De La Rosa questions overtime conditions for 911 operators

We're going to be above the vacancy rate the same way we are right now.

We're actually above, so we're doing very well.

And I recall in that hearing, one of the things that the operators testified to was having to work.

An exorbitant amount of hours based on the vacancy.

Has that condition improved?

That condition has improved.

It has.

Can you shed some light into the overtime?

I'll give some figures.

This year to date, we have 330,000 hours of overtime.

If you divide that by the number of PCTs, that breaks down to about 32 hours a month per PCT.

Would we like to get that even lower?

Absolutely.

We would like to get to the point where it's even just strictly voluntary.

I worked there several years ago, and we were almost at that point where it was strictly voluntary.

So, of course, we understand there's a lot of single mothers there.

There's a lot of people that, you know, need to do other things.

and to get held at their end of the shift is not easy.

So we're doing everything we can to help mitigate that.

And we do plan on getting to the point where we're almost entirely volunteer overtime.

I would say within the next three to six months, if you're asking me for a timetable.

Three to six months.

One of the most harrowing for me testimonies from one of those operators was an operator who had an open ACS case because they were unable to pick up their child from school based on the forced overtime.

So are you testifying that between three and six months we should see that sort of type of condition?

You know, be remedied?

Absolutely.

That's the goal.

And that shouldn't happen in the first place.

I'd have to take a closer look into that.

But we need to use common sense and use it on a case-by-case basis.

If somebody has an emergency,

We teach our supervisors to allow that person to go and tend to that situation.

Thank you for your testimony.