EOCC director flags staffing gaps, pitches Prepared Live trial to trim overtime

Frank Rivera, the newly appointed director of the Emergency Communications and Operations Center, told the Bridgeport City Council budget committee on April 30 that the center is working through persistent staffing shortages while seeking technology and grant options to reduce overtime and expand services.

"I am Frank Rivera ... I'm a Bridgeport guy," Rivera said as he opened his presentation, noting the EOCC is budgeted for 44 telecommunicators and currently short about 11 positions. He described an active recruitment campaign that produced 405 applicants and said panel interviews are underway to fill vacancies.

Rivera said one long-term goal is to implement emergency medical dispatching (EMD) in-house. "Right now we're getting state aid of 48,000 but we don't EMD calls," he said, and added that offering EMD could increase state revenue to about $731,000 — but only after staffing levels and state standards permit the change.

Rivera asked the committee to approve a limited, no-cost pilot of Prepared Live, a vendor platform that can triage non-emergency calls and provide multilingual text translation. "They're willing to let us try it for free," Rivera said. Under the trial, Prepared Live would handle non-emergency triage and free dispatchers to focus on 911 calls; the director said the city attorney had reviewed the approach.

Rivera also highlighted operations and morale efforts: the EOCC maintains wellness rooms, a peer-support team coordinated with police and fire, and a series of citywide preparedness trainings and school drills that he said are logged and reported to the regional coordinator. He said the EOCC is meeting FEMA grant milestones and continues to explore grant funding to offset equipment and program costs.

During committee questions, members pressed Rivera on whether students could be funneled into telecommunicator roles; he said interns can be used but hiring requires background checks, keyboard tests and civil-service procedures. Council members also urged adding a grant writer to the EOCC's toolkit; Rivera said the city's grants office helps identify opportunities but agreed a dedicated grant-writing capacity would be useful.

Rivera said the EOCC meets the state's 911 answering standard roughly 93'to'95% of the time and emphasized the trade-offs between EMD capability and staffing: "If you're on a 911 call ... they stay on the phone longer ... our state standards are going to dip," he said, underscoring that the city cannot move to EMD without increasing staff. Rivera committed to providing a vacancy list and working with civil service to speed hiring where the rules allow.

The committee exhibited the EOCC budget document and agreed to follow up on grant-writing support and the Prepared Live pilot. Rivera said the administration will return with details after the trial and further recruitment progress.

The committee did not take a final purchasing vote for Prepared Live during the hearing; Rivera described the vendor trial as a first step before any budget commitment.