‘The foundation has cracks and crumbles in it, but we still have people dialing 911’

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

Bonner County EMS is facing a financial mess following the move to the newly finished Station 1 building, leaving the ambulance district $2 million short in its current budget cycle. 

The board of county commissioners dedicated the majority of the Nov. 19 business meeting to the topic, exploring cost-saving measures, implementing new internal controls and signing off on a tax anticipation note from Umpqua Bank to tide over EMS until its tax revenue comes in at the end of January.

Chair Asia Williams called the $2 million loan “a Band-Aid to the leaky boat” and stressed that the commissioners, EMS and the Clerk’s Office need to continue working together to find long-term solutions to make EMS financially viable.

According to Williams, approximately $4.3 million of the ambulance district’s $5 million in tax revenue goes to staff, leaving little left in the coffers. The county already struggles to offer competitive wages, and EMS’ current financial uncertainty could lead to more pay cuts in the future.

“From the sheriff to EMS to fire, it is a skilled position that relies on people that are willing to put their lives on the line for their services, that need to have continuing education and growth, but need to want to work in an area where we know we’re not going to pay what is competitive in a nearby area,” said Williams.

The EMS Station 1 building. Photo by Soncirey Mitchell.

One proposed solution would be to restructure the staff’s hours, resulting in less overtime and, therefore, less pay; however, EMS Chief Jeff Lindsey emphasized that he would rather apply for another tax anticipation note “and keep what we have now and keep our employees whole than to make a rash decision on having to go to a different shift schedule and potentially hurt their long-range, annual income.”

Lindsey anticipates staffing decisions will need to be made in the coming weeks.

“For now, no decisions have been made as far as the staffing patterns, staffing levels, etc. We do have a plan in place in case we’re told that we do need to cut down on significant amounts of overtime… that is to split the shifts up to 48/144, but again, I don’t want to do that,” he added.

Selkirk Fire Chief Jeff Armstrong raised concerns about maintaining staff, estimating that if each EMS employee lost 11 hours of overtime per week, it would amount to approximately $830 per paycheck.

“I’m not saying that people are leaving. I think that they’re loyal employees, and I think the world of our EMS folks, but people already can’t afford to live here, and now you’re asking them to take another pay hit,” said Armstrong.

He went on to propose several alternative financial solutions, including cross-training and sharing facilities with area fire and rescue services, partnering with other local agencies or merging with the Joint Powers Agreement — a partnership between Westside and Sagle Fire districts, which has a combined budget of $3,687,431.

“[R]eally the toughest bullet point up here, right, is getting everybody to just take a deep breath, push pride aside, set aside their ego and have real conversations,” said Armstrong. 

In the meantime, the board of commissioners voted unanimously to enact a series of internal controls to monitor EMS’ finances more closely.

“One of the internal controls is that if the budget comes within 50% of the six-month minimum cash balance, the EMS chief will create a plan of action [and] correction with the Clerk’s Office to address the available cash balance [and] potential shortfalls,” said Williams.

The Clerk’s Office recommends maintaining a minimum of $2 million in reserve.

The treasurer will now also send the monthly EMS account report to the commissioners and Lindsey for review, and, going forward, officials will continue to scrutinize current spending habits, contracts, best practices and other elements of EMS’ operations in an effort to cut costs. Finally, EMS is now required to verify available cash funds before writing checks.

Williams said the current financial issues are “as clear as mud” and go back to EMS’ origin in 2003, because the county created the ambulance district without a plan to sustain it.

“We need to build a better foundation. The foundation has cracks and crumbles in it, but we still have people dialing 911 for services,” she said.