Sheriff Vows Adequate Staff for 911 Calls : Law Enforcement: Dispatchers tired of working scheduled overtime have threatened to put in fewer hours during the holidays.

In an unusual effort to assure the public, San Diego County Sheriff Jim Roache said Monday that there will be enough dispatchers on duty to send deputies on assistance calls, even though a third of the department’s dispatchers have threatened to work fewer hours during the holidays.

Roache was responding to reports that about a third of the department’s 92 dispatchers had notified sheriff’s officials that they would not work beyond their standard eight-hour shift on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Because of chronic understaffing, most dispatchers are required to work scheduled overtime, sheriff’s spokesman Dan Greenblat said Monday.

Over the years, this practice has led to discontent among the dispatchers. The working conditions have been aggravated by the low pay--$9.28 per hour--for new employees and the state of the building that houses the dispatchers, which is likely to tumble during a moderate earthquake, officials said.

In a written statement sent to the news media, Roache said he empathized with the overworked and underpaid dispatchers and called for improvements in the “unbearable conditions” of the job.

But it is unlikely that the financially strapped county will enact improvements soon.

“The county could not respond to my request this year for additional staffing. . . .” Roache said in the statement. “Something must and will be done to improve these unbearable conditions, but when is the problem.”

Sheriff’s officials said there will be minimal staffing of dispatchers on the three holidays and that contingency plans have been drawn up in the event more workers are needed.

According to Greenblat, the sheriff’s communications center should be staffed with 100 dispatchers, but only 92 positions are funded.

However, on the average there are only 77 dispatchers working on any given day because of illness, disabilities or vacation. The workers, who receive emergency 911 calls and others for assistance, handle more than 700,000 calls annually.

Dispatchers receive about 1,950 calls daily. But that number drops to about 775 on Christmas and 1,000 on New Year’s Day. Last Thanksgiving, sheriff’s dispatchers had 1,211 calls, officials said.

Lt. Linda Fulton, acting head of the communications center, said the turnover rate among dispatchers is about 33% annually.

“We do have a lot of individuals who leave for a variety of other reasons,” she said. “Lately we’ve had a rash of them leave for county positions that pay less, but they work Monday through Friday and have weekends off.”

Both Greenblat and Fulton said the communications center serves as an entry-level job for many dispatchers, who often quit and get hired by other law enforcement agencies that pay more.

“The working conditions and the pay scale are the biggest problem. The pay is the lowest in the county,” Greenblat said. “We constantly act as a training ground for other agencies. . . . They leave and get better jobs, and who can blame them.”

“We’re constantly in a state of training,” Fulton said. “It takes a good year to train someone in all aspects of dispatching, and then they leave. Truthfully, there aren’t a lot of positives about this job. In addition to the working conditions, it’s stressful and difficult. You’ve got people calling 911 and yelling and screaming at you. It’s not an easy job.”

Adding to the dispatchers’ complaints is the fear that the building housing the communications center will collapse in a moderate earthquake.

“There is a bigger issue,” Greenblat said. “Experts have told us there is a 70% chance that the building will not survive a moderate earthquake.”

The communications center has been housed in a county warehouse in Kearny Mesa for 14 years. It was supposed to be an interim facility, where dispatchers would be housed for five years, Greenblat said.

In addition to housing dispatchers, the communications center is also the emergency center for all of San Diego County in the event of a disaster. All local, state and federal agencies are supposed to coordinate through the county center, Greenblat said.

“That’s a comforting thought, isn’t it? Having your emergency center inside a building that is not expected to survive an earthquake,” Greenblat said. “The large antennas on the roof are also expected to fall through the roof in the event of a moderate earthquake.”