addressing these that people's concerns of emergencies are separated from the folks that are looking to work issues with their bill or refinancing any backlog on their part through payment. But it's allowing us to address these issues in a direct manner and in a timely manner that makes us more effective and efficient. I'm about to turn this over to our city manager, Clint Shealy, our head of utilities to talk more in detail about our plan. But all of this is about trying to make a difference for our community and our staff and we committed as a council that we're going to do everything we can internally to improve the quality of customer service, investing in our staff through technology, through training and innovation, looking at things from a different angle to improve the quality of service that affects everybody in our community. We're going to continue to be transparent. We're going to talk about all the issues that we discover that we find directly with the public. Everybody knows what we're doing and how we're doing it so that there's no question about our commitment to this community. With that, I'll turn it over to the city manager. Thank you, Mayor Rickerman. Well, as I'm looking out today with our media partners here and we're so appreciative that they are, it's reminding me back to 2015 when we were standing at the canal. And the reason that we did that on a very regular basis harkens back to what Mayor Rickerman was just explaining and what many of our council members or ever McDowell and others are always telling us to tell our story. And so we're here today, not during a time of a natural disaster, but certainly hopefully coming towards the end. We pray in the aftermath of a global pandemic, experiencing what I really would equate to a crisis mode. Again, never in my time as manager and I've been doing it for several, several years now. Have I experienced the staffing shortages that we're facing? Have I experienced, you know, seeing the volume that we're experiencing with water leaks and repairs that need to be made? We truly need to get up in front of our customers in this community that we love so much to share and put context, not make excuses, but own the shortcomings and put context around the why. And I know from our experiences in the past and I think we're renewing that effort to just get up and talk and have an honest conversation with this community and our customers about the experiences that we have. And also the solutions and the opportunities that we're going to put before you, a new operational plan to address these challenges. And so that is really the purpose of today is to outline the challenges and provide insight on why it's been challenging, provide insight on some opportunities and solutions that we're embracing to address these issues. I know as a citizen myself that it's appreciated when you have information and you understand better. You want the solutions, you want to make sure your call is being received, but it also is a little bit comforting. And we take that posture to try to ease some of the tension and give you answers to your questions and concerns. So again, this is about the operations in the city. So as the mayor indicated, I will hand off to Assistant City Manager Clint Shealy. He and I and all of our teams have worked to try to address some operational changes that we hope will give some relief. We've had some successes already so far. Many of our council members have weighed in based on even their previous experiences and business, etc. on ways that we can maybe accelerate our hiring processes and we've done that. We've implemented some creative ways to capture talent, try to begin to retain talent, streamline the early process of onboarding at the City of Columbia. We're also looking at creating alternative schedules. We know now, since the pandemic in particular, people work differently. And so we're looking at some creative approaches to providing opportunities for great talented people out there who may be interested in working a 30-hour a week schedule. We're looking at that. We're looking at retirees. There are many retirees out there who have a lot more to give and we're hoping to bring them on to the City of Columbia. And finally, as far as the hiring goes, adjusting our pay scales to ensure that our laborers and people just getting started with us have a livable wage. Not just a minimum wage, but a livable wage. And so these are all operational decisions that we are in the process of making. We've implemented many and we're going to continue to do that looking at how to improve our service delivery. In addition, Clint will address the high number of work orders, as Mayor Rick had mentioned, in our water distribution system and the efforts we're making to hire contractors and vendors to help us through indefinite delivery contracts. We want to promote local talent. There are contractors out there who can help complement our efforts with our internal forces and obviously we need that right now. So we are moving forward to address these critical leaks faster in a more prioritized manner by using those contractors to help sustain our ongoing focus on replacing our aging infrastructure. So with that, I will be back up at the end to help answer any specific questions you might have. But I know Clint is going to do a little bit deeper dive with this new customer response action plan that we've established. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. And good morning, everybody. Good to see everyone. I think everybody knows the COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of challenges for all of us. And we at the city have not been immune to that, especially in the area of customer service and responsiveness. Employee retention, just being shorthanded on staff, significant increases in call volume, backlog of service calls and not being able to respond as we want to do and as our customers deserve is a real issue for us right now. And so we're working through that and have developed this action plan to help us. I would say that I'm really proud of how our staff has responded to these challenges throughout the pandemic. They've worked very, very hard through some really challenging times to be as responsive as we possibly could be. And hopefully we're coming out of some of these challenges and our numbers are looking much better in terms of quarantines and infections within our at least the Columbia water staff. So we're really proud of that. But I'd remiss if I didn't give a thanks to our staff for providing those essential services that we all need, whether it's garbage collection, drinking water, provision of wastewater services, all of those services, police fire, all those things, and really proud of our folks and how we've done. We've also done some positive things during the pandemic. We opened a new customer care and payment center on Hardin Street. It's made it easier for our customers to walk in and do a transaction. We're nearing completion of our automated metering infrastructure project, which was a significant investment of our rate payer dollars to improve the way we read our water meters and send out accurate water bills are really proud of that. Miss Wilson mentioned utilizing private contractors, we've started doing that more to try to supplement our backlog of staff. We realize there's a lot of room to go. We've got a significant gap to close. Our customer wait times when you when you call to report a service leak or get on a payment arrangement. They're way too long. And it's not because our staff aren't working hard. We just don't have enough of them to handle the volume of calls that we're receiving right now. We know yard yard debris pickup has not always been as timely as our customers have have grown to to expect from us and we're addressing that. So again, developing this customer response plan to to to try to address those issues and I wanted to step through three of the key areas that we're that we're modifying our operations and how we're doing that. And then we'll try to answer questions that you might have. Over the years we've had a for the past 10 years we've had a city employee answering your calls 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year. So if you call it 3am with an emergency or a question or needing a bill of adjustment we've got city employees working that call center to answer that question. We have traditionally seen a much lower volume of calls than we're seeing now coming out of the pandemic. We have seen over a 40% increase in call volume and we simply don't have the manpower on the phones to address those in a timely manner. That means for a customer you may be on hold for an extended period of time particularly during high call traffic hours. So we're doing something about that. Another reason for the significant increase in calls is our city council was very compassionate about disconnecting water service for non payment of water bills for about a year. We didn't disconnect service for non payment of water bills. We've resumed that if you disconnect a customer that generates a call generates a discussion about a payment arrangement and a payment and getting caught back up and we're also pushing assistance programs that are out there for our customers so that's a large increase in the call volume that we're seeing and so we're going to be responsive and address that. But no matter how much that volume is increased we know we've got to reduce that wait time and our goal is to handle every call in an efficient and timely manner. So we're increasing our staffing levels by repositioning folks from night shift from weekend shift on to that day shift where we get the vast majority of our phone calls. So we're repositioning existing staff and modifying that process. We're also hiring filling vacancies. We've been very aggressive in the last few months of filling vacancies so you're going to see several new call takers over the month of March come out of training and hit the call center floor so we'll be back closer to fully staffed. And then a major modification a shift in how we operate that call center is going to be happening in the next few weeks. You're going to see our call center and our city employees working from 8am to 6pm. And then we're going to transition after hours to working with the private sector and an answering service. They will they will triage the calls if their bill payment calls and questions then they can be directed to self help through our automated system through pay by phone or can call the next day or a message can be taken if it's an urgent water or sewer or another urgent issue that needs immediate attention. Someone can't shut their water off and they've got to leak in their home. Someone's got a sewer back up things of that nature. Those calls will be dispatched to our own call division staff for and they'll be addressed by our field crews that are on call and working the overnight shift. So we won't have city staff taking that first call. We're going to partner with an answering service which is what a lot of our neighboring utilities and municipalities do already. So modifying operations and we think that surge of staffing on the day shift when the vast majority of our calls are coming in is going to lead to a much quicker response time when someone calls will answer the phone quicker and address their problem in a timely manner and get it out to our division staff. There's been much discussion about water leaks and what's happening in our water system. Certainly aging infrastructure as Ms. Wilson mentioned is a real issue for us. We have a lot of galvanized and unlined cast iron lines that are in the ground that are nearing the end of their useful life. And so they leak and we've got to repair those leaks. So we've got significant backlog based on staff shortages. And so we're partnering with contractors through indefinite delivery contract process expanding and accelerating that work so that we can use the private sector to fill those gaps and be more responsive to fixing those leaks and prioritizing that. We're also looking at surging our staffing and trying to fill a lot of the vacancies that we have in our field operations of water distribution. So we're going to you're going to see us having open interviews at this facility much like we did it in public works. Recently you're going to see us doing some alternative marketing approaches. You're going to see us using temporary agencies temporary agencies to onboard employees quicker. Get them acclimated into how we do business and trained and start helping us with the backlog of work that we've got. Roadway restoration. The mayor mentioned steel plates big priority for us. We're also employing contractors to help us with restoration after leaks been repaired. It's back filled and plated. There needs to be some asphalt patching work where we're engaging private contractors to help us address that backlog as well and are grateful to have that tool in our toolbox to be able to respond. And the mayor also mentioned engaging local landscapers. We're going to modify our insurance requirements, put out a solicitation and help local business help us to repair yards where we fix service lines. How vacancy rates have been an issue in public works as well. And so you remember that we were three or so weeks behind collecting yard trash. We had an incredibly heavy leaf season this year. All the leaves fell in a very short period of time and then we had some some nice weather on weekends where folks were getting out and cleaning up their yards. And so that hits the curb and we've got to pick that up. We saw our yard waste tonnages increase by over four fold in December and January. So the significant increase in the volume of work coupled with short staffing that leads to delays in service delivery. So we were very aggressive in in trying to hire those laborer positions even through the temporary agency. And I'm really delighted to report that we're back on schedule now with our normal weekly yard debris collection. So so that's a real success for us. So that's the high level the approach be glad to answer any questions you have but I believe the mayor had a few closing remarks he wanted to share. Thank you. Once again I just wanted to thank everybody for being here but this is the beginning of the series of us really opening up and talking to to everyone in our community. And I just want to give you some highlights of things to come. Dr. Bustles has been working hard with our staff and moving forward to create a better way for us to communicate across all lines. If it's boil water advisories to just general communication and how we tell our story that we talked about. Reverend McDowell has committed to help us deal with the homelessness and immediate of our downtown communities. Mr. Brennan has been working hard both with the university and our state government to how we repurpose those properties and how we don't take things off the property tax anymore and actually work to rebuild and do a real joint venture together so we keep property producing property tax but also helping the campus and the state grow at the same time. Mr. Taylor has been helping tremendously working with our HR department on how we market and recruit how we look at things differently taking a stab at how we look at marketing our city for economic development and growth. I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about Ms. Herbert and her efforts to work together with both our community to build a skilled training center. We have a large population of 18 to 24 year olds that really could be our future workforce and how we get them ready through OSHA training and helping them get apprenticeships and internships to really grow and put them in the marketplace so that their career ready. This is what this council is committed to. We committed to being open, we committed to collaborations, we committed to new ideas and we committed to always be transparent and we're going to continue to do that as we move forward. So with that I'll open it up for questions. You mentioned that you're going to fix the problem at the call center, the staffing shortage by moving some of the night side workers and the weekend workers to a more day side look but aren't you just causing another problem by trying to fix another one because isn't that now creating a shortage in the night side crew and weekend crew as well? It's a great question and if we look at and we've done some data analysis of our call volume and frequency, when are the calls coming in? And so we're averaging about nine calls from about 9pm to 8am the next morning, nine calls per day and so the vast majority of those 12 to 1500 calls are happening during those normal business hours of 8am to 6pm and so we want to apply our resources and staffing to when those calls are coming in. A large majority of those calls are payment arrangement calls. So we're getting very few calls on the night shift overnight hours and so we feel like an answering service model works well because of those eight or nine that are coming in, most of those are more emergency urgent type calls. It's a call service, a third party answering service, they're going to answer the phone for us and then direct, if it is an emergency, it's going to be directed to our divisional staff that are addressing those emergencies anyway. So we think it's a better model to apply our staffing load where the volume and frequency of calls are occurring. So I speak for Columbia Water and within the Columbia Water Organization our field operations are receiving the most shortage there. We do require a commercial driver's license in a lot of our areas and certainly that affects public works as well and a commercial driver's license is a very popular commodity right now. And so retaining those, we hire folks in, we train them to get that commercial driver's license and then their significant increases in pay that can be made to be an over-the-road trucker particularly right now. So those are some of the pain points that we're seeing in our field labor positions and in our commercial driver's license spots. I don't know if there are other areas we want to speak to. Another that would come to mind is 911 communications. As you can imagine that is a high stress job, you know, a lot of anxiety with folks calling in for whatever their situation might be. And so historically there's been turnover in that area because you get people in, they train, you know, and if they're cut out for it, they stay and they're great. But sometimes that's not the case. But combined with the market and the ability for folks to, I guess, seek other types of employment, we have seen some, a lot of continued turnover there. We have increased the starting salary there in an effort to help bridge that gap and I think that's paying dividends for us so far as well. So we are in budget season and our proposed budget does contemplate this, but what we found particularly in surging the call center and employing that third-party answering service, it's a very economical approach. And we've had some fairly significant vacancies that we're now filling, but we're able to use that vacancy money from this fiscal year to fill the remainder of the fiscal year and pay for the call center and then we're budgeting accordingly moving forward. But very small financial impact because we simply don't receive that many calls in those overnight periods and you pay per service by the call in the minutes that you utilize. So that answers maybe one of your questions. I think budgeting you also mentioned. So of course we won't be filling all of those vacancies, but we're looking to evaluate every open position and make sure the criteria for filling that position is absolutely necessary. Does that employee have to have a commercial driver's license or not? Or can we downsize some equipment and use many excavators to repair service line leaks? That's part of our plan as well. And as we look to budget our capital plan moving forward, you'll see an increased focus on replacing two-inch galvanized lines that are in neighborhoods in cul-de-sacs that continue to leak. And we go and repair in the next three, four weeks, they're leaking again. The answer is replacing that infrastructure so you'll see a renewed emphasis on replacing aging infrastructure in our budget requests. So I think awareness is a part of it and making sure that we're getting our message out. We're telling our story that we do have the openings there. Pay Ms. Wilton has mentioned evaluating our pay scales and making sure that we're paying appropriately and educating them about the work that we are doing. I'll turn it over to Ms. Wilton. You know, it's competitive out there right now as much as we are facing these shortages in staff, others are too. So that key period of time from when someone comes in may have an interest in a position, but they may have also been testing the waters other places as well. What we've tried to really do, particularly with some of these positions we've been describing you today, is streamline our onboarding process to make that process a lot quicker, more efficient for us to make that offer and grab these talented individuals that are out there. They still have to go through the process. We still have to make sure, you know, background checks and all those things are done. But we've come up with a way to bridge the gap and work with the temporary agency to help us get through some of the processes, the paperwork, the time, reduce that time significantly. Really 30 to 45 days where we're making quick offers, getting people in, evaluating them quickly. Because we know that they are also out there exploring their options with other agencies and jobs as well. So I think that's been a big part of it. And what's your message? Well, that part of it I would say is from my experience today doing just this. Using you all, our media partners to help get the word out as to why and the context of why some of this has been occurring and that we are solutions driven right now to correct any shortcomings. But sometimes people just don't understand the volume we've experienced. They don't understand the vacancies we've had. We haven't told that story and I think that's a big part of it. Again, I think back to the time after the flood, people were just looking for information. It was a comfort to them for us to stand up out there at the canal as hard as it was to do it. Because then, I mean, just so many things are on the line. But now too, people are experiencing a lot of anxiety since the pandemic. They are needing to have answers from us as public servants. And I think that's what I would say we're up here to tell, to give them the answers and to be honest. I just want to add to that by looking at things differently and understanding where our choke points are. You know, when you take those 4,000 work orders and you break it down and you look at it, well, 17% is landscaping. But our own process has systematically kept us from using these third parties. And we fix that. That allows us to address that. That means people are getting responses immediately to get those fixed. You look at, there's 660 water meters that need to be set. Third party, let's you know, unit price, we know what it costs. We put that out to a third party. Let our team do what we do best at the city, which is deal with the major problems. Our crews are fantastic with that. It's all these other little ancillaries. And by addressing them and breaking them down and looking at exactly what's caused us to have hurdles to get that done. And as we mentioned earlier about the assurance requirements, but also now that we have, we have more women and minority-owned construction businesses in our community utilizing them to take care of the repairs afterwards, fixing the potholes. We're talking about being able to turn around things in 24 to 48 hours where it's taking us weeks. Your question earlier about rehiring, there's not a possible way that we could hire 220 people to fill all these jobs. But at this point, why would we do that when we have an opportunity to grow a small business? Take care of the customers' needs first and grow a business that's going to hire and stay here. So it's a win-win for everybody. So as we continue to take these opportunities, we're going to address them that way. No. No, what you're seeing now is us being able to work for our existing budget. And as we move forward and we start to build a budget from the bottom up, we'll be able to account for all this, but it just opens up more opportunities and makes it more efficient and using the same amount of money. So it's a win-win all the way across. May I recommend, or Mr. Shealy, I have a question. So as you just mentioned right now, there's 220 jobs. But two weeks ago when we spoke, I was told that there was 207. Have you guys seen more people leave Columbia Water than, since you're saying there's 220 now? It's 209. 209 to be correct. So you can give me 14 credits, please. 209. All right. Then to the city manager, Wilson, you mentioned you want to use the media to get the word out, show transparency about getting these job openings out there. Obviously, I did a story with you guys two weeks ago, and we mentioned that we have this many job openings and you guys are raising the pay or competitive pay and doing more opportunities to speed up the process to get more people hired. Have you seen any changes within the past two weeks since I did that story with you guys? Yes. So I will give you some credit for helping us to get the word out. Like I said, I think that it's very important because we know that our community is media-driven, social media, billboards, radio, print. Our HR directors back there probably beaming because she's so excited to be able to utilize some of these mechanisms. We have new members of council and Dr. Bussells. She's always, as Mr. Rickman said, promoting new ways to communicate here at the city of Columbia. So absolutely in the last two weeks from the public work standpoint, which is where we kind of started because of that heavy lift, literally that we needed as far as the solid waste pickup, the yard debris, Robert Anderson. And let me say, we historically have been with the city many years. When we've done customer surveys, our solid waste and yard debris pickup, that staff has always gotten the highest ratings. So truly this has been a big deal for us too because we've never experienced this before where, you know, our citizens have had complaints about these delays. We've never been in a posture like that with that particular service. It's always been the most glowing of feedback from our community. So really we take it to heart. I know Robert's back. They're our public works director and he's been with the city. How many years, Robert? 34 years. And we just hadn't experienced this before. And so getting that story out there and then also utilizing whatever platforms to include the media, to let people know who want to come work for the city. It's a great city. We have great benefits. We have great opportunities for advancement. Telling that over the last two weeks, yes, I think it's made a huge difference. And you're going to begin to see commercials and billboards and all other types of opportunities that we can put to use to continue to try to get the best talent that retain that talent. And I mentioned a livable wage. We understand that we have to be competitive and we've got to keep those folks if we're fortunate enough to get them. Dennis Wilson, since you're already up here. You know, as you mentioned, you want to be transparent with the community and build that connection again with them after all the problems that have been reported within the year, I'll say. But you know, apart from advertising, kind of helping bring in more people to apply with you guys, you know, a lot of community members that I did speak with two weeks ago and even a couple of days ago, not even just in one particular area, but we'll say Force Acres in Columbia and as well as St. Andrews as well across the river. They've all said that they kind of lost trust and hope that you guys are actually going to do, you know, what they need for the better of themselves and their families. So how can they ensure what are you guys doing to rebuild that trust that, you know, they can trust the water that it's safe for them to drink. It's not going to be brown anymore or just things like that. Sure. Well, we're going to be accountable. You know, we have federal mandates that apply to water and sewer issues that we've been facing as any community would. Our community can rest assured because I'm not wanting to be alarming that our water is safe to drink. It tastes good. And if as Director Assistant City Manager Shealy mentioned, there are any issues of brown water ever. It's because of those pipes that aging infrastructure, but we still would never allow any citizen to be put in harm's way. So even with that said, if they see brown water, we will continue to put out the notifications. So Dr. Bussles has been working with our staff about full water advisories and and how quickly we get those out on different platforms, different applications and calls that even our residents can receive. So I would just say I hope that the community trusts us. I mean, we don't get up here nor take lightly the the jobs that that we have before us as public servants. So I would just simply stand here and, you know, the staff all reports to me if they have a question or concern. You know, my mobile number is 803-413-3118. Call me anytime. You know, I work pretty much 24 seven, you know, like our public safety staff do. I get the calls all through the night. I certainly don't take it lightly and I understand your question, but we would implore upon them to trust us and we wouldn't be standing up here if we didn't mean what we say. Absolutely. So as you mentioned a few areas where we've had problems and as we as we map our where our leaks are occurring where discolored water complaints are occurring. Forest Acres, Irmo, St. Andrews, Friarsgate area, some in the Eau Claire area that we have continuing leaks there continuing discolored water complaints. Those are a byproduct of the city inheriting infrastructure. We didn't put that in but we did inherit that infrastructure over time over generational transactions and now that infrastructure needs to be replaced. So where customers are being served from a two inch galvanized line, they may occasionally get some discolored water. If we're not flushing as we need to, if that water is not turning over, they're going to see an increase in water leaks. What you're going to see in our capital improvement program on the water side, an increased focus on replacing that infrastructure because that's the long term answer to doing that. We can't do it all in one year. The price tag is daunting. But being systematic on how we manage those assets and how we replace those assets is very, very important. We've been strategic and have addressed some of the older areas of town, Orlewood, Booker Washington Heights. We've got projects in Rosewood and Shandon forthcoming that are under design now to address those types of issues and then we move on to the next level where we see a high frequency of leaks and discolored water complaints. So it's a process. We understand that customer confidence is key in this business. We're happy to come sample anybody's water, no charge to them at any time. And our certified laboratory can run those analysis. So that's a service that we offer. And I think also in terms of combating frustration if they can get through to the call center, speak to a human being in an appropriate time and get those calls dispatched. And then those leaks are fixed more quickly. That's the interim measure that we need to take until we can solve that overarching problem. Since you're already up on the podium, sorry to my fellow reporters. So you know two weeks ago you were saying that you guys are finding pipes that are 80 plus years old. There was one pipe that you told me that you found was to be nearly 100 years old. And with these aging infrastructures, are you guys actually working on fixing the pipes today as we talked about their cruise out? Or are you just waiting for the pipes to burst, people report and then that's when you replace them in? So we're actively replacing infrastructure for projects that have been designed and bid for construction. And our crews are doing some limited replacement as well. Most of what our staffing is doing today is fixing those active leaks because we do have a pretty heavy work order backlog. Looking ahead, it's planning on when's that next replacement need to happen and what areas of communities do we need to focus on. So we're doing a combination of both any preventive maintenance and replacement that we can do. We're doing as we look at our and we study and analyze the age of the infrastructure and the frequency of leaks and discolored water complaints. That informs us where to go next to make those improvements. Yeah, so I think in the immediate interim using the online chat feature that we've got is a way to catalog that or email that complaint. If you can't get through to the call center very quickly, we'll have these modifications in place where they'll be able to call and make that notification. But the sooner we know about an issue, the sooner we can get out and correct it. And also I mentioned we're logging that data and using that information to inform us on where to move for the next capital improvements. So if folks are having problems and we're not aware of it, then that's a real problem. We need to know what's going on and we want that open communication. We also have the My Columbia SC app that folks can use, download through either the Apple or Android store, and can use that to report leaks and generate service orders as well. So that transition is scheduled to happen on or before March 21st. So within about a month, March 4th, we've got four more call takers that are city employees now, but they're going through training. The last thing we want to do is put somebody answering the phones that is not equipped with the tools they need to help the customers. Let's let Tiffany Latimer, our customer care administrator, answer that in more detail. Thank you. So yes, absolutely. We plan to go ahead and hire an answering service to answer our emergency only calls during our evening, our weekends, and our holidays. As Mr. Sheila mentioned earlier, the reason for doing that and what it will allow us to do is to bring our second and third shift folks onto the first shift where we see and we know we have most of our calls coming in. Just to kind of tell a story as Ms. Wilson said, what we're up here to do is pre pandemic. Our call volume was around 13,000 calls a month, where now we're seeing where our call volume has increased so much where it's more like 25,000 a month that we're seeing. So this will help us right now to be able to transition those staff that are already fully trained from our second and our third shift, bringing them on to our first shift to be able to answer our customers calls more quickly and be more responsive. So we do plan to implement this rather quickly and have this in place before April. Now, why do you believe that there was that increase pre pandemic versus now? Well, as Mr. Shealy said, we did not disconnect customers accounts for over a year due to the pandemic. And now we have slowly tried to transition back to that process. And so therefore we have received numerous amounts of calls. And of course, with staffing shortages, the high volume of calls but not being able to manage that with the short staff that we have. So that's why the hiring efforts that we've discussed earlier are so important and vital right now. But a lot of that is due to, as I said, us not disconnecting past due accounts for customers for over a year because of the pandemic. Did you mention the triage of the calls? Absolutely. One other change that we just made actually last week is to prioritize our emergency type calls. So prior to last week, all the calls that came into our queue will all just come in as they come and they were answered as they came in. What we've done now is we've prioritized our calls. So if there's a water leak or sewer emergency, those calls come into our queue first. So those calls will be answered before the other calls such as general payment information, payment arrangement type calls. So that's a really good thing that we've done just to kind of help answer more quickly those priority type emergency calls.