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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 03211989 - IO.8 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS 1 ' 0. 8 1 sE;;L Contra FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE s Costa n1 : x March 13 , 1989 Count/ •yam DATE: --coax c4 _ Scheduling Fire Dispatchers on a 56-Hour SUBJECT: Week Versus a 40-Hour Week SPECIFIC REQUESTS)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Agree to allow the Chief, Consolidated Fire District, to schedule Fire Dispatchers on a 56-hour week based on the analysis done by the Personnel Department and County Administrator' s Office which shows that a forty hour week would cost some $150,000 more than the current 56-hour work week. 2 . Remove this item as a referral to our Committee. BACKGROUND: On December 20, 1988, the Board of Supervisors referred to our Committee the issue of whether it was more expensive to work Fire Dispatchers on a 56-hour week and pay overtime,, under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week, or to work Fire Dispatchers on a 40-hour week in order to avoid the FLSA overtime. Our Committee made a status report to the Board on this subject February 28, 1989 and requested the County Administrator to report back to our . Committee March 13 with his analysis of the comparative costs of working a 56-hour schedule versus a 40-hour schedule. On March 13, 1989, we met with Chief Maxfield, staff from the Personnel Department and County Administrator' s Office, to review the attached report from the County Administrator' s Office. From our review, it appears clear that it is more expensive to move to a 40-hour work week for Fire Dispatchers than it is to remain at a 56-hour work week, primarily because it is necessary to CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF TY ADMINISTRATOR X RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE — X AP OTHER _ SIGNATURES: Tom Powers Sunne Wright P�cPeak ACTION OF IOARD ON March 21 , 1989 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. CC: County Administrator ATTESTED , ?/, /9Rg Personnel Director PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF Chief, Consolidated Fire District SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Foreman, 1988-89 Grand Jury M382 (10/88) BY 'DEPUTY Page 2 actually increase the level of staffing on a 40-hour work week in order to preserve the flexibility of having three dispatchers available 24 hours a day. As a result, we see no alternative but to leave the Fire Dispatchers scheduled on a 56-hour work week. 1 , OFFICE OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CONTRA COSTA COUNTY Administration Building Martinez, California Supervisor Tom Powers To: Supervisor Sunne McPeak Date: March 9, 1989 INTERNAL OPERATIONS From: Claude L. Van MarterSubject: Scheduling Fire Assistant Administrat Dispatchers BACKGROUND- On February 28, 1989, on the recommendation of your Committee, the Board of Supervisors directed this office to do the following: 1 . Validate Chief Maxfield' s contention that staffing Fire Dispatch on a forty-hour week rather than a 56-hour week would cost approximately 40% more. 2 . Survey other jurisdictions. to determine what type of schedule they use for their dispatchers. 3 . Determine the cost of equalizing the pay of Fire and Sheriff ' s Dispatchers. We met with Chief Maxfield, his Chief of Administrative Services Mike George, and Eileen Bitten from the Personnel Department, on February 28 to review the cost figures presented by Chief Maxfield. The Personnel Department has refined those figures and has surveyed other jurisdictions to determine what type of schedule they use. At your meeting on March 13 , 1989, the Personnel Department will be prepared to comment .on the status of salary negotiations with the Dispatchers. CONCLUSIONS- As a result of our analysis we have concluded the following: 1 . It will cost approximately 31% more to staff Fire Dispatch on a 40-hour week rather than a 56-hour week. • r Page 2 2 . Most agencies which work fire dispatchers on a 40-hour a week schedule do so because they are jointly dispatching fire and police.. In these cases, the police chief tends to be in charge of the dispatch function and works all dispatchers on the same schedule police officers use, which tends to be a 4Q-hour week. Most agencies which work a 56-hour week are fire only dispatch which are under the control of the fire chief, who tends to work dispatchers the same schedule as firefighters. 3 . The job of Fire Dispatcher and Sheriff' s Dispatcher are significantly different in many respects and salary comparisons between them are difficult, if not irrelevant. DISCUSSION- . Attached is a memo from Eileen Bitten which details the salary of Dispatchers. under the current 56-hour week and the alternative 40-hour week. The conclusion is that it will require more staff to meet peak demands under a 40-hour a week schedule. The reason for this is that under a 56-hour a week schedule a Dispatcher works 16 more hours than would be the case under a 40-hour a week schedule. While Consolidated Fire District has three Dispatchers available at all times, they are not always on duty the entire 24 hours they work. Attached is a diagram which displays the actual scheduling used by Consolidated Fire. As you can see, there are times of the day when all three Dispatchers are actively on duty. There are other times of the day (and night) when only one or two Dispatchers are actually on duty. However, the Dispatchers who are shown as on "standby" are physically present in the building and are subject to being called when the workload dictates, which apparently happens frequently. Because the Dispatchers have to be physically present where they can be called when they are needed, reducing their working hours from 56 to 40 hours a week still requires that three Dispatchers be on duty at all times. This actually has the effect of increasing staffing because all three Dispatchers would be on duty at the console their entire eight-hour shift. While they may not be needed the entire eight hours, we would have to hire and pay them for the entire eight- hour shift in order to have them available when needed. In this regard, a 40-hour work week is far less flexible than is a 56-hour work week where those Dispatchers who are not immediately needed can be on standby. The result of moving to a 40-hour week is to require the hiring of four additional Dispatchers in order to achieve the same flexibility that is currently available with the 56-hour week. u Page 3 The cost of hiring four additional Dispatchers far exceeds the FLSA overtime being paid to the existing Dispatchers for the hours they work over 40 per week. Also attached to Eileen Bitten' s memo are the results of the survey they conducted of work schedules for dispatchers in surrounding jurisdictions. As can be seen, in nearly every case where dispatchers work an eight-hour day ( 40-hour week) , they are dispatching both police and fire. This is a more demanding job than just dispatching fire and a 56-hour week simply will not work in a fire/police dispatch operation because of the long periods of time the dispatcher must be on duty at the console. Staff from the Personnel Department will be available to comment to the extent they can in public on the status of negotiations between the County and the Sheriff' s Dispatchers. The job of a Sheriff' s Dispatcher is acknowledged to be more stressful than a Fire Dispatcher. With the difference in the type of job and the differences between a 40-hour week and a 56-hour week, it is difficult, at best, to compare the salary of the two positions. RECONIlEENDATION Advise the Board of Supervisors that the position of Fire Dispatcher should be left as a 56-hour position because of the significant cost of changing the scheduling to a 40-hour week as well as the fact that the 56-hour work week meets the ;operational needs of the Fire District. CLVM:clg Attachments cc: Chief Bill Maxfield, Consolidated FPD Eileen Bitten, Personnel Department Contra Personnel Department CostaAdministration Bldg. 651 Pine Street County Martinez, California 94553-1292 .: DATE: March 8, 1989 TO: Claude Van Marten,. Assistant County Administrator FROM: Eileen K.' Bitten, Manager-Employment Programs SUBJECT: Internal Operations Committee Report on Fire Dispatcher Attached are my revisions of the costs associated with eight hour and twenty-four hour Fire Dispatcher staffing along with the results of the survey we conducted in the Personnel Department. Chief Maxfield surveyed some agencies also,. including City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angel-es, Ventura County, San Ramon and City of Stockton, all of which work their Dispatchers on a twenty-four hour shift basis. EKB:dn Attachments Contra Costa County RECEIVED MAR 0 81989 Office of County Administrator I FIRE DISPATCHER ANNUAL COSTS FOR AVERAGE 56-HOUR WORKWEEK Base Average FLSA Uniform Gross Gross Class Pay Hol . Pay Diff. BLS Allow. Mo. Pay Annual Pay Disp. $2866 $230 $307 $65 $37 $3505 $42,060 (6) Sr. Disp. $3161 $254 $339 $65 $37 $3856 $46,272 (3) ANNUAL COSTS Dispatchers Senior Dispatchers Pay $42,060 $46,272 Retirement 5,825 6,409 Workers' Comp. 2,654 2,920 Health Insurance 2,410 2,410 $52,949 $58,011 $52,949 x 6 positions = $317,694 $58,011 x 3 positions = $174,033 9 positions $491,727 - - — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — ANALYSIS 7 days/week x 24 hours/day = 168 hours/week 168 56 = 3 shifts, or 3 x 3 = 9 positions 168 40 = 4.2 shifts, or 4.2 x 3 = 12.6 positions or 13 positions $646,262 a $491,727 = 1.3143 FIRE DISPATCHER ANNUAL COSTS FOR 40-HOUR WORKWEEK Base Average FLSA Uniform Gross Gross Class Pay Hol . Pay Diff. BLS Allow. Mo. Pay Annual Pay Disp. $2866 $215 - 0 - $65 $37 $3183 $38,196 (9) Sr. Disp. $3161 $237 - 0 - $65 $37 $3500 $42,000 (4) ANNUAL COSTS Dispatchers Senior Dispatchers Pay $38,196 $42,000 Retirement 5,290 5,817 Workers' Comp. 2,410 2,650 Health Insurance 2,410 2,410 $48,306 $52,877 $48,306 x 9 positions = $434,754 $52,877 x 4 positions = $211,508 13 positions $646,262 j FIRE DISPATCH SURVEY MARCH 3, 1989 AGENCY COVERAGE SHIFT LENGTH COMMENTS CONTRA COSTA COUNTY Consolidated Fire Fire only 24 hours Dispatch for Orinda & Moraga Richmond Fire Fire & Police 8 hours also dispatch for West Kensington and E1 Cerrito San Ramon Fire only 24 hours Riverview Fire & Police 8 hours D.R.C.C. NORCAL Oakland Fire only 8 hours 3 per shift except swing is 4 Stockton Fire only 24 hours All ambulance also San Jose Fire only 8 hours 1990 Jointy City Dispatch Berkeley Fire/Police 8 hours 4-10 plan pending Alameda Fire/Police 8 hours Fremont Fire only 12 hours 4 on 4 off, 1 or 2 per shift Sacramento Fire Police 8 hours Dedicated Fire Dispatchers. Were on 8 hours shifts prior merger with police. • j w � POSITION 1 POSITION 2 POSITION 3 0800 . 0800 0800 DUTY DUTY 1 : 30 pm DUTY STANDBY 7 : 00 pm 5: 00 pm STANDBY DUTY 11: 00 pm 3 : 00 am " STANDBY DUTY . 3 : 00 AM STANDBY 7: 00 am . 8: 00 am 7: 00 .am WFM/P1-3 .DOC I j