News With Stacey Page | Mid Northern Indiana News

     Since the dispatch centers for the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and Warsaw Police Department combined in August 2000 to become the county’s Central Dispatcher Center, 23 dispatchers have left or been forced out of their jobs and, according to several of them, it was not because of downsizing.
     Of those who are no longer at the 911 center and were interviewed for this article, they say the work environment was “hostile” and attribute that to the center’s supervisor, Tom Brindle. Most left on their own due to the conditions.
     To the general public the complaints among the dispatchers probably seem irrelevant. But, such a dramatic turnover in employees means the county has spent $179,400 in taxpayer funds just to train new dispatchers and those funds do not include any benefits or overtime pay that were required to be paid during those training times. In short, taxpayers will likely never know exactly how much taxpayer money was wasted.
     On Tuesday, a group of citizens are expected to attend the Kosciusko County Commissioners meeting to demand some changes. Included in that group will be county emergency responders and former dispatchers. Ultimately, they want to know why Brindle has been allowed to retain his position despite the dramatic employee turnover rate and they plan to ask that the 911 center operations be put back under the control of the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department.
     Sheriff Rocky Goshert tells Page that he would welcome the center back under his control and the dispatchers agree. Most say Goshert is the only 911 Board member who has their best interests in mind. Other board members are Ron Robinson, county administrator; Mayor Ernie Wiggins; Warsaw Police Chief Perry Hunter; and Mitch Rader, Leesburg fire chief.
     Dana Oberg was a dispatcher from October 2006 to January 2007. Although she says she “loved the job,” she didn’t like the work environment. “It was awkward, kind of hostile. I could see (Brindle) had some major problems with some people.” Though Oberg feels she received preferential treatment from her then-boss, she would see how he would arbitrarily change someone else’s schedule without notice, deny others days off and even alter policies from employee to employee. “He was unfair and not a supervisor,” she adds. “People should be treated fairly and that didn’t happen.”
     And Oberg isn’t alone. Another former dispatcher who served from 1991 until she had a stroke in 2006, says equality and compassion were not Brindle’s strong points. Though she does not want her name used, she says she received a letter in the mail while she was on medical leave saying she had been terminated because of the few months she spent hospitalized and recovering at home. She was, however, hired back in April 2007 and ultimately left on her own in March 2008. “I left because I knew he (Brindle) never really wanted me back. He told the other dispatchers that,” she says. “It’s because I’m the kind of person who says what I think and he didn’t like that. I saw the writing on the wall and knew I had to leave; I was pushed out.”
     She also agrees with Oberg saying she, too, wondered how some dispatchers could get time off whenever they requested it but others were constantly denied. “When I came back to work I had two dispatchers who worked midnights offer to trade me second shift, which is the busiest, for midnights for six months while I got back in the swing of things. (Brindle) denied it; he wouldn’t let them do it.”
     That feeling of being pushed out of the job is a sentiment also shared by Millie Francis who served as a dispatcher from 1989 to June 2007.
     Francis served as the assistant director under Brindle and says the 911 Board received many complaints of Brindle playing favoritism and even lying during her tenure but failed to act on them. At one point, she says she was asked to provide proof of his untruths and provided a CD copy of a conversation to the board. Francis says the 911 Board at that time failed to hand down any disciplinary action on Brindle but instead told her that if she and Brindle couldn’t get along they would both be terminated. According to her, no further action was ever taken.
    As this article is written, more former dispatchers say they, too, want to provide their own stories of why they left a job they claim they loved. This started when currrent dispatchers felt they were treated poorly upon the death of Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Jeff Shaw. Many say they were not given any time off to grieve with their brothers and sisters in uniform even though 911 dispatchers from four other counties volunteered to cover their shifts.
     This story will continue.

Related posts:

• Former 911 director in running for Cass County job
• 911 Board establishes two director positions in wake of complaints
• 911 administrative changes to be closely watched
• 911 Dispatchers honored
• Dispatchers share grievances over lack of sympathy