Turnover Leads to Overtime at Beverly, MA, 9-1-1 Center

BEVERLY — The City Council has approved a request for $160,000 to cover unforeseen overtime for Beverly’s joint police and fire dispatch center after that department saw significant turnover last year.

Councilors unanimously voted to move that money from the city’s reserve fund for unforeseen needs during the council’s meeting last week, following a round of questions to city officials on why the money was needed.

The approval leaves that fund with about $65,000, Beverly Finance Director Bryant Ayles said at the meeting.

The request will not add to the city’s projected $3.9 million gap it will need to fill in the Fiscal 2027 budget this spring, as the city built in projected overtime needs into that calculation, Ayles said. Though $50,000 to $60,000 will need to be added to next year’s staffing budget in some form, he added.

Of the request, $120,000 will cover overtime pay that stemmed from significant turnover in the dispatch department, which serves the police and fire departments and is overseen by both chiefs.

The city combined 9-1-1 dispatch and police and EMS dispatch a year ago into a new, fully civilian-staffed department.

Following the department’s creation, it lost two dispatchers, one of whom became a firefighter and the other a police officer, another who moved to a different fire dispatch, one that went into the private sector, one who moved to New Hampshire, and one who didn’t make it through probation, police Chief John LeLacheur said at the meeting. A dispatcher was also out with a serious medical issue for multiple months.

It takes at least six months to train a dispatcher in this new department, he said.

There are 10 full-time dispatchers and one department supervisor who reports to the fire and police chiefs. All of the positions are currently filled, despite the turnover last year.

Retention can be tough because it’s common for dispatchers to go on to take full-time police, fire or EMS positions in or outside of the city, a standard seen in this industry throughout the country, LeLacheur said. Dispatching, he added, is often a launching pad for people seeking those careers.

Beverly has created incentives to attract experienced dispatchers to the department, fire Chief Peter O’Connor said at the meeting.

“We want to keep the people that we train here,” O’Connor said. “The folks that have started with us, we want to keep them happy. We want to keep them working for us, because the longer they’re here, the better they get. That’s just the nature of the business.”

The remaining $40,000 in the $160,000 transfer to the department will be used to reconfigure and replace some existing dispatch equipment, Ayles said. Some of the equipment is coming off of warranty from when the new police station was built, and the city needs to ensure maintenance contracts are in place to keep them operating, he said.

The city’s budget analyst Gerry Perry said the transfer request didn’t surprise him, he told the council. He was concerned during last year’s budget process there weren’t enough funds appropriated to sufficiently keep up with the Fire Department’s needs in Fiscal 2026.

“But in conversations with the administration, I’ve been assured that if you do transfer this tonight, they do not plan on coming back for any more funding in the civilian dispatch for the end of the fiscal year,” Perry said.

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