Stanislaus County can’t agree to contract with 911 dispatchers. Sides await mediation
Within the confines of a unionized workplace, five years is a long time to work without a contract.
Stanislaus County declared an impasse recently in prolonged negotiations with emergency dispatchers at the Stanislaus Regional 911 center.
A mediator has been assigned and the parties are waiting for a date to be set for mediation, said Mike Eggner, a senior business representative for Operating Engineers Local 3.
The dispatchers joined ranks with Operating Engineers Local 3 in October. Their previous union representation could not reach an agreement with the county in the past five years.
The Stanislaus Regional dispatch center, which answers 911 emergency calls, serves more than 20 law enforcement and fire agencies in the county. The service was created by a joint powers agreement between the county and Modesto. The dispatchers are employees of the county.
Eggner said the county has offered the employees a 2.5 percent raise, after other county bargaining units had recessionary wage cuts restored and received additional raises on top of that. County employees accepted 5 to 6 percent wage cuts in 2010 to help the county weather the financial crisis.
The union has asked for a 4 percent increase, including 1 percent to restore recessionary cuts. The Modesto Bee previously reported that a contract extension, from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2015, restored most of the recessionary cuts for dispatch employees.
In a statement, Stanislaus County’s chief executive office said the commission overseeing the 911 center has made multiple attempts to reach a new agreement with the emergency dispatchers, including wage increases for employees. “We are encouraged that employee representatives have recently agreed to use the assistance of a mediator to assist the parties in reaching a final agreement,” the county’s statement said.
According to the union, another county proposal would put dispatchers in three different job classifications. Senior dispatchers who currently earn more than the maximum salary in the top classification would essentially have their salaries capped.
“These people are gatekeepers to emergency services for the whole county,” Eggner said. “I am amazed this has gone on for five years.”
Eggner said 34 of the 43 allocated positions in the dispatch center are filled, resulting in thousands of hours of expensive overtime pay this fall. In addition to nine dispatch positions not filled, two call-taker positions are vacant, he said.
According to Transparent California, one senior dispatcher was paid $86,372 in 2018, which was $28,500 above regular pay and an increase over $75,348 in total earnings in 2014. Annual pay for another dispatcher ranged from $76,748 to $91,214 in the past five years.
Five years ago, a Bee review found the base salary range for Stanislaus Regional dispatchers was $47,320 to $57,533, but the employees averaged about $10,000 in overtime and $10,000 in incentive pay.
Stanislaus Regional 911, directed by a 7-member commission composed of representatives from the county, city and public safety agencies, has not always been a happy partnership. A 2014 consultant’s study commissioned by Modesto Police Chief Galen Carroll concluded that Stanislaus Regional 911 had ineffective leaders, demoralized staff and uncontrolled employee costs.
County leaders blasted the study as biased, inflammatory and inaccurate. People have debated whether the salaries paid to dispatch employees should be compared with salaries at Bay Area agencies, which can lure Stanislaus employees with higher pay, or with counties in the San Joaquin Valley.
A consulting firm hired by the Stanislaus 911 commission found in a report released in 2015 that the agency’s costs per dispatcher were $233,237, compared with $170,371 in Fresno, Monterey, Sacramento and San Joaquin counties.
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 3:20 PM.
