From: Mares, Rebecca
To: webCityClerk
Subject: PUBLIC COMMENT
Date: Monday, October 14, 2024 11:57:21 AM
My name is Rebecca Mares, I am and have been a police dispatcher with the City of Brentwood for 8 years as of this past October 3rd. I was the first dispatcher hired after the 2 Dispatch Supervisors and have witnessed constant staffing shortages and retention issues since I started with the city. I am the only original hire left still working in the dispatch center aside from my supervisor Nicole Zanotelli. I was unable to attend this evening because I am working a 16 hour shift due to staffing shortages and to cover a vacation.
Thank you,
Rebecca Mares
Rebecca Mares, Police Dispatcher
Police Department
9100 Brentwood Blvd
Brentwood, CA 94513-4000
Phone: 925.809.7911
Fax: 925.809.7799
[email protected]
Title: Like us on facebook
From: Daniel Granzella
To: webCityClerk
Subject: Public comment
Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2024 3:00:55 PM
CAUTION – EXTERNAL SENDER
My name is Danny Granzella and I have been a Solid Waste Supervisor with the City of Brentwood for 2 years and 7 months.
I came to the Brentwood because I heard that it was better than other Cities. It now seems that things are declining.
Employees who once seemed happy are now disgruntled. I haven’t been here as long as some others but moral is in the tank. I worked at another company years ago and the workforce was upbeat. Upper Management changed and future negotiations were bad. The moral started spiraling downward and to this day the employees moral has not rebounded. Is this what The City wants? Do they want employees to leave the City or continue to work and be disgruntled? Doesn’t sound like a winning formula to me.
Do better Brentwood!
Danny G
Sent from my iPhone
Good evening, members of the City Council.
I am here today as a member of BEAMOD and as a Dispatch Supervisor to express some pressing concerns regarding our current situation. Today is October 15th, and as you know, our Memorandum of Understanding expired on June 30th, marking nearly four months without a contract.
The classification and compensation study, originally scheduled for completion in January, is now ten months overdue. This delay significantly impacts our employees and continues to hurt morale. Multiple employees showing to be reclassified into positions that don’t make sense and salaries being y-rated.
We are seeing employees leaving more frequently, morale getting worse, more trainings being added to change employees thought process, and inflation continuing to rise. With the rise of inflation, the city makes more money. Why not leave behind a legacy that you fixed morale, you offered a competitive salary to lower turnover and attract new people to make it better in Brentwood once again? Currently, our dispatchers are the lowest paid in Contra Costa County and among our comparable agencies. Dispatchers in Brentwood earn 11% below the current median salary, while dispatch supervisors are 12.5% below the current median.
In May, the City presented findings from the compensation study based on salaries in February, revealing that even with proposed adjustments, dispatchers would still be 9.16% below the current median and dispatch supervisors 9.82% below. This raises the question: why isn't our dispatcher salary being adjusted closer to the current median?
Furthermore, a cost-of-living adjustment of 3%, 4%, or even 5% will not address this salary discrepancy.
Agencies such as Tracy and Antioch not only offer higher pay but also provide more substantial incentives. For instance, Tracy provides 13.78% in incentives, including POST Certificate pay, longevity pay and uniform allowance, while Antioch offers 10.87% to include education pay, POST certificate pay and uniform allowance. In contrast, Brentwood only offers 2.87% in incentives to include education pay and uniform allowance.
Retention and recruitment have been challenging. The dispatchers who remain are committed to serving Brentwood and the Police Department. However, if we are to attract and keep trained professionals, we must address this wage gap.
Training a dispatcher takes 4 to 8 months for experienced hires and 8 to 12 months for entry-level hires.
Currently, our dispatch staffing is at a critical 66%. This shortage leads to increased overtime, causing dispatchers to work overtime and putting a strain on our dispatch center.
I urge you to take action to rectify this situation. I have submitted detailed information in public comments outlining these issues and encourage you to review the information provided. Let's work together to create a compensation package that will appeal to the talent we have, and the talent that is scarce on an extremely competitive labor market. Thank you for your attention to this vital matter.
Comparable Agencies Current Salary
City Dispatcher II Dispatch Supervisor Incentives(Education, Post Certificate,
Bilingual, and uniform)
San Ramon $11,192.66 $12,929.09
San Leandro $9,658.00 $10,907.00 7.67%
Pleasanton $9,274.81 $10,731.61 5.45%
Walnut Creek $9,172.92 $12,096.75
Antioch $8,618.00 $11,579.26 10.68%
Livermore $8,535.95 $9,587.00 2.36%
Tracy $8,506.77 $10,731.61 13.78%
Brentwood $8,269.43 $10,000.98 2.87%
Average/Median(Brentwood
not included in calculation)
$9,279.87/$9,172.92 $11,116.45/10,907.00 7.99%/7.67%
Contra Costa County Agencies Current Salary
City Dispatcher II Dispatch Supervisor Incentives(Education, Post certificate, Bilingual,
and uniform)
San Ramon $11,192.66 $12,929.09
Concord $9,594.00 $12,665.00 2.64%
Martinez $9,313.00 $10,781.16 18%
Walnut Creek $9,172.92 $12,096.75
Contra Costa S.O. $9,033.92 $10,390.30 7.91%
Pleasant Hill $8,744.00 $11,248.00 8.57%
Antioch $8,618.00 $11,579.26 10.68%
Brentwood $8,269.43 $10,000.98 2.87%
Average/Median(Brentwood
not included in calculation)
$9,381.21/9,172.92 $11,669.94/11,579.26 9.56%/8.57%