EMS is the organization that provides Emergency services and ambulances for both Lake & Sumter Counties. EMS (Emergency Medical Service, Inc.) has a good reputation in Lake County. But, Is the Lake County administration staff trying to pull a fast one and get approval from the County Board at Tuesday's Board meeting to add 267 EMS employees to the County's employee benefits program (which may or may not include the pension plan) without ANY acceptable justification documents or any public discussion?
You can find the Tuesday agenda HERE and click on tab 1 to see the "agenda request" document which fails to provide any details on this issue.
You can find the website for EMS here - they are not listed on the County website as a County agency.
This is the EMS that...
recently approved the County Manager's plan to use about $1-million of their separate property tax income to help pay for the unfunded Motorola radio maintenance cost of over $1-million.
The County may (decision still pending? ) get to use $1-million of EMS funds to offset un-budgeted radio maintenance costs without complaint. Is this request to add all the EMS employees to the County employee benefits programs a back door payoff?
I don't mean to slight EMS employees, but there are no clear justification details on this request, which is a problem. If there are sound reasons to do this, they should be upfront and provide them in a public arena.
Since I found this on Sunday, I have no way to contact any staff until tomorrow, one day before the meeting, so I am posting this now.
This Tuesday, July 27th, the Board has their normal zoning meeting. Conveniently, the agenda specifies that there is no PUBLIC INPUT for any subject except zoning
But, tab 1 in the agenda's "Consent" section says staff is requesting that 267 employees of the Lake-Sumter EMS (Emergency Medical Service, Inc - a separate non-government entity partly owned by Lake County) be added to the County's Employee Benefit Plans and the agenda description says there is "NO FISCAL IMPACT".
How can adding 267 employees to the County's SELF FUNDED health insurance plan, etc. be at no cost impact.
What exactly does the term "County Employee Benefits Plan" mean - does that include pensions, which the government guarantees? Does that include health insurance at high costs of about $7,000 per employee?
Why should a private firm owned partially by the County be given access to public employee benefits?
Is this a way to "reward" EMS or employees for some political favors?
EMS serves both Sumter and Lake County. Are any of the 267 employees serving Sumter County, and if so, why should they be added to Lake County's benefits plan. Is this a plan to get Lake County to subsidize Sumter County services like the North Lake Hospital Tax District did by using Lake County money to help fund the Villages Hospital which benefits Sumter County residents which do NOT pay any hospital taxes?
Or, is this a way to bump up benefits for EMS after the original formation of EMS with a lower cost business plan or funding. Since it was stated recently at the Board meeting that EMS had available funds, why aren't they being returned to the taxpayer instead of possible running up costs to "use up the excess budget?"
How will the EMS employees be categorized? Will they somehow be classified to get the higher benefits given to fire fighters?
Since the County health insurance plan is "self funded", and EMS employees might have a higher "risk" rating, wouldn't that increase the average cost to the taxpayer of the self funded plan?
How does this affect the cost burden of the tax fund used to pay for EMS?
I see no acceptable documentation to explain this, and existing members of the Board should pull this item until staff provides much more in depth explanation of all the ramifications. Where were the EMS employees
Or, was this request a requirement of the formation documents when EMS, Inc. was formed, but staff didn't want to explain it to the Board and public?
Without better documentation, a public presentation, public discussion by the Board, and public input from the public, those questions won't get asked.
Taxpayers who are fed up with these types of unjustified spending requests should call or email your Board member (see their info HERE) and ask how such an item can be "no fiscal impact"? Does that mean no impact to the County budget, but increased costs to be funded by the separate EMS property tax?
Matter of fact, when is there a public hearing on the EMS budget, EMS funding and spending?
Anyone with better details can post them in a comment, or send me an email at FiscalRangers.com and I will revise this posting if warranted.
There actually could be a legitimate reason for this request, but they sure didn't explain it in the agenda request, and the staff needs to start providing better agenda item justifications to prevent loss of credibility.
Yes, I am starting to get fed up with these buried agenda tricks. If the senior staff and the Board don't start showing they research the above types of questions, and know the answers, and document them in agenda supporting documents, maybe there needs to be a drastic turnover of both. They need to start behaving as if the spending is from their money, and not "free" taxpayer money.
We need to know these things, otherwise this request appears to be a political payoff, a back door deal or just plain stupidity (see our next posting about the School Board's boondoggle to a five star hotel...)
If this goes through without any acceptable public & WRITTEN explanations to the above questions, I will ask for an investigation by the Attorney General or the Florida State Auditor.
vj
