WARREN — Trumbull County’s 911 dispatching center is having trouble filling jobs of entry-level dispatchers and people to supervise them.

The 911 center has 10 open dispatcher positions available that have starting salaries of $17.48 per hour and two open supervisor level positions that could pay up to $35 per hour, depending on the candidate’s experience.

Dispatchers, in addition to their regular hourly pay, also may earn overtime and other benefits. These “extra perks” can push some of their pay up to $30 per hour, according to Trumbull County Human Resources Director Alexandra DeVengencie-Bush, who spoke about the jobs during Wednesday’s commissioners workshop meeting.

Seventeen full-time dispatchers, one part-time dispatcher and two dispatchers are in training. There is one supervisor, but the center has two supervisor positions open.

Trumbull County 911 Director Tacy McDonough said she recently had two candidates for the supervisor position, but one did not pass a background check and the second took a higher paying job.

“Patty (Goldner) and I are looking at people who did not pass the background tests for the entry level dispatch position,” she said.

Goldner was interim 911 director before McDonough was hired.

DeVengencie-Bush noted that filling the open 911 supervisor positions is one of her department’s priorities. The office has posted the supervisor position at least three times.

Commissioner Denny Malloy questioned why the county does not seem to be able to fill a relatively higher paid position.

“The wages are the wages,” DeVengencie-Bush said. “There are people who were qualified, or, we determined they were qualified, but, for some reason they are not taking the opportunities.”

DeVengencie-Bush noted the county has made offers, but people are not taking them.

“Unfortunately, it is the nature of the business,” Bush said.

A 2023 report done by International Academies of Emergency Dispatch stated from 2019 to 2022, the average vacancy rate in 911 centers across the U.S. was about 25%.

Job openings have been posted on numerous websites, as well as with local schools, churches and other organizations, according to DeVengencie-Bush.

“We received no responses,” she said.

She said she reached out to current county employees in other departments and received few responses.

“This is a very well-paying job,” she said.

Malloy emphasized the county needs a body in those dispatcher seats.

“We are almost to a point where we have to go head hunting and steal people from other counties, just like they do to us,” Malloy said.

McDonough said it is difficult to attract people to this particular type of job.

“People who headhunt from us have similar positions that do not have the volume of work that we are doing,” she said. “They have dispatch jobs that handle only one city or one community.”

DeVengencie-Bush said the problem of getting people to take dispatcher jobs is not something unique to Trumbull County.

“It is happening all over Ohio and all over the United states,” she said. “You don’t see this in any other field, except for safety forces, 911 and health care.”

DeVengencie-Bush argued if they are going to get more people to apply for these dispatching jobs, the county needs to look at what it can do to lessen the pressure on the day-to-day work of dispatchers.

“We need to look at what we can take off their plates,” she said. “They are dispatching fire, police and multiple boards at one time. We need to get to a point where we have a phone call log, where nonemergency calls will go to one area and other calls to others.”

Malloy emphasized that the county needs to fill the open positions, so employees of 911 are not working 50 to 60 hours per week on a regular basis.

“We need bodies,” he said. “So Tacy can do what she needs to do. The people there are working to death. They need days off.”

McDonough noted the idea of phone trees and bringing in other technology will take bringing in artificial intelligence and the money to pay for it.

Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa noted there are people taking dispatcher jobs, working for a short time and then leaving. He said it is difficult to find qualified people at the wages Trumbull County is offering.

“Until the dispatchers are reclassified as safety forces, you’re not going to attract people at the wages we can pay them,” he said. “Tacy and I have had meetings with our state representatives and we can’t get definitive answers from them.”