Finance committee puts brakes on hiring ambulance consultant

Taylor County is holding off on hiring a consultant to look at how ambulance services are being handled.

At the September 12 finance committee meeting, members agreed to put on hold hiring an outside consultant after questions were raised if the law enforcement committee had the authority to hire someone on their own.

Typically departments may spend money that is within their budget without needing outside approval. The justification for this expense being approved by the law enforcement committee is that last fall the county board had authorized up to a set dollar amount for the ambulance service contract with Aspirus. The actual amount that will be spent this year is below that authorization level.

Finance committee chairman Chuck Zenner said that when the issue was brought up at last month’s law enforcement meeting, he thought the committee was acting within its authority. Board member Scott Mildbrand disagreed and had called for the payment to the consultant to be stopped until it could be reviewed by the finance committee.

Board member Lorie Floyd, who is chair of the ambulance committee, noted the intent of the study was to find out more information. “We don’t know a lot of stuff,” Floyd said, specifically in regard to state and federal laws regarding ambulance operations.

She said that last year when Aspirus announced plans to terminate the previous contract, the county had only 90 days to act to get something in place to ensure continuation of the ambulance services in the county. She said it was always the intent after the contract was completed that the county would look at what options are available.

Floyd said she felt there were cost savings that could be done with changes to the current contract and that what is being done now could be done better. She said this is not necessary because Aspirus is not doing anything wrong in running the service. She noted that Aspirus is operating within the terms of the agreements. “I think they are doing the best they can with the contract they gave us. We might have hamstrung them,” she said.

“I am not suggesting we go on our own,” Floyd said, denying a suggestion that this was the intent of hiring the consultant. She said it is more that they don’t know what they don’t know and need more information.

“My personal opinion is we are putting the cart before the horse,” Mildbrand said. “It is not a committee decision if we will have our own ambulance service,” he said. He noted that a year ago there was a group that came forward that said they could come up with a price for the county to have its own ambulance service. “I haven’t seen that in a year,” he said.

He said if it is a matter of improving the contract, they would be better off paying an attorney to go over the contract and make it better between the county and Aspirus rather then spending it on consultants.

He said he has received feedback from people in the Gilman area saying the ambulance service is better than it was before . “My suggestion is to take the win and go with the 5 years of the contract,” Mildbrand said, noting that he feels the ambulance committee was trying to exclude the county board from it.

Mildbrand noted that former finance director Larry Brandl had estimated it would cost the county three to four million to run its own ambulance service. “I think having this consultant was leading us to that,” Mildbrand said.

Finance committee member Catherine Lemke disagreed. She also a member of the ambulance committee. “The wasn’t the intent,” she said, explaining that it was to get more information for the county to have options.

“Why don’t we work with Aspirus?” Mildbrand asked, saying he felt at times the county treated them as an enemy when they should be a partner.

Floyd said one of the things to look at is call volumes and how resources should be deployed. She noted that there are ambulance crews sitting overnight getting paid a lot when there are few calls.

There were also questions about the specific consultant selected and the selection process. Finance committee member Mike Bub noted the consultant had made a recommendation to Green Lake County and that they got a new county executive

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elected who absolutely abandoned the proposal because it was so costly. Bub said they should have interviewed additional consultants and gotten proposals to choose from.

Emergency government director Dan Gellert said the goal of working with the consultant was to give the county recommendations on how to better use the service. He said whatever those suggestions would be would come back to the law enforcement committee, the ambulance subcommittee and to the county board before any changes could be made, for example, for things like going to two ambulance locations in the county versus keeping the current three stations.

“We have done our homework as much as we can go,” he said.

Bub suggested the county could get assistance from the Wisconsin County’s Association, noting Taylor County isn’t the only one facing ambulance issues.

Zenner agreed and noted that when they heard back from the WCA, then they could go out on bid for consultants so that the county has comparisons.

Grant policy

Taylor County will be taking a more active role in grants being sought by department personnel.

Finance committee members supported establishing a new grant policy which would require grant funded purchases over $5,000 to be approved by the department’s oversight committee. From an accounting standpoint, it was noted that $5,000 was the level at which items already needed to be specifically recorded for the county’s financial reports.

Committee members had called for a grant policy after it as learned the emergency government director had used grant funds to purchase a vehicle without prior specific authorization from the committee.

Bub noted that this was not the only instance, and explained that during COVID departments used grant funds to purchase computer equipment which then fell onto the IT department to maintain and keep running. He also note that with that computer equipment came licenses and email accounts, all of which cost money.

Bub was quick to note that grants are great and that without them the county would not be able to get many things accomplished, but that they needed to take into account the costs that come with those grants. Bub said they may have to look at reducing other things in department budgets to cover upkeep costs.

“We are getting money and it turns around and costs us money,” said board member Lisa Carbaugh.

Powerline fund requests

Members of the finance committee reviewed a number of requests for powerline impact fee grant funds. The grant is funded from environmental impact fees paid annually by American Transmission Company for the Arrowhead to Weston Powerline that runs through a portion of southern Taylor County.

The fund currently has $456,678 available and has been tapped for numerous projects over the years. The fund will eventually go away as the terms of the impact fee agreement call for payments to diminish over time.

All committee approvals are not final until they go to the full county board at the October 30 session. Requests must receive a two-thirds vote of the full board in order for the funds to be spent.

Committee members approved giving $20,000 toward the $78,000 request from the Roosevelt Rod and Gun Club for the construction of a building near Diamond Lake that would eventually be used for an indoor archery range serving the area. Committee members also suggested the club approach the town of Roosevelt, which receives its own impact fee payments.

Committee members approved contributing $40,000 from the fund to the project to build a new VFW hall in Medford. Post 5729 is in the process of fundraising with the hope a new building could be built beginning next spring. The fundraising efforts are currently at about $350,000 raised with most of that coming in smaller donations from individuals, small businesses and families.

Committee members approved giving $14,000 of a $52,000 request to the Taylor County Cycling Association to bring a single-track mountain bike route through the Campus Woods area. The proposed trail would be 18 to 24 inches wide and would skirt around the permitter of the existing trails. Part of the effort would be to improve the existing trails in the county-owned parcel.

A request from the Aging and Disability Resource Center to use $200,000 from the fund for the construction of an addition onto the multipurpose building was withdrawn. The addition is needed to accommodate offices as a result of the ADRC of the Northwoods being dissolved in favor of the county going on its own. Committee members felt the funds for the addition should come from within the county budget or through borrowing rather than from powerline funds. One suggestion was to take the funds from the land acquisition account in the forestry department since that would be replenished over time with forest sales. Committee members made a formal recommendation to begin moving forward with the plans to have an addition to the multipurpose building go to the full county board for action.