Starting salaries at Little Rock's 911 Communications Center will increase by about $6,500 for call-takers and $12,200 for dispatchers starting April 1 -- an effort officials hope will help retain those workers, eliminate vacancies and eventually shorten how long it takes to answer emergency calls.
City Manager Bruce Moore also approved a new pay structure Thursday for all nonadministrative call-center workers that would give those employees automatic, annual 4 percent raises during their first 10 years of employment.
Moore took a break from his weeklong vacation to authorize the pay changes Thursday.
"I'm glad we were able to get it done. It's a significant [pay] increase as you move toward a dispatcher position, which is the most critical. I've already heard stories this afternoon of employees that are just overwhelmed," Moore said. "They said, 'I was thinking about leaving, and now I'm going to stay.' That's why I thought we had to move quickly and try to develop a plan. This is a critical area. We struggled in it for a while, but I think this really helps us toward the right direction."
Little Rock's starting salary for a call-taker is currently $28,494. That will rise to $35,000 on April 1. The starting salary for a dispatcher is currently $30,780, and that will increase to $43,000.
Call-takers answer 911 calls and obtain some information before forwarding the information to a dispatcher, who is then responsible for figuring out which emergency units should respond.
"Morale is excellent today," Communications Center Director Laura Martin said after the salary changes were announced. "I've requested this for at least 10 years in documented requests. Through that period I will say there were incremental pay adjustments -- maybe 3 percent here, 5 percent there -- but not a lot that ever really changed the salary or set in place a long-term increase."
Since 2010, the call center has experienced a 56 percent increase in the number of calls it handles, and staffing hasn't kept up with demand, Martin said. Meanwhile, starting salaries have only increased by 11.5 percent during that period.
The high stress, along with other factors, have led to poor employee retention and empty workstations, officials have said. Human resources officials said call-takers and dispatchers only stay with the city for about five years on average.
Currently, there are 13 vacant positions at the call center, which has an authorized staff of 67. Earlier this year, there were as many as 20 vacancies. Unfilled seats have been constant over the past decade, topping out at nearly 30 percent some years.
Seven call-takers hired last month at the lower starting salary will get a $6,506 pay increase come April.
In the memo Moore sent to the 47 affected employees Thursday morning telling them of the pay change, he put in parenthesis, "this is no joke."
Martin said some of her workers had been actively seeking employment elsewhere but have now said they will stay. They were rejoicing Thursday and are "very grateful" to Moore, Martin said.
Officials have pointed to high stress from answering emergency calls, low pay, high call loads, frequent turnover, and a lengthy application process when explaining why some 911 calls go unanswered for longer than a minute.
From the beginning of the year through mid-March, the Little Rock 911 unit answered 67 percent of its 48,025 emergency calls within 10 seconds. National standards require that to be 90 percent. Also in that time, more than 1,000 calls to 911 took longer than one minute to answer, data show.
Martin said the new pay structure is the city's biggest step yet in trying to increase call-taker recruitment and retention, which "will impact the entire city in terms of public safety," because adequate staffing will lead to reduced 911 wait times.
Moore's announcement of the salary increases comes days after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette took a deep look into the matter in two articles that detailed the workload, call-response times and pay concerns and featured a comparison with 911 staffing in other towns.
In addition to the center's call-takers and dispatchers, trainers and supervisors will get pay increases and be put on a step-and-grade scale.
Trainers and shift supervisors currently have a minimum yearly pay of $38,815. That will increase to $46,000. The one training supervisor position currently has a minimum pay of $44,503, which will be increased to $49,000.
The step-and-grade scale will give employees in those five positions a 4 percent raise each year on their hire anniversary up to the 10th year.
After that, they will receive a cost-of-living adjustment that will be determined by the city on a year-to-year basis. These raises are in addition to whatever across-the-board citywide pay increases officials may approve with the budget each year.
After a dispatcher's 10th year of employment, he will make at least $61,202 under the step-and-grade scale. Trainers and supervisors will make at least $65,472 at that time, and the training supervisor will make at least $69,742.
Call-takers only keep that position for four years before they are trained and promoted to a dispatcher role. At the four-year mark a call-taker will be making $39,370 a year at minimum.
To transition to the new system next month, each employee will be placed in the step that is closest to their current salary, which will result in a salary increase for all 47 employees in the positions affected.
The changes are estimated to cost about $193,500 this year. Step increases in following years are estimated to cost about $258,000 annually, officials said.
"We'll have to do a budget adjustment. There's some things that are just critical that we've got to do. We did it with [the $5,000 bonus for new] police recruits, and we are doing it now. There might be some other sacrifices we have to make in order to ensure public safety is our No. 1 priority," Moore said.
Just last month Moore approved a new step-and-grade pay scale for the city's 383 employees in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which includes sanitation and street crews and zoo employees.
Those employees will get a 1.8 percent pay increase each year on their hire anniversaries. The step system goes up to 20 years, at which point an employee would max out.
Moore said Thursday that he decided on the 4 percent step, 10-year scale for 911 call center employees based on his review of salaries and benefits at other nearby centers.
"I think that in order to be competitive, in order to not only recruit but retain employees, this is what we needed to do," Moore said.
The pay increase will make Little Rock's starting salaries the highest in the region. Starting salaries for dispatchers at the Saline County and Pulaski County sheriff's offices, as well as at the Bryant and North Little Rock police departments, range from $28,400 to $30,100.
Call loads at those centers are substantially lower than Little Rock's, ranging from 114,000 calls to 198,000 calls, compared with Little Rock's more-than 629,000 calls.
Metro on 03/24/2017