ERIN BLASKO, South Bend Tribune (Indiana)

SOUTH BEND – The South Bend Common Council on Monday agreed to appropriate about $237,000 out of the general fund to pay for raises for the city’s emergency dispatch employees and to hire two new people in the mayor’s office.

Beginning March 1, 911 operators will earn a maximum of $43,000, supervisors will earn a maximum of $47,500 and the assistant director of the city’s emergency dispatch center will earn a maximum of $50,000.

The director’s salary – $56,541 – will remain the same.

The raises range between 6 percent and 20 percent, with the largest increases going to those 911 operators on the higher end of the pay scale based on experience and training.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg requested the raises in order to bring emergency dispatch pay here more in line with what is offered by other second-class cities in the state, or those with a population of at least 35,000.

According to information provided by the mayor’s office, 911 operators in Elkhart earn as much as $39,728, those in Fort Wayne earn as much as $44,316, those in Anderson earn as much as $43,278, and those in Lafayette earn as much as $38,371.

“We’re near the bottom compared to other second-class cities in the state,” Buttigieg said.

Speaking in support of the raises Monday, emergency dispatch Director Diana Scott told council members about the important work that 911 operators do in the city.

She spoke of one operator who stayed on the phone with a mother who was trapped in a burning apartment with her children and of another who did the same thing with a woman hiding from an armed intruder.

She said the second operator was smart enough to tell the caller to use the keypad on her phone to answer questions when the intruder entered the room she was hiding in.

“It’s much more than a job,” Scott said. “It’s about that feeling you get when you hang up your headset at the end of a long day and think, ‘I made a difference in someone’s life.'”

Representatives of the South Bend Police Department and the local Fraternal Order of Police also spoke in favor of the raises Monday.

The two new positions in the mayor’s office – a director of community outreach ($45,000 plus benefits) and a part-time secretary ($12,567) – proved less popular.

The director will serve as another point of contact in the mayor’s office, paying special attention to those in the community that may feel underserved or neglected, and the part-time secretary will help answer phone calls, Buttigieg said.

He noted that the two positions would add only 0.5 percent to the office’s 2013 budget compared to the previous year’s amended budget.

Nevertheless, council members questioned the need for the new positions.

“I’m not sure that’s another full-time equivalent we need,” Fred Ferlic, D-District 4, told the mayor of the director’s position. “I’m not sure whether the council shouldn’t serve in that position and report to your staff.”

In the end, the council decided to go along with the mayor’s request for one year.

“I will give the administration an opportunity to see if that’s a position that’s needed,” council President Derek Dieter, D-at large, said of the director’s position. “If in the end it doesn’t serve the citizens … that’s something we can look at next year at this time.”

Speaking afterward, Buttigieg defended the two new positions.

“We’ve been short-staffed since last year,” he said, “and the consequence of that is that it’s harder to respond to residents’ concerns and issues.”

Speaking of the new director of community outreach, he said, “My vision for this position is that it makes us faster, better and more responsive.”

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