Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9308070057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Hudson
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Monday, I found out otherwise.
I was trying to get through to the headquarters of the Virginia Department of Social Services in Richmond. I dialed (804) 662-9204, the number I had for the agency's bureau of communications, where its public relations people work.
A phone-company recording answered, telling me that the new number was 692-1944. I dialed it. Another recording came on to say this number was not in service.
I called directory assistance and asked for the number of the department's communications office. None found, the operator said. Public relations? Media information? No and No.
How about the commissioner's office, I asked, figuring someone there would know the number for their public relations office.
The operator gave me yet another 662- number, which - of course - referred me to a 692- number. Which turned out to be an automated answering system for the Division of Child Support Services, a part of the department I did not want to talk to.
I called directory assistance again. I asked, once again, for the number of the Commissioner of Social Services.
"Would that be under the Attorney General's office?" the operator asked.
No.
I explained once again that I wanted a main number for the Commissioner of Social Services.
Well, the operator explained, "there are pages of listings for the commissioner's office."
I explained what I was looking for: public information, public relations, communications, media affairs - like that.
"What about government relations?"
No. No. NO.
Then she saw a listing for "information." Ahhhh. Finally, I thought.
She said the number was 662-9204. I wrote it down before I realized that was the number I had started out with in the first place.
I tried again: Wasn't there any specific number for the actual office of the Commissioner of Social Services?
Yes, the operator said. She gave it to me. It was another 662- number. Which led, of course, to a 692- number.
I dialed it, expecting to get another one of those - recordings.
But somebody answered. I explained that I was trying to get in touch with the communications office.
She wasn't sure what the number was.
Wasn't this the commissioner's office, I asked, letting my frustration show.
"You got the right number," she said. "All the calls are directed here. I don't exactly understand why. I'm just sitting in for somebody who's gone for lunch."
Finally, she located a number for the communications office: 692-1824.
I dialed it. I got through.
DeAnn Hubicsak, a spokeswoman for the agency, explained that over the past few months, the department had been in the process of moving its 700 central-office employees from its old headquarters in suburban Richmond to a building downtown.
As various offices were moved, she said, the phone company set things up so that anyone calling the old 662- numbers would ring directly onto the new 692- numbers.
But, she said, that hadn't worked for the last two offices to move - the commissioner's office and the communications office, both of which moved in mid-May. "That part of it fell through," she said.
She said her agency will call C&P Telephone to make sure that the phone company has the correct numbers in directory assistance.
Hubicsak said any citizen who wants to get in touch with the department in Richmond can call (804) 692-1900.
And, she added, there's a number for the state government's own directory assistance operator, who has up-to-date listings for all agencies and even numbers for individual state employees. The number: (804) 786-0000.
I should have known that.
Mike Hudson, when he can get through to his sources, is a reporter for this newspaper.
by CNB