Stratford dispatch seeks modest budget increase after 911 performance improvements

Stratford Dispatch Superintendent JP Traczynski presented the fiscal 2026 communications budget and asked the Town Council for a 0.64% increase, saying the rise is “less than $10,000 year to year.”

Traczynski said the dispatch center handled roughly 105,800 total telephone calls in calendar 2024, including over 22,000 911 calls, and that the center improved 911 answer performance to “over 95% within 10 seconds on average,” exceeding the Connecticut standard of answering 90% of 911 calls within 10 seconds during the busiest hour.

The nut graf: the modest budget increase primarily covers routine personnel and equipment expenses while the department pointed to operational changes — staffing training, policy emphasis and console redundancy — that Traczynski and Dispatch Supervisor Heather Edmonds said helped lift performance and resilience.

Traczynski described several operational steps taken since a statewide 911 outage in October 2024: he said the town worked with IT (Ed Kingston) to develop a redundant backup plan that “does not rely on the state in any way,” installed two additional radio consoles in the dispatch center, expanded public 911 education (including outreach with the school system), and added a dashboard in the console showing real-time call-answer metrics.

Council members asked about the numbers behind the performance gains. Traczynski and Heather Edmonds attributed the improvement to dispatcher education, clearer priorities (e.g., placing routine administrative calls on hold for incoming 911 calls) and weekly posting of performance times, which they said motivated staff. Councilor Shay noted statewide attention to municipal response times and thanked the dispatch team for the improvements.

On staffing, Traczynski said the center has experienced turnover in the past six months; several experienced full-time employees left for supervisory or specialized positions elsewhere but “each one of them has requested to stay on part time,” which he said reflects the center’s training and credibility. He said the recent full-time hiring process drew 55 applications statewide; offers were made and five hires accepted, with four new hires entering training in the coming months.

Council questions also addressed payroll budgeting, shift differentials, tuition reimbursement and equipment costs. Traczynski said payroll was budgeted by position rather than by named employee and that the proposed 2026 payroll line reflects current staff and planned hires. He described a contractual increase in shift differential (from approximately $1.15 to $1.30 per hour) and said the department budgets for tuition reimbursement only for full‑time employees (40 hours per week), which contributed to a projection showing a lower education line for 2026 because fewer full-timers are expected to use tuition reimbursement.

Traczynski explained a requested increase in “outside services” to cover radio servicing, console expansion and rising prices for headset bases (the bases are made abroad and became more expensive during and after COVID); he said headsets themselves are U.S.-made but bases rose in price and were at times unavailable during the pandemic.

Ending: Councilors thanked the dispatch team for the presentation and performance improvements and indicated they may follow up if additional questions arise. The department said it was available to provide more detail on miscellaneous lines or payroll breakdowns if requested.