November 13, 2024
Present: President Paul Lewis, Secretary Jean Flanagan
Executive Director Derek Alt, Assistant Executive Director Nathan Keener
Guests: David Pratt, Mike Phillips, Teresa Dolly, Dusty Wratchford, Billie Jo Biddle and Tracy Richmond from West Hardy Emergency Medical Service; Tom Walker and Lisa Twigg from Wardensville Volunteer Rescue Squad; Steve Pendleton from Moorefield Examiner; Carson Mongold from HCEAA, Doug Mangold
There was no quorum of the HCEAA Board. The meeting will be rescheduled.
President Paul Lewis announced the Tax Levy to support ambulance service in Hardy County did not pass. He also announced a County Commission committee appointed to evaluate county ambulance service has not met. To date, there are three members of the community and two county commissioners who have agreed to serve on the committee. Derek announced the 2023 Audit was completed and copies are available. Paul opened the floor for comments. Billie Jo Biddle said she read in the newspaper that Derek said he would take away funding from West Hardy and Wardensville to reduce costs. She said the HCEAA has been hemorrhaging funding since last year and asked how the board was going to address the problem. She circulated two documents – one stating in the last 20 months, the HCEAA has received $2,048,756 or 82% of the county EMS funding, while WHMES has received $300,000 or 12.7% of the County EMS funding. She said the public doesn’t know this and would be outraged. The second document showed Revenue vs Expenses for HCEAA, based on minutes of HCEAA board meetings. It shows HCEAA in the red (negative balance) six of the nine months in 2024 and seven of 12 months in 2023. This includes $396,150 in CARES funding, including raises for Director and Asst. Director, raises for full-time employees. The numbers do not reflect revenue from billing. Billie Jo repeated the statement that HCEAA is hemorrhaging funding. Nathan countered that WHEMS collects more revenue from services. Billie Jo said that was true – $559,000 WHEMS vs $503,144 HCEAA. Steve Pendleton asked about the cost per call for each agency. David Pratt said the County Commission was told this was going to happen and it is not sustainable. Paul Lewis said every year for the past several years the HCEAA has presented a budget to the County Commission and every year HCEAA is told to reduce the budget to the previous year’s numbers. Billie Jo said she sent a person’s name to Commissioner Steve Schetrom as a possible addition to the HCEAA board. There has been no response. She said there is a mismanagement of overtime at HCEAA. The two directors are not running calls. This was disputed. Both Nathan and Derek run calls when other medics call out or there are additional calls for service beyond the second due crew. Billie Jo has asked repeatedly for a job description for the Executive Director and Assistant Executive Director and they have not been provided. She said when Paul gives a report to the County Commission, he should report about the entire county. WHEMS and Wardensville are not represented in his report. She reiterated her suggestion that each agency be represented on the HCEAA board. She said a substantial amount of money needs to be cut and asked how the HCEAA intended to do it. Nathan said HCEAA would have to look at scheduling and focus on schedules during peak times. Dave said the HCEAA is a business and is not operating like a business. If it were operating as a business, both the Director and Assistant Director would be fired because they are spending too much money. He said even if the fee were doubled, there would not be enough money to operate at the current level. Billie Jo said there was 16 hours of scheduled overtime and asked how much overtime is actually being paid? She said the HCEAA needs to restructure. Paul asked about the group from the three agencies who were meeting to discuss issues. Billie Jo said when she started asking questions about HCEAA operations, the meetings stopped. Steve Pendleton asked about the suggestion of an outside entity performing an independent evaluation on Hardy County EMS. He said the cost was $35,000 and two of the three County Commissioners voted against it. He said compared to the cost of EMS service in the county, $35,000 was a drop in the bucket. Mike Phillips said he understands the split of county fee funds will never be 50/50, but he would like it to be fair, so the WHEMS can take care of the people in the community. Doug Mongold said he was glad to see constructive discussion, face to face. That’s where it needs to be and not on social media. He said the first thing HCEAA should look at is cutting overtime. Paul agreed, stating when individuals are paid overtime, other costs increase – Worker’s Comp, state and federal taxes, retirement, etc. Billie Jo reiterated her suggestion the Directors need to be on the schedule. Paul thanked everyone for coming and participating in the discussion. He said he would present the notes of the meeting to the County Commissioners.
Respectfully submitted
Jean Flanagan
Secretary
