Lake County's E911 dispatchers have a first contract after the county council and board of commissioners on Wednesday signed off on the pact.

Approval came after an executive session to discuss what county officials called minor language changes that did not impact the terms. A memorandum of understanding outlining the language changes also was approved and an email from Byron Bonham, business director for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 21, was accepted by the combined panel.

Councilman Dave Hamm, D-Hammond, who sits on the Lake County Public Safety Communications Commission, said changes were a matter of word choice and did not impact the terms of the contract.

“It was minor,” he said.

A letter of support of the union and calling for the contract's approval submitted Oct. 27 by Dan Murchek, president of the Northern Indiana Area Labor Federation AFL-CIO, was accepted into the record.

“The Northern Indiana Area Labor Federation and it's (sic) 127 affiliates would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your support in achieving an historic first contract for the E-911 dispatchers between the county and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 21,” Murchek wrote in calling for the contract's approval.

Dispatchers voted to join IBEW 21 in June 2015. The first tentative contract was finalized this June and was overwhelmingly approved by the membership in July. The agreement will affect about 100 emergency call dispatchers at Lake County's consolidated dispatch center.

The first contract includes the $2,000-a-year raise approved by the Lake County Council in July for all full-time dispatchers. While the raise was included in the agreement, it did not directly come from contract negotiations. The $2,000 raise changes the pay scale range from $27,000 to $40,000 depending on experience and tenure from $29,000 to $42,000.

The contract does not include an automatic annual pay raise, but like the contract for the Lake County Sheriff's Department officers, there is a salary discussion built in every year.

Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.