Levy County Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell expresses his concerns about a policy excluding his employees from the county’s Families First Coronavirus Response Act.
By Terry Witt-Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Commissioners Tuesday voted unanimously to exclude ambulance crews, emergency management workers and county firefighters from a policy that grants other county employees up to 80 hours of additional paid medical sick leave if they are exposed to the Coronavirus or test positive or become sick from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
The policy is aimed at sparing employees from using their existing sick leave or vacation time if they are exposed to the virus, but the board’s exclusion of front line workers involved in the Coronavirus fight, particularly Emergency Medical Service paramedics and EMTs, didn’t sit well with their boss, Public Safety Director Mitchell Harrell.
“If they’re not able to use some form of leave we’ll tell them to utilize their sick leave when other folks don’t have to fall back on their sick leave or vacation,” Harrell told commissioners. “So I do have some concern with that, realizing this is unchartered territory we’re in. I know some places are using administrative leave when they’re told to stay home. As far as child care, my folks have the same problem as everyone else; their job just happens to be first responders, so I’m not sure how I’m going to address this.”
County Coordinator Wilbur Dean told commissioners that he and Human Resources Director Jacqueline Martin sat through a statewide webinar and were told over and over to exclude emergency medical personnel from the policy. Dean said ambulance crews, emergency management employees and county firefighters will receive paid administrative leave if they are exposed to the Cornavirus or they test positive and have to leave work. He said administrative leave will work similar to Coronavirus-related paid medical leave.
Dean was interviewed later and asked if the primary reason for excluding ambulance crews from the Coronavirus-related paid medical leave benefits was to avoid losing ambulance crews if they took advantage of the additional medical leave time.
“Yes, that is very true,” Dean said.
Dean said it was an extremely tough decision.
“I didn’t make that decision easy. I put a lot of thought into that,” he said.
Katy Graves, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 4069 said she hadn’t been told about the new Coronavirus-related medical leave policy or the fact that ambulance crews were excluded from the benefits, but she said the decision comes at a time when the county has declared an impasse in union contract negotiations and the proposed increase in pay and benefits is on hold as a result.
Graves said Levy County Emergency Medical Services is shorthanded. When speaking to Spotlight, she had just completed a mandatory shift of 48 hours on and 24 hours off. The crew shortages have forced the public safety director to require crews to work the longer shifts. Ambulance crews had been working 24 hour shifts.
She said the county advertised for a paramedic in March and received only one applicant. She said paramedics are leaving to work in Alachua County and Citrus County for higher pay and better benefits.
“We cannot hire. At the same time the county wanted to take us to impasse to continue holding our benefits and not giving us a raise,” she said. “I don’t think it will be too far into the future that we have to look to shutting down trucks because we’re not staffed.”
Graves, who was recently re-elected to represent IAFF 4069, said she is getting ready to take time off under the Family Medical Leave Act. She said another paramedic is on FMLA this month. She said one paramedic was lost to disciplinary leave “or something.”
“I mean we’re losing medics left and right and we can’t hire them. The pay is not here and now we’re not getting this benefit,” she said. “We haven’t gotten a raise and the county is trying to cut our insurance benefits. So now there’s no point in even trying to bring people through the door.”
“We lost one to Alachua County a month ago. We lost one to Citrus County on March 25. We’re losing one to Citrus County again, I’m not sure of the exact date, but he has been hired. I mean we are losing people left and right and we got one that is going to work at a Georgia hospital, plus people are coming in sick with a doctor’s note. We don’t have the staff to do it so we’re working 48-24s. It was 24 on and 48 off (before) and we’re mandating people constantly (to work extra hours).”
She said ambulance staffing is “extremely thin” at this time. With the shortage of crews, existing crews work more hours. She said they saw the same problem under former Public Safety Director David Knowles, which caused many of the paramedics and EMTs to leave the agency for better pay, better benefits and less overtime in neighboring counties.
“Yesterday the guy that was unable to go home had to cancel a surgical appointment with a neurosurgeon and he was unable to go to his appointment because he was unable to get off work,” Graves said. “You can’t leave. If you abandon your post they will pull your license. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
She said many employees are upset with the working conditions and are looking at other employment options.
“We have two to three medics this month leaving for FMLA (family medical leave act) so it’s going to get bad and its going to get bad quick. You can only work, per hour contract, for 60 hours without approval of the director, but as you start working more hours, and they’re already tired, they’re up all night, that’s when accidents happen. They certainly could be potentially fatal.”
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Board of County Commission Emergency Session March 31, 2020; Posted April 2, 2020
