By Terry Witt – Spotlight senior Reporter
Levy County Emergency Medical Services has begun shutting down one of its seven ambulances when there aren’t enough paramedics and EMTs to operate it.
In a Sept. 30 news release, Levy County Department of Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell blamed staffing issues on a nationwide shortage of healthcare workers brought about by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
After evaluating options and reviewing call loads, he said the Fanning Springs ambulance, Rescue 8, would be taken out of service as needed when staffing levels drop below the minimum threshold for the day. The unit will go back into service as soon as staff becomes available.
The Sept. 30 news release wasn’t sent to Spotlight, but it was sent to all the other news organizations in the county.
In a separate interview this week, County Commission Chairman John Meeks said current staff shortages are being driven by market forces. Citrus County and Dixie County are offering much higher wages.
But the Levy County EMS labor union chief says administrative and political mismanagement are largely to blame for the staffing shortages.
“It’s sad for the citizens of Levy County and the visitors,” said Katy Graves, outgoing president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 4069, the public labor union that represents county paramedics, EMTs, and firefighters. “Instead of going forward despite the increases in the EMS assessments over the years, we’re going backward. We’re not adding ambulances, we’re shutting them down, so where’s the money going? It is mind-blowing to me. It is a complete lack of management and leadership in Levy County.”
Graves is resigning effective Oct. 21 to work in Citrus County as a paramedic after 13 years with Levy County EMS. She said her salary there will be $15,000 higher than what she is earning annually in Levy County and health insurance will be free. She said Levy EMS employees pay more than $1,000 per month just for family medical insurance and they pay 15 percent of their individual health insurance. Family medical insurance was once free for employees.
Meeks said much has changed since earlier this year. In the spring, Levy County EMS employed so many paramedics that the county was considering assigning two paramedics to some of the ambulances rather than a medic and an EMT. But he said Citrus County recently changed from a private EMS to a public EMS and is siphoning off paramedics by offering them huge amounts of money. He said Dixie County is also poaching some of the Levy County paramedics.
Meeks said the county commission met on Sept. 21 in a private shade meeting to talk legal strategy about how it would address recruitment and retention issues with EMS. He said Harrell is pulling together numbers in preparation for negotiations with the IAFF. The county is in its third year of the labor contract and negotiations could have begun as early as Oct. 1, but nothing has happened yet.
“We’re going to have to throw a big number out and unfortunately it’s going to cause the property assessments to go up. There’s no way around it,” Meeks said. “We’re going to pay more, there’s just no doubt. It’s not just a problem in Levy County, it’s everywhere with the hiring and recruiting of paramedics.”
Meeks said there are some things in the current contract that the county commission doesn’t like and there are things in the contract that make it more difficult for the county to hire and retain people.
“We’re going to look at some of that language. We’re going to take a serious look at wages and personally, I want to get ahead on wages. We’re not just going up $1 an hour a year; that’s what we’re mandated to do with the minimum wage but I want to get ahead of that,” Meeks said.
Graves said the union has tried for years to bring the county to the negotiating table to take a serious look at wages, along with forced (mandatory) overtime and lack of benefits. Graves said the shortage of staff is forcing ambulance EMTs and paramedics to work extra shifts without rest. They normally work 24 hours on and 48 hours off, but when a mandatory shift is added, they must stay awake for an additional 24 hours of continuous work. They get 24 hours off when they finish the 48-hour shift.
“It’s dangerous when you’re dealing with administering medicine, narcotics and driving 24 hours, it can be a real long time, but 48 hours is much longer. When you get home, you’re stuck sleeping,” she said.
The Department of Public Safety paid a total of $961,000 in overtime in 2021. EMS received $847,409 of those tax funds and firefighters got $113,885.
In 2020, EMS received $760,260 in overtime with fire getting $103,510. The total for DPS was $861,761.
It is difficult to draw conclusions about overtime because paramedics and EMTs work long shifts. Paramedics and EMTs don’t work a 40-hour workweek. They work 120 hours over two weeks. Overtime is built into their schedules. Graves said that’s the case everywhere.
She said overtime is different for EMTs and paramedics depending on whether they have double certifications as medical personnel and firefighters or just one certification. Graves wasn’t sure how much of the current overtime could be converted to higher wages and benefits for employees. She said the clerk’s office would have to break out how much of the overtime is built and how much results from working beyond a regular shift.
But she said part of the overtime is due to staffing shortages that force EMTs and paramedics to work longer shifts, which takes time away from their families and stresses them physically.
Meeks said the county is ready to sit down and talk to the union when they are ready, but he said he wants the union to come forward with answers instead of just questions and concerns.
“If you’re the union and you represent all labor, what are the concerns? Obviously, money is going to be one, but what else is out there that’s going to benefit the entire body and not just you,” Meeks said.
Graves said the union has been trying for years to get the county to listen to their concerns.
“The union will absolutely sit down and talk to the county and hear what THEIR proposed solution is to the issue but we have been giving them suggestions to avoid the current conditions for YEARS,” she said in a text responding to Meeks. “We have been begging them to take action for more than a year. They have done nothing. They have literally ignored our cries for help and resolution but are now acting surprised that we are in a staffing crisis. The county will now have to find an appealing enough package to attract new employees or they will continue on the current path of total destruction of the Department of Public Safety. It is not the union’s job to fix their mismanagement though we have certainly presented ideas. Had they taken some of the past options that we gave during past negotiation sessions like, “no raises for 5 years if the county utilized the money set aside for raises and reinvested it into infrastructure by building new stations,” it might have been a cheaper fix than being in the position they are in currently. Higher wages and a more attractive benefit package will get people through the door but we have nothing to entice them to stay. One of our stations is literally falling apart. The floor is not sound and someone could fall through it at any minute. We no longer have the attractive “low call volume.” There is no room for career advancement. We don’t have full-time engine positions. We don’t have a lot of training availability. We don’t have specialty teams available, etc. Those are all things that catch the attention of people in the fire rescue service. Those are all things that we should have been working on along the way. The amount of money that is going to take to FIX the service as a whole in Levy County is astronomical. They have to continually put a Band-Aid over an arterial bleed instead of stopping the bleed by fixing the underlying issues. Why didn’t they start working on this in July of 2020 when Local 4069 put them on notice of the staffing shortage? Mitch Harrell is in possession of a list of suggestions aside from just wages and benefits that “may” help recruit and retain employees that was provided to him by the union. When the gas light in your vehicle comes on, most people stop at a gas station before their car runs out of gas. In this case, Levy County bypassed all the gas stations and let their car run out of gas despite all the warning lights. They’ve got a loooong walk back to the gas station now.”
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt October 7, 2021; Posted October 7, 2021
