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Beaumont Paves the Way to Excellent Service Beaumont is constantly striving to provide extraordinary public service and increase the efficiency of city government. We've cross-trained our employees. We've added satellite locations with extended hours for doing the public's business. We've made it easy to pay for city services online and by phone. It's all part of the city of Beaumont's new and innovative "City Hall 24/7 Program." We realize our hometown residents and businesses have busy lives. So as a city, we always want to be there for you. "We know that a city is made up of more than buildings — it's about people," said City Manager Alan Kapanicas. "That's why for 20 years our City Council and staff have been dedicated to making Beaumont 'work' for all our citizens." LAYING THE GROUNDWORK The groundwork for the "City Hall 24/7 Program" was laid in April, 2011. It involved cross-training more than a dozen city employees to step in and handle each other's jobs if needed. Already, the city of Beaumont's new 24/7 public service program has proved its effectiveness. On Fri., Aug. 9, city crews closed the historic Beaumont Civic Center for needed maintenance. Within minutes, incoming phone calls and operations seamlessly moved to other city 8 BEAUMONT NOW | OCTOBER 2013 buildings and carried on without an interruption in service. The Civic Center reopened on schedule on Mon., Aug. 19. CROSS-TRAINING Under the new "City Hall 24/7 Program," Customer Services staff for all departments — City Hall, Recreation, Transit and Police — learned to do each other's jobs and serve the community in many new ways. "Cross-training with the City Hall staff has been challenging and very rewarding," said Chelsea Sinske, a records specialist for the Support Services Division of the Beaumont Police Department. "I now have a well-rounded understanding about the 'big picture' of local government." City employees who usually deal with recreation matters and police paperwork have learned to take on additional tasks such as receive utility bill payments, issue dog licenses and yard sale permits, and provide information about other city departments. The weekly training is part of a three-phase program that has included on-the-job exercises and shadowing city staff at the Civic Center. Phase One of the training covered nearly a dozen new ways to serve the public. These included processing animal care licenses, accepting job applications, taking utility bill

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