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Erie County Council amends, approves pay changes for 9-1-1 telecommunicators
Summary
County Council amended and approved Ordinance 13 (2025) to implement reclassification and wage increases for Department of Public Safety telecommunicators; AFSCME Local 2666 urged passage citing staffing shortfalls and training timelines.
Erie County Council voted to amend and approve Ordinance 13 (2025), which amends Ordinance 89 (2023) and implements a memorandum of agreement covering public safety telecommunicators in the AFSCME clerical-technical bargaining unit.
AFSCME Local 2666 President Gary Snyder told the council the union represents more than 300 county employees and urged passage, saying the proposed pay-scale changes are needed to recruit and retain 9-1-1 operators. "I strongly urge council to consider passing the ordinance despite the legal case for the 2025 budget and the wranglings of administration versus county council," Snyder said.
The council approved an amendment that adds language specifying that the reclassification and promotional wage increases "shall be expensed under the current 2025 public safety fund budget and not by the transfer of funds from the general fund budget." The amendment passed on an affirmative roll call (Horton: yes; Schauerman: yes; Winarski: yes; Bale: yes; Copeland: yes; Drexel: yes; Chairman Scatella: yes). The ordinance, as amended, was then approved by the council.
Snyder provided council with a spreadsheet drawn from the county's publicly posted finance reports and OpenGov showing Department of Public Safety wage and overtime trends for 2021–2024. He said the county's 9-1-1 center is staffed at about 25 employees against a full complement of 44 and noted that training and orientation for new telecommunicators can take "up to 6 to 8 weeks." Snyder warned that, without the pay changes, the center "could possibly face 50% staffing by the summer of this year."
Council members and staff noted the approved language ties the pay changes to the public safety fund for 2025; questions about the broader 2025 budget and ongoing litigation between the administration and council were raised during the meeting. No changes to the ordinance's substantive pay terms were described on the record beyond the budgeting amendment.
The council's approval sends the amended ordinance to whatever administrative and payroll steps are required to implement the contractual changes; the transcript includes council discussion that broader budget certification and the ongoing legal case may affect timing and funding availability.
