RESIDENT PRESSES WASHINGTON CO. COMMISSIONERS ON EMS TASK FORCE REIMBURSEMENTS, HELICOPTER FINANCES

  

Questions were posed at today’s (Tuesday) Washington County Commissioners meeting regarding state reimbursement to the EMS Department for task force deployments and the finances for its helicopter program.

Local resident Carol Collins, who pressed commissioners on EMS operations during a separate workshop meeting in April, spoke at the end of EMS Director Taylor Leonard’s quarterly department report.  She called on the department and the court to audit what the county has been reimbursed for in the Texas A&M Task Force 1 rescue program and share information on deployments the county has not been paid back for. 

Collins contended that the county has not been adequately paid back by the state for what it spends on overtime hours for the employees who backfill the shifts vacated by team members who respond on rescue missions around the state.  She criticized the county for lacking due diligence in ensuring it receives that compensation, claiming there is “no concern for fiscal responsibility and accountability for those who did not do their jobs.”

Collins also claimed she has faced resistance in attempting to obtain records to back her statements.  She directly asked commissioners which task force deployments have not been reimbursed, when were those requests submitted, when the county expects to be paid, how the county will rectify this moving forward, and its overall justification for continuing participating in the task force program. 

Leonard indicated in his report that EMS received $74,014 in task force reimbursement in July, though he did not specify which deployments those payments were for or how much is still owed to the county.

Additionally, Collins called into question the amount of revenue the county air ambulance service earns in comparison to what it spends.  She asserted that the helicopter’s true costs are buried and that they have led to “a disastrous excess of expenses over revenue every year.”

According to Leonard’s report, the department has received $2,344,182 in revenue for ground operations and $1,545,545 in revenue for air through June, with another $3,246,002 in estimated air revenue due, but expenditures were not listed.  According to numbers presented by Collins, the department’s air expenses exceeded revenue by over $700,000 through the first six months of the year.

Midway through her discussion on the helicopter program, Collins was escorted out of the commissioners courtroom by a deputy constable after exceeding the allotted time to speak given by County Judge John Durrenberger.  Commissioners did not address Collins’ remarks.

KWHI has reached out to the county judge’s office for a response, including more information on how many reimbursement payments for task force deployments are still outstanding.  Separately, KWHI has also asked for clarification on how payments are handled if a county resident is flown by an out-of-county air ambulance service, due to the county’s own helicopter performing a patient transfer or otherwise being out of service.

Click here to download and read Collins' full statement on the task force reimbursements.

Click here to download and view Collins' full statement on the air ambulance program.

Click here to view the agenda packet for Tuesday's meeting (EMS report begins on page 42)