ST. LOUIS 鈥 The city鈥檚 Civil Service Commission on Tuesday voted to create a new entry-level 911 dispatcher position requiring lesser qualifications as part of a plan by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones鈥 administration to reduce delays in answering 911 calls.
鈥淗opefully it allows us to get more applicants in the door,鈥 Interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom told the panel.
But the 蜜芽传媒 Police Officers Association, the union representing many of the current city dispatchers, said the new job category and related issues should be a subject of negotiation and indicated that it may file a lawsuit over the matter.
Local 73 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents other dispatchers, also says it should be involved in those talks. Both unions say they support the need to improve the city鈥檚 dispatching system.
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鈥淲e鈥檙e completely in the dark on what their plans are,鈥 Jeff Roorda, the police union鈥檚 business manager, said in an interview.
At the meeting, Isom and John Unnerstall, human resources manager for the city personnel department, said creation of the entry-level position isn鈥檛 subject to bargaining because it鈥檚 a new slot that won鈥檛 affect existing union employees.
鈥淭his would have no impact on incumbent workers,鈥 Isom said of the new position. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e still going to receive police, EMS and fire equipment calls to be dispatched. It鈥檚 not going to change their job in any way.鈥
The new entry-level dispatchers wouldn鈥檛 have to meet the current minimum requirement of at least one year working in customer service or previous experience as a dispatcher.
Under the city鈥檚 system, all 911 calls are first directed to the police 911 center. Calls for EMS and firefighters are then rerouted, sometimes resulting in delays. Isom said the new entry-level dispatchers would 鈥渟hare the responsibility of the initial intake of calls.鈥
The commission approved the new job class, 3-0, subject to possible modifications by the city counselor鈥檚 office. That caveat was included after commission member Dean Kpere-Daibo asked about issues raised in a letter received by the panel.
He didn鈥檛 say who the letter was from, but Roorda, the police union official, in a strongly-worded email to the commission last week warned of possible litigation over the lack of negotiations on the issue. Roorda called the proposal 鈥渁 slipshod plan to co-mingle鈥 three operations that will result in even longer delays.
Isom, however, said there will be negotiations with the unions on another key part of the administration鈥檚 plan 鈥 putting all police and EMS dispatchers in the same job classification.
That would eliminate pay disparities between the existing police and EMS dispatcher positions and also create a new cross-training position that could take calls for both, mayoral spokesman Nick Dunne said.
Although the commission on Tuesday also voted to create those two additional classifications, Dunne said they are subject to union negotiations.
Dunne said the city currently has about 40 dispatcher vacancies. Minimum industry standards call for 90% of 911 calls to be answered within 10 seconds but monthly city totals from September through February averaged only 60% of 911 calls answered that quickly.
