Lake County work session weighs part-time, temporary hires to fill vacant E-911 director role

Lake County officials on Monday continued efforts to fill a long-open E-911 director position, discussing part-time, temporary and consultant options and agreeing to repost the job with a minimum 20-hour-per-week part-time option and a separate temporary listing.

The managing board for Lake County emergency communications has been without a permanent director for about two years, officials said. During the June 16 work session, board members and county staff reviewed classification choices in the Lake County personnel handbook, current recruitment platforms and whether to hire a consultant or a recruiting firm to broaden the applicant pool.

The move to reopen hiring follows multiple recruitment attempts, said the board’s lead speaker, Jeremiah, who described a pattern of candidates applying and then disengaging. The board has expanded salary ranges and offered bonuses in previous rounds but has not been able to hire a permanent director. “September will be two years,” Jeremiah said of the board’s hiring effort.

Why it matters: the director post is the central position that links the managing board, supervisors and frontline dispatchers and carries…