New Pay Scale approved
Members Karisa Peterson, J/E Larry Wilson, and Neil Thornbury reading the newly drafted non-exempt employee pay scale policy. Photo by PJ Martin
By PJ Martin
Editor
The Herald-News
The Barren-Metcalfe County Emergency Medical Services Board of Directors met on Wednesday, April 26th at the Metcalfe County fiscal court room.
The first order of business was the presentation of the February and March finance reports and claims by Executive Secretary/Treasurer Shawn Estes. He reported that February’s monthly contributions from each partner were TJ Samson $31,227, Barren Co. $59,863, Metcalfe Co. $33,819, and GEMT payments of $43,626 for a total of $168,535.
The cash receipts from patient payments, GEMT (Medicaid and Medicare), Air Methods, grants/loans, and partners totaled $478,747. The total expenses for the month including loan payments were $467,249.
He then presented the March financial statement with monthly partner contributions the same as February. The cash from previously listed sources totaled $555,797 with March total expenses of $504,426.
Operations Report
Executive Director Joe Middleton presented the run totals for February as 804. March run totals were 842 for Barren and 131 for Metcalfe with a year-to-date of 2,721 which is up 152 runs from this time last year.
Middleton presented a new report showing ambulance responses by station, monthly numbers, year-to-date, and percentage by station. The following are the percentage of runs made from each location for 90 days.
Glasgow Airport station – 25.82%; Headquarters – 54.42%; Metcalfe station – 12.04 %; and Other (cross-over county responses) 7.28%.
New Business
The first new business was the discussion and approval of the FY 2023-2024 budget followed by the approval of the proposed non-exempt employee pay scale policy update.
The pay scale has been updated to be comparable with other entities of the same size in hopes of attracting, retaining, and rewarding high-performing employees. The scale has 4 pay grades: EMT, AEMT, Paramedic, and Paramedic-CC each with a 6-step (year) plan. There is also a plan for the years after an employee reaches the 6th step, plus shift differentials.
A Resolution was agreed upon to establish the Michael T. Swift Foundation as a non-profit organization with Section 501(c). This will include the scholarship and research of EMS and it was approved to transfer all funds currently held by the Ambulance Service Corporation for what was previously known as the Michael T. Swift Memorial fund.
The board went into a short closed session and returned with no action taken.
The next meeting of the board is scheduled for June 28th at 4 p.m. at the Barren County fiscal courtroom.
