City Hall on Call

First came telephone answering machines. What they lacked in human interaction, they made up for in convenience.

Then there were fax machines, e-mail and other electronic gadgets designed to trim costs and speed business--tools of late 20th-century communication that chip away at personal contact.

Beginning this summer, courtesy of cutting-edge technology, Camarillo residents will be able to access by telephone 300 to 400 tidbits of information--all without talking to a single city worker.

By way of recorded messages and voice mail, callers will learn about leash laws, yard-waste collection, public meetings and just about anything else city officials program into the new $19,000 system code-named ACIS, the Automated Citizens Information System.

“It’s a new opportunity to get information out to the public,” said Chris Sanborn, the Camarillo management assistant who researched the proposal. “Not everybody who lives here can get to City Hall during business hours.”

The City Council last week approved a recommendation by a city subcommittee to buy the elaborate information system, the first of its kind in any city in Ventura County.

Council members said the ACIS would save time and money once it goes online in August.

“In other cities, 85% of the calls are made after hours,” said Mayor David M. Smith, one of two members of the telecommunications committee that recommended the city purchase the system.

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Councilwoman Charlotte Craven said the message bank would not become the morass of corporate voice mail that she has often railed against. “It’s going to be user-friendly,” she said.

Steve Critchfield, president of Virginia-based Tele-Works Inc., which markets the 24-hour, phone-information system, has sold more than 200 of the devices to cities and counties across the country, including a dozen in California.

“American society has changed greatly in the last 20 or 25 years,” said Critchfield, who was given the Camarillo contract April 11 by facsimile.

“Everybody who’s now in the working age has to work,” he said. “Because everybody is at work when local governments are open, citizens can’t always get the information they need.”

But not everyone is convinced that the ACIS is a good idea. Some people prefer the warmth and comfort of a live person when they call City Hall.

“I hate voice mail, and I hate dealing with machines,” said Tom Tucker, who for the past 2 1/2 years has owned the Checkered Flag auto-racing memorabilia store on Ventura Boulevard.

“I’d rather talk to a live person who can answer my questions,” Tucker said. “They could better spend that money fixing the streets or paying for more youth programs.”

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William Guyer has run a business in Camarillo for 16 years. He said he has mixed feelings about the ACIS, but that overall, it will go a long way toward informing residents.

“As a human being, you want to speak to other human beings,” Guyer said. “But when you start talking budget cuts, things like this help maintain the level of service to residents and business people.”

Critchfield has heard the man-versus-machine argument many times. He doesn’t buy it.

“There’s no question that we’re a faster-paced society and we do have less time to interact with each other,” the Tele-Works president said. “But that doesn’t mean that information and communication doesn’t need to be done.

“If you’re going to recycle, or find out if a softball game is canceled, you’re going to need answers,” he said.

Camarillo homeowner George Wadley also thinks the message bank will be an asset to residents.

“I really think it’s a good idea,” said Wadley, who works as a safety technician at Point Mugu. “They’ve got to get with the real world, and the real world is electronic.”