(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(1) The public safety dispatchers and public safety operators of the Department of the California Highway Patrol are among the lowest paid when compared to operators employed by other law enforcement agencies in the state. The department’s communication centers suffer from significant staff shortages and high turnover rates. Increasing the wages paid to these public safety dispatchers and public safety operators will increase their professionalism while reducing their rate of turnover.

(2) The recruitment and retention problem is especially evident in the classifications of Public Safety Dispatcher and Public Safety Operator.

(3) In order for the state to recruit and retain the highest qualified and capable public safety dispatchers and public safety operators, those employees should be compensated in an amount equal to the estimated average total compensation for the classifications corresponding to Public Safety Dispatcher and Public Safety Operator within the police departments in the Cities of Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Jose and the City and County of San Francisco.

(4) This section is not in violation of the Ralph C. Dills Act (Chapter 10.3 (commencing with Section 3512) of Division 4 of Title 1 of the Government Code), which requires that changes for salaries and benefits be collectively bargained between representatives of the state and the employee’s union. This section does not circumvent that process. This section simply authorizes the Department of Human Resources, when determining compensation for public safety dispatchers and public safety operators in the Department of the California Highway Patrol, to consider the total compensation for public safety dispatchers and public safety operators in other jurisdictions.

(b) When determining compensation for public safety dispatchers and public safety operators in the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Human Resources may consider the total compensation for public safety dispatchers and public safety operators in comparable positions in the police departments specified in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a).

(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 66, Sec. 1. (SB 1025) Effective January 1, 2015.)