A longtime Pulaski County EMS employee is being recognized for her years of service. Stephanie Foust was presented with a plaque by EMS Director Brandon DeLorenzo during Monday’s county council meeting. “I’d like to publicly thank you for 10 years of service with Pulaski County EMS,” DeLorenzo said, “and I hope I have 10 more.”
Reaching that milestone is increasingly rare. DeLorenzo said that when he started in EMS, people stayed in the industry for an average of 10 years. Now, that average length is down to six, and Pulaski County EMS is one of many departments finding it hard to keep ambulances staffed.
The county council took a couple of steps Monday to try to ease the strain. Members finalized a pay raise, after generally agreeing to the idea back in April. That was in spite of some skepticism from Council President Ken Boswell. “I’m not 100-percent sure that throwing money at something solves the problem at the end of the day,” he said. “It may, for a short period of time, retain people. And I hope I’m proven wrong, [that] it will help us bring more people in.”
Council Member Kathi Thompson abstained from voting on the salary matrix amendment, saying she felt it would open a floodgate of other departments seeking salary increases.
The council also voted to let a former full-time EMS employee who’s kept working for the county on a part-time basis return to full-time status at his previous seniority level, reversing last month’s decision. The presence of Council Member Mike Tiede, who wasn’t able to vote during last month’s meeting, was the deciding factor. “And I know that the matrix and all this and the rules and all that stuff, but you know what? If we could get a paramedic that’s on the fire department in town and everything like that, if we could get a guy like that to come back by just giving his seniority back, I think it’s a good thing to do,” Tiede said.
Council Member Tim Overmyer disagreed. “You guys aren’t employers, evidently, or most of you aren’t,” he told the rest of the council. “I’m all for people wanting to move on and make their life better. I’m all for it. But to come back, it’s just kind of a slap in the face and then demand that.”
The council only granted an exception to the one employee, unlike the county-wide policy change that was proposed last month. Overmyer and Rudy DeSabatine opposed the motion.
