Civil Service Commission approves public safety radio technician job series

The Montebello Civil Service Commission voted unanimously to approve a three-level public safety radio technician job specification series intended to strengthen recruitment and retention for the city’s radio communications workforce.

The series creates entry, journey and advanced classifications for public safety radio technicians to provide a career ladder and formalize duties, pay tiers and certification expectations. Human Resources staff said the change is meant to address persistent recruitment challenges and to preserve institutional knowledge as experienced technicians retire.

Human Resources staff (presenter) described the new series during the commission meeting, saying the existing single classification made hiring difficult. “This will give us a graduated series, an entry-level journey and then advanced level,” the presenter said, adding the tiered structure is intended as “succession planning in the future.”

Under the proposal, the entry level would accept candidates with no prior experience and a two-year certificate or equivalent training preferred; the journey level would prefer two to four years of progressively responsible experience in two-way radio telecommunications; and the advanced level would prefer five or more years of full-time experience or two years at the mid-level. The presenter said the only initial license requirement is a valid Class C driver’s license, and that higher levels would expect general class radio licenses and vendor or manufacturer certifications (for example, Motorola training) because Montebello’s public safety systems rely on proprietary products.

Commissioners asked about pay and certification requirements. Commissioner Delgado said pay concerns motivated the reclassification effort during recent recruitments. The presenter said the existing pay was being redistributed across the three tiers rather than increasing total payroll for the position immediately, describing it as the same pay “just broken up across 3 series.” Commissioner Briseno asked about required certifications, and the presenter detailed the expected progression of technical training and years of experience for each level.

The commission approved the job specification by voice vote. The action closes a policy gap commissioners said had complicated hiring and created single-person dependencies for maintaining radio systems.

The presenter and commissioners noted the change aims to maintain service continuity for fire, police and emergency management radio systems and to capture retiring technicians’ institutional knowledge.