Brown County Dispatch. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A study commission recommended training and education as ways to improve conditions at the Brown County 911 dispatch center.
After numerous concerns were raised, the county announced in April it would hire an outside agency to examine the 911 center’s operations and staff.
Employees in the dispatch center said they all had one-on-one meetings with representatives from the agency completing the study and said they felt as if their concerns were being heard.
Following a more-than two-hour closed session, during which the final studies were reviewed and discussed, the five-member 911 Study Commission — made up of current and former Public Safety Committee members — came up with five recommendations they sent to Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach for further action.
“Our suggestions are to the administration. It is their job to make it work. At the committees, Troy, Chad and the county administration has to oversee that. We’re a legislative group. We’re not the manager group,” said Richard Schadewald, the commission’s chair.
The 911 Study Commission is recommending the Streckenbach’s office direct Public Administration Associates, an outside agency, to:
- Provide guidance and training to leadership and staff members to bring about positive cultural change in the department
- Train leadership and staff members to improve communication skills and promote working together as a unified team
- Establish regularly scheduled in-service sessions between staff members and management
- Create an environment and process where employees feel comfortable providing feedback to allow for meaningful employee feedback
- Establish and enforce a zero-tolerance policy regarding employees engaging in shame-training and/or bullying behavior
Schadewald added, “You change the system. I’ve never seen it where you change things because the people now want something. You want to change the system or the culture or the mechanisms. This kind of training, any department could probably improve with. This kind of training, any organization could improve with.”
Issues plaguing the Brown County 911 center have repeatedly come up in recent years. Dispatchers have expressed their frustration with staffing shortages, fluctuating schedules, forced overtime and low morale, leading to critical safety concerns. Recent resignations have only worsened the problem.
The independent reviews noted dispatchers feared burnout could affect emergency responses, but found no evidence warranting firings, despite the toxic workplace complaints.
According to some employees who work at the dispatch center but asked not to be publicly identified for fear of retribution, these recommendations are heartbreaking and gut-wrenching and don’t address the real issues at the center.
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