JEMS faces staffing problems

County council will likely have to make a decision about how to pay for paramedic coverage.
Jay Emergency Medical Service isn’t fully staffed, and there are two ways to handle that, the county commissioners learned Monday.
Either paramedics can be paid overtime, or another full-time paramedic can be hired.
Part-time employees are already working the 28 hours to which they are limited under the Affordable Care Act, and getting more part-time employees is unlikely.
“You get people come up, and ‘Well, am I going to get insurance?’ ‘No, you’re not going to get insurance.’ Then they’re not interested,” JEMS director Pat Frazee said, adding that part-time employees don’t always like their hours either.
So for now, the solution is overtime.
“I’ve got full people in overtime, major overtime,” Frazee said.
An additional full-time person “as of right now, with our budget crunch, they’ll have to pay out of rainy day, and you know how council’s going to feel about that,” auditor Anna Culy said.
In September, county council voted to use $500,000 from the rainy day fund to cover a projected budget shortfall. But that fund should only be used for emergencies, council member Ted Champ said.
JEMS received $400,000 from the rainy day fund in September 2014 in order to keep it from ending the year with a negative balance. The fund also paid $44,098 for a paramedic’s salary and benefits in 2015.
Commissioner Faron Parr suggested Frazee make overtime projections to show county council so it can compare that cost to hiring another paramedic with rainy day money.
“It’s just a whole different situation I have out there than what most departments have,” Frazee said.
In other business, commissioners Parr, Jim Zimmerman and Doug Inman:
•Signed a contract with SRI Incorporated for the sale of 37 properties on which taxes are owed. The county is owed about $75,000.
Live auctions will take place on a date to be determined, with minimum bids of at least 10 percent of unpaid taxes.
The county could choose to transfer any of the properties to a city, town or 501(c)(3) non-profit.
•Appointed Ron Laux to the Portland Plan Commission.
•Appointed Zimmerman to the Jay County Board of Zoning Appeals.
Zimmerman’s term as a commissioner ends Dec. 31, after which he will not continue with the plan commission or board of zoning appeals either. The commissioners will have to appoint someone to finish the four-year term.
•Signed off on a new resident at Jay County Retirement Center.