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911 center urges pay adjustments to stem operator turnover; says call volume rising
Summary
Elkhart County’s public safety communications center (PSCC) told council its 2026 request mainly reflects pay and benefit increases to retain dispatchers amid significant turnover and rising 911 call and dispatch volumes. The center asked council for support to keep pay competitive with neighboring centers and for modest operating adjustments.
PSCC leadership told the county council that the center’s workload and staffing pressures are driving the need for pay adjustments in the 2026 budget.
The PSCC presentation noted roughly 99,000 dispatches of police, fire and EMS in 2024 and an expected increase toward 102,000–103,000 if current trends continue; phone‑call volume was cited at about 202,000 inbound calls in 2024 (roughly 553 calls a day). The center said the proposed 2026 increase — described by staff as about $156,000 at the fund level — is driven primarily by pay scale adjustments and associated benefit costs to reduce turnover.
The nut graf: PSCC leaders said turnover has been a particular problem for entry‑level operator roles, with seven of roughly 30 staff leaving in the previous 18 months; the center estimates the market gap for the lowest pay category is on the order of 11–15% compared with neighboring counties, and argued a pay adjustment would be cheaper than repeated recruitment and training.
Council members asked about line items that showed low actual expenditures in earlier months (for example, part‑time technician lines and small supplies). PSCC staff said some budgeted supplies are backups and contingency lines and that negotiated telephone/tower costs should decline once the VHF backup is retired in favor of the statewide 800 system, and after renegotiations with Frontier on telephone lines. The bureau also flagged that the 911 surcharge fee (about $1 per device) yields roughly $1.1 million per year in gross revenue and that some of those funds support the statewide network and other allocations.
Ending: Council members pressed staff to trim low‑use lines where appropriate and to provide updated estimates once telephone contract renegotiations conclude, while affirming interest in addressing operator pay to reduce turnover and training costs.
