Council makes JEMS change

Less than a year after changing its leadership structure, Jay Emergency Medical Service is on the path toward trying another new format.

Jay County Council approved new job descriptions and the corresponding payroll changes to create a new hierarchy for the department following the resignation of director Eric Moore.

It also agreed to increase the county contribution toward employee health insurance in the face of rising premiums.

Jay Emergency Medical Service’s new hierarchy includes a Jay County Hospital employee — Leslie Peterson — acting as the “director.” She will oversee the department, but most of the day-to-day tasks that made up Moore’s job will be handled by three shift supervisors.

Since Moore’s departure, those supervisory duties have been handled by JEMS employees Gary Barnett, Emily Anderson and John McFarland. Though their duties overlap, Barnett has focused on payroll, claims and maintenance, Anderson on billing questions, inventory and chart audits and McFarland on education and financial issues.

They said the new structure has been working well, praising Peterson — “She has been invaluable in this transition,” said Barnett — and adding that they are having success in adding to the part-time staff.

“I commend the three of you stepping up to be willing to do that,” said council member Faron Parr.

Council members Jeanne Houchins, Gary Theurer, Ted Champ, Bob Vance, Cindy Newton and Parr, absent Mike Rockwell, approved the new structure with a salary of $11,000 for the part-time director role. The three supervisors will each receive pay bumps based on the county’s payroll ordinance as they take on their new responsibilities.

The three supervisory employees will need to be approved by the commissioners, who serve as the county’s executive body. County attorney Bill Hinkle will work with hospital attorney John Coldren to work out the details of a new management service agreement under the parameters of the changing supervisory structure.

The county first reached an agreement in November with Jay County Hospital to oversee the ambulance service, which had been plagued by financial issues for years. The hospital hired Moore for the newly created role of director. He resigned in September after nine months on the job.

After re-evaluating, the hospital staff, JEMS staff and county’s personnel committee settled on the structure that was approved Wednesday. Houchins pointed out that JEMS is expected to finish the year in the black.

After giving the OK to the new job descriptions, council also approved its salary ordinance for 2018.

Council also approved a recommendation from commissioners to increase the county’s contribution toward health insurance by $25 per month per employee.

With a surge in claims this year — auditor Anna Culy said they’re up about 67 percent from 2016 — the county was staring at a premium increase of 31 percent. By deciding to switch providers — to Physicians Health Plan from Anthem — it was able to reduce that increase to 15 percent.

Commissioners had suggested the increase — to $550 per month from the current $525, a total cost of about $40,000 annually — to help mitigate the impact on employee take-home pay.

Council members agreed with that idea, especially after working for most of 2017 in an effort give county employees a 2-percent raise next year.

“Even at the $25, it’s not going to cover the cost of the increase,” said Champ.

In other business, council:

•Made the following additional appropriations: A total of $1,800 in county general for copier maintenance and uniforms for the surveyor’s office; $3,000 in local income tax economic development for an Army Corps of Engineers study of flooding related to the Salamonie River; $2,500 in local income tax economic development for an Umbaugh and Associates study of tax revenue because of changes in the way agricultural land is assessed; $50,000 in highway for stone, gravel and aggregate; $2,000 in backhoe repair and replacement for the surveyor’s office; $3,250 in infrastructure for repairs at the retirement center; $3,484.50 in infrastructure for paving of the sheriff’s office parking lot; and $16,565.50 in court funds for the substance abuse program through Meridian Services.

•Approved the following transfers: In county general/coroner — $2,000 to wages-deputies from training; in county general/commissioners — $5,200 to insurance, liability, vehicle from examination of roads, $726.54 to burial of soldiers from ditch assessment, $500 to burial of soldiers from change of venue, $15,000 to computer maintenance from employer social security, $2,148 to insurance, liability, vehicle from workman’s compensation and $15,000 to contractual services from group health insurance; in county general/superior court — $600 to overtime from guardian ad litem; in county general/retirement center, $4,000 to building maintenance from LP gas, $250 to household supplies from travel/mileage and $3,097.10 to county home matron from farm machine hire; in cumulative capital development — $3,150 to contractual services from equipment; in infrastructure — $72,950 to repairs at retirement center from E911 dispatch upgrade and $7,500 to Waste Management from E911 dispatch upgrade; in Jay Emergency Medical Service — $30,000 to overtime from wages-paramedics, $65,000 to wages-EMTs from wages-paramedics; $5,000 to wages-overtime from employee health insurance and $7,000 to wages-overtime from employer Social Security.