As county prepares for annual budget hearings, union calls for more 911 dispatchers.

When the Monterey County Board of Supervisors meets June 1 for a hearing on the county’s proposed 2016-17 budget, they’ll deliberate over a 740-page plan for the $1.36 billion that funds 5,203 positions across 24 departments.

County revenues are up, but not by enough to keep pace with costs. To help close a funding gap and avoid potential layoffs, county finance officials recommended a temporary hiring freeze on 83 vacant positions.

Members of SEIU 521 have been out protesting in front of various county offices in recent weeks, calling on supervisors to lift that hiring freeze, arguing staffing shortages affect a variety of critical services, including public safety.

Julie Filice, county chapter president for SEIU 521, points to vacancies at the 911 call center in Salinas as a particular concern.

There are currently 11 vacancies in the Emergency Communications Department, including 10 dispatchers. To cover for those vacant positions, staff work mandatory overtime shifts, averaging 14 hours per week.

“The community is better served if you have a rested worker,” Filice says. “Our members have a very hard task, and that task is trying to take care of the community.”

Emergency Communications Director William Harry disagrees that performance suffers: “I don’t believe the performance of someone working a 12-hour shift as opposed to a 14-hour shift is a deciding factor,” he says. “We have not seen an impact. Our call stats are pretty good.”

Those stats include answering more than 561,000 calls in 2016 to date, and getting to 89 percent of those calls within 10 seconds, just shy of the 90 percent target.

Like most county services, staffing is the highest cost in emergency communications, where salary and benefits account for 74 percent of the department’s $16 million budget. Harry plans to hire 16 new workers next year – even more than his vacancy rate, anticipating turnover.