When Veronica Rodriquez drives through Salem and sees a light that needs fixing, her kids know what’s coming next.
“I’m like, ‘Oh I should call this in,’ and they’re like ‘Mom, you don’t need to do that,’” she said, and laughed. “But what if nobody’s called it in yet? I’m like, ‘it’s my civic duty to do this.’”
Her kids may tease her about it, but Rodriquez knows better than most Salemites how it feels to be on the other end of the phone, receiving questions and concerns from Salem residents.
She’s coming up on her seventh year working for the city of Salem, and is a shift leader helping residents with permits, fees and more at the city’s new customer service center at the Salem Civic Center, 555 Liberty St. S.E.
The customer service center, which had its grand opening on June 30, is designed as a one-stop shop combining services that used to be spread across departments like public works and financing.
For about a year, customer service staff members across departments have been cross-training and preparing for a consolidation under one roof. Rodriquez comes from the public works department, but now fields questions across every city department.
Visitors to the center can get parking and facility permits, pay fines and bills, file police reports and ask for assistance for nearly anything within Salem in English and Spanish. The move aimed to consolidate services to be more efficient. Customer service works with around 7,000 customers a month, according to the city.
The new center has floor to ceiling windows on two sides, and the six customer services windows are behind glass, each with a small opening for passing forms, payment and pens through.
Salem Reporter sat with Rodriquez for an hour of her shift the morning of June 28. In that time, she addressed a near constant stream of inquiries both in person and over the phone.
At the top of the hour, she opened a form someone submitted to reserve the Gerry Frank amphitheater at Riverfront Park. Then, the phone rang. The caller wanted a parking permit. After letting her know how to fill out the form online, the call ended and Rodriquez returned to the park form, correcting its formatting at such a practiced speed that it was hard to follow.
She got about halfway through the form when the phone rang again, this time with someone asking about the city’s nature camp program.
“Sometimes it’s kind of going from one thing to the next and then picking up where you left off,” she said, before the phone rang again.
“You’re going to want to contact non-emergency police, and I can provide you with that number,” she said, before answering some basic questions about filing a restraining order.
Rodriquez has many of the numbers memorized, and listed off the non-emergency line without looking at a reference. When that call ended, just as she began to tell Salem Reporter what’s on the sticky notes and binders around the desk, the phone rang again. She stopped mid-sentence to pick it up.
“Good morning, city of Salem, how may I direct your call? Okay. Let me get you through to building and safety… You’re welcome.” She hung up the phone. “He needed to talk to a building inspector. Now at each station, you’ll see we have a flip chart…”
The binder, which has different phone numbers throughout the city through a flip-chart organization, is a tool the customer service staff use daily. It was created by a former public works office assistant who retired a few years ago, and current staff update it as needed.
In her time at the city, Rodriquez has also created a few forms which will be used by staff for years to come. She asked that the city separate the Pringle Hall permit form from the other facilities ones, since it has more specific requirements. She’s also working on something to help people organize reservations for softball tournaments to make the process faster.
After high school and some college, Rodriquez worked 11 years in retail, the latter half as a human resources team member, before starting a job at the Public Works Department as an office assistant. When a staff position came open, she went from that to customer service.
Though she’s most familiar with water, sewer and parks, Rodriquez refers to many people within departments throughout the city on a first-name basis. She knows details such as who prefers to be reached by residents via cell phone versus email.
Rodriquez said her favorite part of the job is helping people.
“Whether somebody’s on a payment plan and they can only afford to make a payment of a certain amount, or their water’s turned off and they’re coming in to turn it back on. Being able to help them through their hardship,” she said. She’s able to refer people to departments and introduce them to payment plans and options they might not have been aware of.
Recreation is fun for her, too, especially seeing kids excited to sign up for programs and helping people fill out fee waivers when needed.
One customer in particular, Rodriquez said, returns every year to sign her foster kids up for summer camp, joining dozens of other kids throughout the city.
At the customer service window to her right, a little boy ducked under his mom’s arm to ask the city worker for a pen and paper to draw with. His mom had spent the better part of 15 minutes signing several children up for summer camp, as the kids explored the lobby, clicked through the self-service computers and dug through the free box of children’s books provided by the Salem Public Library.
Once they were done signing up for the summer camp, the boy politely returned the pen and thanked the attendant. One of the kids said they didn’t want to leave yet as the family went out the door.
Anyone can drop in to the customer service center, Room 100 at the Salem Civic Center, 555 Liberty St. S.E Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
They can be reached via email at [email protected] and by phone at 503-588-7272.
Some services and forms are available online. For a full list, see the city website.
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-704-0355.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
