MINOCQUA – The Minocqua police dispatch center has been beefed up with an additional full-time dispatcher to ease the workload pressure the current staff there is experiencing. The center currently has four full-time and three part-time dispatchers.
The town board Tuesday agreed with Police Chief David Jaeger, who warned dispatchers are at risk of job burn out because of extensive overtime that is required. In some cases they are not able to use their paid-time off, including vacation time, before the year’s end.
“That’s not right that they’re not getting their vacations,” said Supervisor John Thompson, whose motion to hire another full-time dispatcher was unanimously supported. The chief had presented two options for the board to consider, including creating just a full-time dispatch position, with the second his preference of adding a full-time dispatcher and a part-time dispatcher.
During the debate, supervisor Brian Fricke wondered if the Minocqua center could close during the evening hours, with dispatch calls handled by the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department’s dispatch center.
The police chief said evening hours are when the department receives some of its more urgent calls for help, including assaults. The on-duty dispatcher also acts as a second set of eyes whenever a police officer brings in an “unruly” person for an interview. Otherwise no would know until morning if an officer was overpowered and struck unconscious by a suspect, he said.
A couple of supervisors were concerned about letting people go at the center if they approved the new full-time position. The police chief said one part-timer has said she wants to apply for the new full-time post if it was authorized.
One other part-time dispatcher is retiring as soon as added help comes on board, he continued, and the third part-timer intends to move out of state later this year. Supervisors and Jaeger discussed where the money was coming from to cover the costs of the new position.
The police chief said a substantial reduction of overtime costs and using the budget for part-timers would cover the beginning salary portion – but not the fringe benefits – of the new position. The center’s overtime pay last year was $21,187, nearly $16,000 over budget. The current overtime total for 2020 is running at $9,263. Jaeger said some overtime would still be needed during emergencies, large-scale events such as Beef-A-Rama, employee training and meetings.
The chief’s preference is to hire only full-time dispatchers whenever possible, he said. It can take upwards of six weeks of full-time hours to train a part-timer, running the bill to roughly $3,840 for each trainee. In too many cases, he said, part-timers once trained have decided to take a full-time job with another dispatch center. Or the person decides late in the training cycle that the job isn’t for them.
“Since 2015 we have had 12 part-time dispatchers,” he said in his report. “Four of the 12 employees were either full-time dispatchers at other agencies or ‘retired’ dispatchers that wanted to come back part-time.”
Informed that the workload for handling vehicle title applications, license plates and license plate stickers has ballooned this past year, the board said it wants to review that service at a future meeting. The state Department of Motor Vehicles promotes Minocqua as a registration vendor, covering a good share of northern Wisconsin.
Town Chairman Mark Hartzheim echoed comments of others who wondered why Minocqua is providing service to vehicle owners outside of the township, especially when the town doesn’t receive much in reimbursement from the state.
