Eight workers at the local 911 dispatch center were answering calls for help Friday morning.
That was almost half the staff.
The Santa Fe Regional Emergency Communications Center, a critical public safety agency, has been wrangling with a severe worker shortage — 25 of its 51 positions are vacant, including 22 positions for dispatchers, ranging from trainees to Level 3 emergency communications specialists. The vacancy rate for those jobs, with just 17 remaining on staff, is more than 56 percent.
Over the last six months, vacancies have been slowly climbing, especially for dispatchers, who staff the center 24/7, taking calls from people in distress and initiating emergency responses.
The result? Former employees cited long work hours and increased stress — leading to more vacancies — and some unanswered calls.
Santa Fe is not alone in the struggle. Emergency call centers across the country are averaging vacancy rates between 30 percent and 50 percent, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report form the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch.
But former workers of the Santa Fe Regional Emergency Communications Center said other issues drove them out as well. They described a hostile work environment and an unfair pay structure.
Their boss, former Director Vanessa Marquez, retired Oct. 29. She declined requests for an interview about the center’s operations and staffing.
The county recently hired Bernard “Buster” Brown to replace her, based on a recommendation by the center’s board, made up of city and county mangers and top public safety officials.
Brown stepped into the position Monday. He said he aims to ease the burden of the understaffed and overworked center — and quickly.
Brown, a New York native, has more than 25 years of experience in emergency dispatch centers, which made him an ideal candidate, said city fire Chief Paul Babcock, who heads the local center’s board.
“A wealth of experience is necessary because all the different agencies that utilize the RECC all have different needs that benefit the responders and the community,” Babcock said.
According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Brown resigned from his last dispatch center position, director of the Fayette County 911 Center in Georgia, in 2018 amid allegations of misconduct and fostering a hostile work environment. He then worked at a private-sector firm in New York.
When asked about the allegations in an interview Friday, Brown deferred to the county and said he was “moving forward.”
“I appreciate the RECC, the board and the county manager for giving me the opportunity to be here, and I’m focused on the future,” he said.
City officials declined to speak about the allegations against Brown.
County Manager Katherine Miller, another dispatch center board member, said she thoroughly researched the claims but declined to comment on whether she determined they were unsubstantiated.
“[The board] didn’t feel that what was reported in the newspaper was an accounting of a level that would pay to retract an offer,” she said.
‘It was not managed well’
The New Mexican reached out to several former employees of the Regional Emergency Communications Center who raised concerns about low staffing and the work environment. One agreed to speak on the record.
Sabrina Varela, 28, said she left the center in July. She started as a trainee in 2015 and worked her way up to a Level 3 dispatcher. As an emergency communications team leader, she worked with trainees, answered calls and supervised dispatchers.
Staff vacancies and turnover were always problems, she said, but they became exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were scheduled for four 12-hour shifts one week and three 12-hour shifts the next week,” she said. “But I was working 12 hours pretty much six to seven days a week, and sometimes I was even working a 16-hour shift.”
She also cited compensation imbalance.
Trainee dispatchers earn $17.35 per hour, according to county records, while a Level 3 dispatcher, with at least five years of experience, starts at $18.78 — only $1.43 more.
The high call volume and decreased staff hindered dispatchers’ ability to respond to calls, Varela said, and at least once a day a call went unanswered.
Santa Fe police Chief Andrew Padilla, a center board member, said the staffing shortage might have some effect on his officers’ response times. “With fewer call-takers or people to answer the phones, lower-priority calls have pended,” he said.
Babcock said the fire department has not noticed an impact from fewer dispatchers.
Aside from being overworked, Varela said she experienced a “retaliatory work culture” that she and others discussed with human resources officials.
“I just think that it was not managed well,” she said.
Varela said she loved her job at the dispatch center, despite the difficult conditions. She found it fulfilling and was proud to help her community. But she chose to leave in July to take a job at a credit union call center.
“It was a career to me, and it’s something that I wanted to stay doing,” she said. “But unfortunately, you have to take care of yourself first.”
David Bency, with the New Mexico Coalition of Public Safety Officers, the union that represents dispatchers, said compensation levels and the work environment are both factors in high turnover rates at the 911 center.
“If the work is terrible, you pay a person a million dollars and they still won’t want to work there,” he said. “They don’t want to get up in the morning and go to face that. You can’t pay them enough money.”
The current staff at the center “like their jobs, they want to stay with their jobs,” Bency said. “It’s just tough to do it, though. A person can only take so much.”
County spokeswoman Carmelina Hart said another reason for turnover is that dispatchers tend to springboard to other positions in public safety. “Many people stay here for a time but then use it as a way to continue on to another career in the county.”
New director aims to make a model
Dispatch center veteran Brown said it will take time for him to get acclimated to the agency, but he’s excited about the job.
“I want to make the RECC the model for not just this area, but the model for the state of New Mexico,” he said. “I want people to look at Santa Fe and the RECC as a resource.”
He said he hopes to manage the department with a “hands-on” style in which employees feel heard and valued.
He acknowledged their jobs are tough.
“You’re asking people to take on a position that is 24/7,” he said. “And so it’s very hard because it takes a unique individual.”
In his first week on the job, Brown said he was overwhelmed with the staff’s passion and dedication.
“I have been so impressed in the first five days of how this staff has pulled together as a team, has worked and has not missed a beat,” he said. “They are dedicated to the responders, dedicated to the community and the citizens … and they are on their toes the whole time.”
Miller, the county manager, would not discuss what she found when she looked into allegations Brown faced in Georgia, aside from citing a complicated “political environment.” After she learned of the claims, she said, she reached out to his references and his previous boss, and she spoke with Brown directly.
“What I found is that there were some political things going on at that particular time,” Miller said. “And he was not able to publicly defend his position on personnel matters because they’re confidential.”
She presented her findings to the board to determine if any members wished to rescind their recommendation.
“I said, if there’s anybody that would like to reconsider or reinterview to please let me know. If not, we’re going to move forward with the hiring process,” Miller said. “And what I got from all the board members was go ahead and [move] forward with the hiring process.”
Board members hold high hopes for Brown.
“I think he needs to do an assessment of the city, the center, and say, you know, this is something I could accomplish in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or whatever strategic plan he has,” Babcock said. “He needs to have a really good assessment of the center.”
Padilla said it will be important for Brown to be available and responsive when collaborating with emergency personnel.
“I want to see open communication continue with the new director when topics need to be discussed or challenges arise, in the same fashion it occurred with former Director Marquez,” the chief said.
‘These are not plug-and-play jobs’
Other dispatch centers in the state also face staffing shortages.
Glendora Orphey, director of communications for the state Department of Public Safety, said the three call centers for New Mexico State Police are struggling to fill positions. When COVID-19 hit, “that’s when we started seeing that the numbers declined a lot.”
Her office used to receive close to 500 applications for a dispatcher position. Now, she said, it’s averaging only 15 to 20.
The shortages lead to high burnout rates, she said, making it imperative to increase recruitment tactics. Some dispatch centers are offering hiring bonuses, she said, but for now the Department of Public Safety is focused on getting the word out. “We’re doing recruitment videos. We’re getting out in the public and just talking to people, encouraging them to apply.”
Edgewood police Chief Darrell Sanchez, who sits on the board of the Santa Fe dispatch center, said staff support and recruitment are crucial.
“It’s always something the board is trying to figure out, how to add personnel to the 911 center,” he said. “We’re hoping to use some different types of social media or other things of that nature to be able to recruit and bring on qualified personnel.”
The process, he added, takes time. Training for the role of a dispatcher takes between nine months to a year.
Hart said Santa Fe County plans to host a rapid-hire event Saturday at the fairgrounds for public works and and public safety positions, including dispatchers.
But there’s more to the issue than numbers, Bency said.
“These are not plug-and-play jobs,” he said. “You have to get certified. It takes training, and it’s a stressful job. You can’t just grab somebody off the street and plug them in.”
Varela sees a need for more awareness of dispatchers and their crucial role in the community.
“I just feel like they don’t get enough credit and are really overlooked,” she said.
“And unfortunately,” she added, “I feel like it always takes something really bad to happen for changes to be made.”
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