City to Make Policy on Dispatchers Who Leave, Return to City Employment
Left, Human Resources Director Lisa Jakusz, Mayor Andrew Halverson and Aldermen Mike Phillips and Michael O’Meara discuss the transfer of dispatch services last Monday. (City-Times photo)
By Brandi Makuski
City leaders say they want to ensure current Stevens Point dispatchers retain seniority should they decide to return to city employment after the transfer of dispatch services to Portage County.
In a memo to the Personnel Committee, Emergency Management Director Sally McGinty outlined the procedures in place for dispatchers’ jobs that are being transferred to county control.
As part of an agreement struck between Stevens Point and Portage County, city dispatchers who complete the county’s employment application and related procedures, including a drug screening test, will be offered a job with the county dispatch center. Accrued sick leave and some vacation time will be transferred to the county, while holiday and some vacation time will be paid out to employees during the transfer.
“It is possible that one or more of the current city dispatchers may apply for a different position with the city as vacancies occur,” McGinty wrote in the memo. “I recommend that any dispatcher who accepted employment with the county…and is later accepted for a position with the city has his/her original hiring date with the city reinstated.”
Human Resources Director Lisa Jakusz said employees who wish to return aren’t guaranteed a position with the city.
“If employees that are currently city dispatchers who go to Portage County opt back and are selected for employment with the city, they would go through the same recruitment process as other candidates,” Jakusz said. “But if they would be hired they would be given consideration for prior work experience with the City of Stevens Point.”
McGinty originally suggested the consideration for returning employees would run through December 31, 2014, but Alderman Michael O’Meara said the wording on the proposal could be open to interpretation and wanted more definitive language on the sunset.
“I would like us to say, ‘you can keep your seniority for two years after you leave city service, or five years, whatever’, but I want it to sunset,” O’Meara said.
The Committee agreed on a 24- month timeline during which the former dispatchers could return to city employment with their seniority intact. That timeline would begin when the dispatch transfer is finalized in August.
The proposal now moves to the Common Council for a final decision Monday night at 7 PM in the courthouse.