At what point in time in local government did it become so hard to contact someone at city hall?

The other day I wanted to call a civic employee to offer congratulations on a recent promotion. Thus began my odyssey into the swirling morass of modern communications hell.

Naturally I started with the city's website. I knew the department the person was in, but not the exact title. I could not find an org chart' on the city's website. I couldn't even find a department listing. I certainly couldn't find an employee's phone directory.

I stumbled around, poking at various groupings of services that the city listed, but to no avail. The more I sought a phone number or contact, the more irritated I became. Gosh, you wouldn't think it would be that difficult.

Finally, I conceded and decided to phone the switchboard. Well, lord love a duck. I tracked down a phone number for city hall, called it, and promptly entered automated-services hell. "If you know the name of the person, spell it last name first, first name last, using the keys on your phone except for Q while sticking your left elbow into your right ear "

Sheesh. Shaking and sweating, I hung up. I then called another number for city hall and got automatically transferred to another voice service system. Madly punching buttons on my phone, a miracle—I got connected to an operator.

I gave her the person's name I wanted to speak with and without another word she punched her own numbers and I got through—to an automated answering system, of course. Then I had a few choices about getting transferred or leaving messages or whatever. I pressed a few more buttons and—hallellujah! —got a real, live person.

She informed me that the person I was calling was very busy and couldn't answer the phone. But, she could put me through to the manager's answering machine if I really wanted to leave a message.

I did, so I did. Get transferred and leave a message, that is. I have no idea if the person ever got the message, but I'd like to hope so.

After a necessary period of recovery from the experience and a well-earned drop of the amber liquid, I began to wonder if All? Most? Many? Some? city halls were providing the same kind of customer experience'. Has that become the new norm'?

I randomly did some web searching. Generally, I found that there is a dearth of clear org charts about who does what inside city hall. I did not find many specific contact names and numbers of senior staff.

There certainly were contact emails and phone numbers for elected officials. And should be.

Look, I understand that staff are busy and can't stop every time some nutcase like me phones. But I wonder if some city halls have gone a little too far in the name of efficiency' in blurring departmental responsibilities and contact information so that members of the public have difficulty figuring out who to call about what?

I was mulling all of this when I got an email from my bank. It is one of the Big Five. I emailed the person back, asking for a phone contact. That's when they informed me that the bank no longer accepts phone calls.

The amber liquid calls to me again.