New Database Is 'a Sort of 311' for the Council

City Council members may have an easier time organizing and responding to their constituents' needs thanks to a new database program that will organize questions and complaints.

Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Gale Brewer today are announcing the launch of CouncilStat, a program that tracks constituents' concerns in individual council districts and integrates all 51 districts into a single searchable database.

"CouncilStat is a sort of 311 for the City Council," Ms. Brewer said yesterday. She said that the database would allow council members to compare notes and learn if issues are relevant outside their district.

"Right now I have no idea if we're getting similar complaints except if I talk to my colleagues in Brooklyn," Ms. Brewer said. She added that by comparing constituent calls over time, officials could test if new procedures were effective in addressing problems.

Ms. Brewer said CouncilStat would be separate from databases council members have already implemented and that the information collected would be anonymous.

"You don't put people's names in when you do the aggregate. So the other advantage is it doesn't matter if you have a database or not, it doesn't need to access your database. It's applicable to members like me who have robust databases and to those who are starting from scratch."

The executive director of the watchdog group Citizens Union, Dick Dadey, said he supports the program. "I think it will raise the seriousness of the council's efforts to address issues and bring a collective transparency to some of the citywide problems they need to address," he said yesterday.

Ms. Quinn made CouncilStat a priority in her State of the City address in February, saying it would provide "a snapshot of gaps in government services."

According to Ms. Brewer, the program has already been implemented on a trial basis in one district in each borough, with Ms. Quinn's office serving as the Manhattan pilot. The cross-district information feature will not kick in until it has been expanded to all 51 districts.