County-OL marriage moving forward

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The county takeover of Putnam County Operation Life has largely become a question of “how” and not “if.”

A topic of conversation for Putnam County leaders at various times since a joint session of the Putnam County Commissioners and Putnam County Council in April.

It’s come up two more times this week, during both the regular commissioners meeting on Monday morning and another joint meeting of the commissioners and council Tuesday evening.

With all three commissioners and the six present council members all seemingly on board, a final plan for the county providing emergency medical service seems to hinge on working out a budget.

Commissioner Rick Woodall, who is the liaison to the Operation Life Board, is hopeful something official can be announced soon.

“We’re in the middle of September. I think the county and Operation Life need to make some type of statement about what we’re planning on doing,” Woodall said. “That also gives the employees at Operation Life — eases their mind a little bit that we are doing this.”

The question for council members, as is their duty, comes down to the budget.

In a report prepared by OL Director E.J. Claflin and presented by Woodall Tuesday, Operation Life is projecting a total budget of $1,761,145.02 for 2020.

Based on recent years, OL can expect about $1.02 in revenue, plus the $400,000 the county has contributed each of the last two years to OL as a not-for-profit.

This leaves a shortfall of about $341,000, which was the subject for much of the one-hour special session on Tuesday.

For his part, Woodall is confident the shortfall is only on paper and in practice, having OL as a government entity will actually improve its ability to collect.

“We know that if it is a government entity, we will get a little more revenue -- not a lot but a little,” Woodall said. “We also know that we have a much better way of collecting money from constituents that use the service than is in place.”

Claflin said in his time as executive director, the amount of bad debt the service has had to write off has gone from $750,000 to $480,000 last year, and likely lower still this year.

“So let’s say we are able to collect some of that money and we cut that number in half,” Woodall said. “My question is, how do we show that in the budget?”

Council President Dave Fuhrman said the state isn’t going to allow the county to bank on that.

“The state won’t allow us to bet that we’re going to get a certain percentage,” Fuhrman said.

From here, the discussion turned to ways to perhaps cut the budget.

The staff of 12 paramedics and 12 EMTs cannot be cut if the county hopes to have the level of service it desires.

Likewise, Claflin defended the need for himself and Assistant Director Joe Carnagua.

OL is currently working without a training captain, so the idea of going another year without one was tossed around.

“Just so everybody is clear, the quality of the care you receive is directly linked to the training they receive,” Claflin said.

Regardless of the wisdom of cutting the position for a year or even foregoing raises for a year, Councilman Phil Gick pointed out that making a bunch of small cuts in the budget was a tedious way to make up for $341,000.

“I bet we’re not going to find $340,000 in this budget to cut,” Gick said. “So where do we find the money?”

The Hazardous Waste Fund was discussed, but Auditor Lorie Hallett pointed out it had been maxed out for 2020 during the county budget process.

There is money in the Economic Development Income Tax (EDIT) Warchest.

The commissioners determine the EDIT budget and they at least seemed open to the idea on Tuesday.

“I truly don’t believe it’s going to cost us any more than what we’re currently paying,” Woodall said.

Council members expressed their concerns over Operation Life coming to the council in need of additional appropriations, as has been the case previously.

Claflin pointed out that it has not been the case in 2018 or 2019, since the county began putting $400,000 into the budget each year.

“I’m not really worried at all about the additionals,” Claflin said. “It’s not going to be like the past. They whole reason I kept coming here with hat in hand was the county gave us $80,000. Operation Life literally turned on itself and ate itself alive. There is nothing over there.”

However, this brings up another worry for council members — the condition of the OL facilities and the fact that the three front-line ambulances, while still in good working form, will all reach the end of the line at the same time.

But those are questions for later. For now,the commissioners plan to work with OL on a new budget proposal, whether it includes additional revenue or fewer expenses.

The plan is to have the new budget proposal to Hallett by Sept. 30.

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    "Likewise, Claflin defended the need for himself and Assistant Director Joe Carnagua."

    Yes, I am sure he did.

    If you keep the same management, you shouldn't expect a change in outcome just b/c the county takes over the purse strings.

    The removal and replacement of ALL management at OL should be a part of the "take over" by the county.

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Wed, Sep 18, 2019, at 8:52 AM
  • I couldn't have said it better, dread. For someone that came in hating most in the community and not needing those that are local is now crawling for help.

    -- Posted by Hmmmmm on Tue, Sep 24, 2019, at 8:12 AM
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