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It's arguably the biggest step Montgomery County will take this year to restructure government and save money — a priority that county officials voiced during recent budget discussions.

On Thursday, the county will officially launch its 311 phone system — a sort of one-stop shop for anyone with a question, concern or service request for county government. The system has been operating unofficially since January.

Now, instead of trying to remember a county government phone number or dialing several departments before reaching the right one, phone requests can go to one central location — a call center the county is leasing at 51 Monroe Street in Rockville — by dialing 311.

"This is going to transform the way Montgomery County does business," said Leslie Hamm, the center manager.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said the size of the county government, which has 13,500 phone numbers, made the previous system of calling departments "unworkable and too costly" — a reason that he proposed the 311 system before taking office in 2006.

In May, call takers answered almost 34,000 calls, of which about 80 percent were information requests, Hamm said.

The most frequent call was to arrange bulk trash pickup. However, there were some oddities, like a call to find out if it was possible to have an infant body exhumed and another to report a beheaded chicken along the road.

On Friday, the center received about a dozen calls to report a government brochure that was printed only in Spanish.

Baltimore city launched a similar 311 system in 1996.

Montgomery County's 311 budget is $6.2 million in fiscal 2011, but all of the funding has been transferred from other departments, said Thomas Street, the county's assistant chief administrative officer. No new money is going to the program.

Funding is spread over several departments, including the Office of Public Information — which will be responsible for the system as of July 1 — technology services and others.

About half of the expenses — $2.9 million — will go to personnel, although the majority of call center employees were transferred from other departments.

Street says the 311 system has allowed the county to eliminate about 100 call-taking positions in other departments and streamline services, making government more efficient and saving about $10.3 million.

Jonathan Louis, 27, began working for the county in 2006 in the Department of Environmental Protection's solid waste services. Louis' job was primarily to take calls to schedule bulk trash pickup or other services.

His position was eliminated, and in December he was transferred to the call center, where he is a "Tier 2" employee, meaning he has specialized knowledge about a department.

Louis says that on average he handles about 70 calls per day — or about one call every seven minutes of an eight-hour shift.

Mondays, however, are his busiest days, when he handles as many as 100 calls.

Louis said residents are likely to clean their yards or garages over the weekend and need to schedule a bulk trash pickup on Monday.

The 311 phone number is currently operating, but has not been widely advertised. Meanwhile, some county phone numbers have been routed to the center.

Councilman George L. Leventhal (D-At large) of Takoma Park said he knows of only a few residents who are aware of the service.

That will change Thursday, as the county launches an information campaign focused on 311, including bus advertisements, bumper stickers and other low-cost options, said county spokesman Patrick K. Lacefield.

On average, callers are on hold for just under 10 seconds when they dial 311, Hamm said.

That's a vast improvement from the 45-minute hold times that some customers experienced when the system first went online. At the time, officials attributed the extended hold times to too few call takers and the winter blizzards.

"We know there have been plenty of glitches," said council President Nancy M. Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park.

Now, there are 50 call takers, with 27 employed by the county and 23 temporary workers.

The county has included an additional 13 call takers in its fiscal 2011 budget.

When a call goes into the center — a former restaurant now lined with cubicles and flat-panel televisions — it is answered by an available employee. The call taker asks a few questions about the reason for the call and enters keywords into customer relationship management software provided by Oracle Siebel, a California-based company. The county paid $900,000 for the software.

After entering the information, data sheets will appear on the computer screen that offer solutions to the caller's questions or concerns. Currently, there about 3,000 such data sheets, but more are constantly being added as the center is faced with new calls, Lacefield said.

Wall-mounted televisions post real-time data about calls, such as how many employees are off the phone, the average hold time and how many callers are waiting to speak to a representative.

Some call takers also are bilingual to assist non-English speakers, and for languages not supported at the center, the county has a contract with a language translation firm.

The Oracle software system also tracks data from the calls that Street says is an improvement from the way data currently are collected.

The system will track data by geographic region, trends and specific information, such as the number of potholes that have been filled each month.

Street said the new system also will make government more accountable to residents by tracking the requests and making some data available online.

A website also is available — www.montgomerycountymd.gov/311 — where data will be posted, and where residents can make some service requests, such as for a recycling bin.

Service requests are issued a tracking number, similar to how mailed packages are tracked online.

The phone system is available to all land-line users, but is not supported by all cell phone companies, Street said. Some major companies, such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, have signed on.

Other companies, such as T-Mobile, Cricket and Vonage currently do not support 311, but Street said the county is in talks with the carriers. However, those cell phone customers can still contact the call center by dialing 240-777-0311.

-311: Number to access county government call center

-240-777-0311: Also accesses the 311 call center

-13,500: Number of county government phone numbers

-$6.2 million: Fiscal 2011 budget for the 311 phone system

-50: Number of call takers at the center

-34,000: Number of calls received at the center in May

-70 to 80: Average number of calls each call taker receives daily

-10 seconds: Average amount of time callers spend on hold