Three dispatchers with the Ceres Police Department tearfully told the Ceres City Council last week that they need more pay or they will seek employment elsewhere.
Ashley Shaw, who has been a dispatcher for four years, said the pay the city offers is the lowest in the county and surrounding counties and that “makes it extremely difficult or next to possible to attract new ones.”
“I struggle financially,” Shaw told the council. “I feel like I’m being forced to find employment elsewhere.
She also said the mandatory overtime “greatly affects my mental health in all aspects of my life.”
Shaw said while she wants to remain in Ceres, she doesn’t think she can.
“All seven dispatchers that work full-time have applied out to neighboring agencies,” said Shaw.
Mayor Javier Lopez responded, saying “Everything that you’ve said today is one everybody’s mind and I know we can’t make any promises now but the only thing I can tell you is that we will do everything in our power. You just said something that resonated: you don’t want to leave Ceres.”
He added that “the way everything is going in this country, there has to be a conversation.”
Shaw sat down and was replaced by single mother Michaela Richter who joined as a dispatcher two years ago.
“I’m currently struggling to provide for myself and my family,” Richter.
She said other agencies are finding ways to compensate to retain employees.
“Even with working the maximum amounts of overtime Ashley explained, we’re still not able to make ends meet without struggling and without making sacrifices,” Richter said.
After noting that salary negotiations between the city and dispatchers don’t start until January, Richter predicted Ceres “will continue hemorrhaging employees from all departments in the city if compensation is not immediately addressed.”
Richter also said she doesn’t want to leave Ceres “but if things don’t change financially I will have no alternative.”
Loreal Ahart explained that she chose to leave a dispatch position in another agency and took a pay cut for Ceres’ “family environment” and since she grew up here and lives in Ceres. She said she is struggling with no children.
“I want to stay with the city of Ceres and continue to contribute to my community but I also feel that I will not have a choice but to seek employment with neighboring agencies that pay a liveable wage,” Ahart told the council.
She said the city is continually short staffed which burdens employees and costs the city in overtime.
Mayor Lopez told the three employees: “Ladies, you’ve been heard, the call for action.”
