Tazewell County dispatchers will need to make their pitch for pay increase 'behind closed doors'

Dispatchers with Tazewell County Consolidated Communications [TC3] want a raise. They'll have to get it through their union and collective bargaining.

That was the essence of what TC3 governance board chair John Kahl told them at the end of a nearly three-hour board meeting last week at East Peoria City Hall.

"We'll do this through collective bargaining in good faith behind closed doors," said Kahl, who is also East Peoria's mayor. "And we need to do this sooner than later."

The TC3 dispatchers say they're overworked and underpaid in their stressed-filled jobs.

They say the low pay and long hours have caused dispatchers to leave and made it more difficult to recruit new ones.

TC3 is down to 10 full-time dispatchers, half of what is needed for the around-the-clock operations. The dispatchers are racking up 20 to 40 hours of overtime each pay period.

"We can't lose anyone else," said TC3 Director Abby Hobbs, referring to three recent retirements of veteran dispatchers.

"We're barely above water right now. What we're doing isn't sustainable."

Hobbs said immediate and long-term solutions are needed and she pitched a 25% pay increase for dispatchers, which she said is possible financially.

The starting pay at TC3 is $24 per hour. That was recently increased from $20, but it still lags behind other area dispatch centers.

"The increase would make our pay comparable to most nearby 911 operations, maybe a smidge above," Hobbs said.

Hobbs said if the suggested increase was approved by the governance board, she knows of 10 dispatchers who would leave their current jobs and come to Tazewell County for full-time work.

"Five could literally start working tomorrow, and five would need just a couple weeks of training," she said.

TC3 was formed in 2017 as a result of a state-mandated consolidation of the county's dispatch centers in East Peoria, Morton, Pekin and Washington.

After a bumpy startup period, TC3 began operating in 2019 out of Morton and Pekin. It's only in Pekin now.

Washington Police Chief Jeff Stevens, who previously chaired TC3's operations board made up of first responders, talked about the early days of the organization.

"What we went through should resonate with anyone who has gone through a business merger," Stevens said. "It's difficult enough to merge two organizations. We merged four organizations."

Funding for TC3 comes from the 42 agencies that use its services. The Tazewell County Emergency Telephone System provides $250,000 annually to help those agencies and communities pay their TC3 bill.

Former TC3 dispatchers and Tazewell County fire chiefs were among those who supported the dispatchers during public comment at the governance board meeting.

Pekin Fire Chief Trent Reeise spoke out as both a fire chief and member of the operations board.

"It's time to throw down the gauntlet and figure something out," he said. "Dispatcher staffing has been an issue since this organization was formed.

"People need to start treating this profession like a craft or a trade and I hope we can be a model by giving our dispatchers a livable wage.

"They have an awful job; there's no way I could do it. They're our lifeline."

Ex-Pekin and Green Valley police officer and former Pekin City Council member Bill Maddox rhetorically asked, "if you're making a 911 call, do you want the person on the other end of the line to be in their 16th hour of work on their eighth or ninth straight day of work?"

Kahl said the governance board also needs to work on updating what he called TC3's outdated lateral hiring program.