The Pierce County Board unanimously approved an emergency staffing request to add two more 911 dispatcher positions at its March 26 meeting. The dispatchers, for the remainder of 2024, will cost $126,282, which will be paid for out of undesignated general funds.

Pierce County Emergency Management Director Christine McPherson said when she came to work at Pierce County in 2020-21, the staffing level was on the cusp of not having enough dispatchers.

“With the population changing in Pierce County and handling more dispatch for River Falls, we really need to increase the number of people we have in dispatch,” McPherson said.

According to a Finance & Personnel Committee memo, the staffing level for 911 dispatchers has remained constant the last several years, even though staffing levels for emergency service agencies (especially law enforcement) that dispatch supports have been steadily increasing, along with the number of 911 calls. And according to McPherson, more changes are coming.

“We really tried to get by with what we had,” she said. “We are now dispatching River Falls during the day and they’re coming on board to use our CAD system and it’s really becoming a critical issue and it will continue to grow over the summer.”

Chair Jon Aubart said the hope would be to fill the two new positions by July 1, bringing the number of dispatchers in the county to 11. Training time is expected to take three to four months.

“We dispatch for all law enforcement agencies in the county and River Falls after hours,” McPherson said. “During the daytime, they have had staff taking citizen calls (not 911).”

River Falls Police Department has used a different computer system than the county, which makes it difficult for dispatch to know where their officers are while out on calls.

“It’s difficult to figure out what is going on or where assistance is needed,” Aubart said. “It’s a huge safety issue for the officers to know where each other are. Another benefit is the data that goes into the data base. Criminals don’t know jurisdictions. All the information will now go into one centralized data base which will be a benefit to all law enforcement across the county.”

McPherson said it takes a minimum of 10 people to have two dispatchers on duty 24/7, 365 days a year.

“There is no wiggle room,” she said. “If someone goes on vacation or takes FMLA leave, people work 16-18 hour days. We knew this was coming when we made the switch to civilian and I think it was the right move. They are professional dispatchers and it’s their sole focus.”

Supervisor Sheila Lorentz questioned why the need for more dispatchers is so urgent.

“There’s an increased workload and not enough staff,” Aubart said. “Who wants to work 16 hours a day?”

“Even with one vacancy and one person out on FMLA, we were struggling,” McPherson said. “One employee had to be out for an injury. We’ve been down as low as four people. Not a good number trying to staff. I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve never not had that. They want to do their best work. Hiring two more dispatchers won’t completely eliminate overtime, but it would significantly lessen the burden.”

A staffing study completed in 2021 and updated in January 2024 indicates four more full-time dispatchers are ideally needed to provide emergency services to Pierce County residents, support first responders and manage paperwork.

According to the National Emergency Number Association study, their recommendations include:

• Increase number of FTE dispatchers from nine to 11, to bring the county closer to the recommended staffing level.
• Increase supervisory/administrative support FTE to two from one current supervisor. This will be a goal in 2025. This would also provide “surge” capacity for unexpected events and help manage administrative tasks for keep systems updated.
• Eliminating two FTE staff would eliminate most overtime.

The total annual call volume for 2023, with 43,000 population, was 68,331. The total annual incident volume for 2023 is 57,305.

Supervisor Neil Gulbranson, a retired Pierce County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy, said he supports this fully.

“Not too long ago we had jailer dispatchers,” he said. “This is really common sense.”

Supervisor Jerry Kosin pointed out money would be “coming back” if overtime was mostly eliminated.

Administrative Coordinator Jason Matthys confirmed that $25 million in undesignated funds is in the general fund. The money for these positions would need to be built into annual budgets going forward.

Board comments

During public comment time, supervisors spoke up about many topics. Supervisor Dean Bergseng (District 8) said the board should have had two or three public informational meetings around the county regarding the new judicial center.

Supervisor Rod Gilles (District 10), who chose not to seek re-elections, said he’s enjoyed meeting and working with everyone.

“I’ve been impressed with the staff who works for the county. When I retired from the nursing home, my wife put sticky notes up on the door, no more meetings, no more budgets, no more personnel issues. Damn, I’m right back where I was,” he joked.

Supervisor Mel Pittman (District 17) commended Sheriff Chad Koranda on the sheriff’s office employees’ morale, which he finds uplifting.

Lorentz (District 16) brought up the refugee resettlement happening in Eau Claire County. She claimed Eau Claire did not follow “established rules and laws about bringing in unvetted refugees.” She said she’d like to see a “pause resolution” proposed in an effort to protect Pierce County because refugees can be transplanted within a 100-mile radius of Eau Claire.

“I recommend the board check into this situation about protecting our resources here in our county. My understanding is that other cities have been completely destroyed,” Lorentz said. “It’s hard on health and human services departments crime and some other issues. It's not being done the way it’s supposed to be being done.”

Pittman said he would like to see the Human Services Board take up the topic after the county board reorganization.

“They would look at the financial impact of what that might be for Pierce County and what it might mean to us financially if we had a number settle here,” he said. “I would have liked to see us say that we would like to see this paused.”

Aubart said he would like to contact the Wisconsin Counties Association to see where this information is coming from.

Supervisors Lynn Paatalo (District 4) and Ben Plunkett (District 5) also spoke about the county staff’s hard work. Neither is seeking re-election.

“It’s heartwarming to see how hard people work,” Paatalo said. “I would hope that we will look at facts and not go off of anecdotes because it’s rarely useful information and it’s hearsay.”

Other business

• The board unanimously voted to authorize a 2.5% wage increase for Administrative Coordinator Jason Matthys after a closed session discussion.
• The board will next meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 16 for its annual organizational meeting.