Washington County raises ambulance pay

The Washington County Board of Supervisors agreed to raise wages for every member of its ambulance department at a meeting Tuesday morning, part of a series of actions taken to address staffing issues and increase net revenue for the service.

While the vote was unanimous, it came only after lengthy debate.

Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck said the county’s strict starting rate for new hires, which doesn’t account for years of experience, wasn’t sufficient.

“We have to come up with a way to attract new employees,” he said. “Starting somebody out at $21.55 an hour when you’ve been other places and been through the step raises is not attracting employees here, and we’re hurting ... I look at my paramedics every day when they walk through the door and they’re tired. They’re wore out, they’re sick, they don’t have down time.”

Peck said the need for change was magnified by growing strain on the department.

“We had thirty-five 911 calls this weekend in this county, which is very unheard of,” he said. “We can move forward knowing that we need more people on the streets and that’s something we can budget for. In the meantime, we need to do something to maintain currently what we have and get more.”

Peck said the burden would not fall entirely to taxpayers, as the ambulance program is one of the county’s few programs that makes its own money.

“I’m trying to be fiscally responsible to 22,000 taxpayers’ money,” he said. “I run this business like it’s my business, even though it’s the county’s business ... there’s ways of offsetting that budget for us that will, in the end, make us more money if we get the employees so that we’re not paying the overtime.”

Chief among those measures is a contract, signed earlier in the meeting, with a consultant to maximize medicaid returns, as well as tentative plans to add a BLS crew to the shift rotation.

“We just agreed to sign a contract with GEMT that’s going to bring us in over $100,000 for the fiscal year, so we just essentially washed the wage increase for our employees,” Peck said. “We can offset our budget by putting a BLS truck on the streets and running transfers.”

A BLS crew would pay for itself completing four transfers a day at the typical going rate, a number Peck said was entirely reasonable.

“I called the University Hospitals and asked if they could guarantee us any transfers,” he said. “The guidance there was, ‘We had 12 transfers today that we could not get kicked out of here in a timely fashion. If you want part of those 12 transfers, we will happily give you those ... we also have people calling from other counties wanting transfers.’”

Still, some board members were skeptical.

“I’m telling you, I’m getting a lot of feedback from the public,” Board Chair Richard Young said. “My biggest fear, and you know this, is how we’re going to pay for this. I know you (mentioned) the GEMT, that money’s not coming for months. Plus, we’ve got to pay them so much money ... we have to pay the state how many thousands of dollars up front to get that money.”

Board Member Jack Seward Jr. proposed raising wages for paramedics and EMTs, but not other staff.

“I really don’t have a problem with those, but the coder, the administrator, the director. Those are the three that I’m not sure right now that we need to increase,” Seward said. “Our problem right now is filling the shifts, and that’s with EMTs, advanced EMTs, and paramedics ... those are the ones I think we ought to focus on right now, and we’ll look at the others as we progress, but I’m ready to approve this for paramedics, EMTs and supervisors right now.”

Peck pushed back on that more narrow approach.

“My administrative assistant busts his [butt] for this place, I would be willing to bet you there might be one person with more overtime than him,” Peck said. “This is about the money to me. He could give two hoots less, but am not going to have a supervisor paid as similar to him as what you’re asking for, I just refuse it, because if that’s the case, then he just needs to step back and be a paramedic and be done with it.”

Peck said he was frustrated with the board’s resistance.

“I’m standing up for my people, if you want to run the ambulance service ... the job is yours, because I’m not going to fight it anymore,” Peck said. “I have to be responsible to my people, and I have to be responsible to the citizens of this county, and that’s what I’m doing ... which part of what I’m bringing to the table today is not financially responsible?”

Board Member Stan Stoops agreed with Peck, saying Washington County needed rates competitive with its neighbor to the north.

“The only county we’ve got to be concerned with is Johnson County,” Stoops said. “Jeremy’s problem is keeping those folks that are concerned with an hour’s travel a day, that’s what he’s concerned about, and justifiably so ... We’ve got to take care of our own.”

Peck doubled down on Stoops’ argument.

“We are right at the fingertips of being the Johnson County of Southeast Iowa,” he said. “If we take care of the people that are taking care of us, they will come ... they’re reaching out, calling me, there is a want to come here.”

Board Member Marcus Fedler also sided with Peck throughout the discussion.

“This $110,000 or $146,000, that ain’t the cost, that’s a fee that we pay, it’s a number on a spreadsheet, but it’s not the cost,” he said. “The cost is we can’t hire enough people, we can’t grow, can’t service the public, that’s the cost.”

Fedler praised the work Peck put into the proposal.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got a department head that’s trying to run a business for the county the best way he knows how,” Fedler said. “He’s doing the best he can, he’s finding out that he’s got issues associated with pay from surrounding areas, he can’t attract people, this is his solution ... and in a couple of years, we’re going to figure out whether or not this was a good idea, but I think if we don’t, we’re going to find out what the cost is almost immediately.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com