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Commissioners approve eight new 9-1-1 positions to address staffing shortages
Summary
Board authorized four public-safety call takers and four Dispatcher I positions, funded with Maryland 9-1-1 surcharge revenue; county projected annual cost $798,592.
The Calvert County Board of County Commissioners on April 1 approved a resolution and budget amendment (BA2025-0318) to add eight permanent positions in the county Emergency Communications Division: four public-safety call takers and four Dispatcher I positions.
Crystal Dowd, deputy director of public safety, and Emergency Communications Division Chief Stanley Harris presented a workforce optimization study commissioned in 2023 that concluded the current authorized staffing level (28 telecommunicators and four supervisors) was insufficient for projected workload. The study recommended increasing full-time equivalents by eight positions to address ongoing recruitment and retention challenges.
Dowd and Harris explained the increase in available Maryland 9-1-1 surcharge revenues makes the hires feasible without taking general fund dollars. The department estimated the annual cost for the eight FTEs at $798,592. To accelerate hiring this fiscal year, staff proposed using $219,494 of FY2025 state 9-1-1 grant disbursements to cover partial-year salaries ($162,132), overtime ($26,258) and night differential ($31,104).
Harris said vacancies have fallen from a high of 13 two years ago to two at the time of the presentation and that the department had a pipeline of roughly 15 applicants to interview. He described a call taker’s primary role as answering 9-1-1 and non-emergency calls and explained that dispatchers perform call-taking functions and dispatch police, fire and EMS units.
Commissioners asked about hiring pipeline, retention, and whether the hiring process had been streamlined; Harris credited Workday and improved recruitment and said the center’s retention out of training was about 80%—above the national average cited in the study. The board held a public hearing; one email was accepted into the record and no speakers spoke in person. The motion to close the record and adopt BA2025-0318 passed unanimously.
Dowd and Harris said the new positions will be funded with Maryland 9-1-1 surcharge revenue, which the county expects to collect at higher levels in FY2025 (the presenters cited a delta between years of approximately $1.39 million in surcharge receipts). Staff noted that surcharge revenue may only be used for eligible 9-1-1 expenses.
