December 21, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
Full time DeKalb EMS personnel are getting a pay raise to start the new year
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission approved a recommendation from the health, education, and public welfare committee to increase the pay of full-time ambulance service personnel by $3.00 per hour and to adopt a budget amendment of $72,975 from the general fund balance to pay for it through the rest of the fiscal year, January 1-June 30.
The ambulance service is budgeted for 20 full time positions but there are currently only 13 on staff. Director Hoyte Hale said it has been difficult to retain and attract full time employees because the DeKalb EMS is not pay competitive with surrounding counties. Hale said this increase in pay will help.
The pay raise will be applied to the EMS wage scale which tops out with 20 years of service.
DeKalb EMS staffs 2–24-hour trucks and a day truck Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. EMS staff operate on a 24/72 schedule meaning they work 24 hours on duty and 72 hours off duty.
Second District Commissioner Myron Rhody made a motion to approve the $3.00 per hour pay raise and adopt the budget amendment and First District Commissioner Julie Young offered a second to the motion.
Fifth District Commissioner Jerry Adcock said while he does not oppose a pay raise, he doesn’t think how it is being applied is fair to EMS staff with more seniority and he tried to table the motion.
“I would like to make a motion that we table this. It’s not fair for somebody who has been working for EMS 10 to 15 years with advanced studies to get the same $3.00 per hour raise as the person who has been there a year or two. Why not give those up higher (more seniority) more than $3.00 per hour and give those below (less seniority) less than $3.00 more per hour. We should sit down as a commission or committee and work on this and not do it as a knee jerk reaction thing and make any raise we give retroactive to the first of the year,” said Adcock.
“We already have a step increase (EMS wage scale) so the more years and education you have the better your pay is but it’s probably not enough. The upper group probably needs a little more pay but there are pay raise step increases for them,” said Commissioner Rhody.
Seventh District Commissioner Bruce Malone asked if an additional $3.00 per hour would be enough to keep current ambulance service employees from leaving for better paying EMS jobs.
“Is it enough? Will ambulance service employees be willing to stay for $3.00 per hour more? Is this a band aid? Will we be back here again in two months (to revisit this)? I think our ambulance employees are underpaid based on what was presented to me (by EMS Director Hoyte Hale) Thursday night (during a committee of the whole county commission meeting),” said Commissioner Malone.
“This is the first step to make sure we can hire new EMTs and hold onto the EMTs we have now,” added Fifth District Commissioner Anita Puckett. “The issue of disparity in pay for the more skilled EMS staff can be brought before the budget committee next spring but this ($3.00 per hour raise) will get the lowest paid EMT employee within range of what those are getting paid in surrounding counties,” she said.
The pay raise and budget amendment were approved on a 10-1-1 vote. Fifth District Commissioner Jerry Adcock voted against it based on his claim of unfairness and Sixth District Commissioner Matt Adcock abstained because he is employed by the ambulance service and has a conflict of interest. Two members were absent.