How the line works
The line is software.
A voice that sounds like a person should say what it is, so we explain the machine before anyone has to ask.
- 01
A software voice answers
Every call is answered by software voices. The first thing you hear is: “We’re not the county. Not an emergency line. Nobody here’s a real person.” The voices walk callers through County code letters, deadline first, and can hand you to the operator, a second voice that takes a message, if you want to leave word for the campaign. They run on commercial voice and language-model services.
- 02
What gets kept
Ordinary calls aren’t recorded. Two things are. A message to the campaign: the humans behind the line listen, nobody else. A message to the Board: recorded, and sent to the Clerk of the Board as public comment. Whether it is played in the room, written into the record or passed to the supervisors is the County’s call, not ours — and once it is with the Clerk it is a public record, out of our hands and past our ninety days. If you agree, the line can also keep a written account of what happened to you, without your name or address. Both start with a notice, and you decide at the end whether it’s kept. Ours are gone in ninety days. The companies that carry the calls keep their own abuse logs.
- 03
What it can’t do
Nobody on the line is a person, and nobody calls you back. It isn’t the County, an emergency line or a lawyer. It won’t guess who complained about you, and it won’t tell you your case will be dropped. In an emergency, call 911. For your own case, see a lawyer.
Call about the letter on your table, or the rule behind it. The line doesn’t stop at the county line — there’s a Midway out past it, and it’s open.
We’re not the County. Not an emergency line. Nobody here’s a real person.