Improper Spending Found at Iowa Ambulance Service

Feb. 18--The Monticello Ambulance Service paid one of its employees nearly $30,000 while she was actually working at a hospital in Wisconsin or taking flying lessons, according to a special investigation by the State Auditor's Office.

The report, released Tuesday by Auditor David Vaudt, found more than $59,000 in improper disbursements and uncollected ambulance service billings from July 2005 to November 2007.

The improper spending included about $29,500 in payroll to Debi Oldaker-Tedrow, who was the ambulance service's quality assurance coordinator and a paramedic. She and her husband, Larry Tedrow, the director of the ambulance service, were fired by the city on Nov. 9, 2007.

City Administrator Doug Herman said Tuesday that the special investigation verified and provided details for the basis of the termination, which was not made public at the time.

"It's too bad. The Tedrows played an important role in getting the ambulance service started," Herman said.

The audit "makes it look like we are a bunch of thieves, and we're not," Oldaker-Tedrow said Tuesday.

She said she regards the paid time away from ambulance duties as compensation for many unpaid hours of work. "We put a lot of our own hours into running the ambulance service," she said.

Oldaker-Tedrow said she was never a full-time employee of Southwest Health Center in Platteville, Wis., but just worked "per diem shifts" there when time permitted.

Herman, who requested the audit, said his own research indicated that Oldaker-Tedrow was being paid for work not performed.

The auditor's report identified 59 instances in which Oldaker-Tedrow was in or traveling to Platteville during her regular shift at the ambulance service in Monticello, 60 miles away. The report identified more than 357 hours that Oldaker-Tedrow was paid to work at the ambulance service while she worked at the hospital.

In addition, the audit found 33 days when Oldaker-Tedrow took flying lessons at Monticello Aviation Inc. during her regular shift at the ambulance service.

Nearly $28,000 in billings by the ambulance service couldn't be collected because the billings were incorrect or not filed in a timely manner, according to the audit report.

It also identified about $7,600 in improper disbursements from the Monticello Emergency Management Team, a non-profit group that provides financial and volunteer support to the ambulance service.

After the firing of the Tedrows, the city hired an ambulance billing company which in a few months collected more than $200,000 that would not have otherwise been collected, according to Herman.

The City Council also dissolved the local ambulance board and assumed responsibility for operating the service, he said.

The auditor's report was filed with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Jones County Attorney's Office and the Iowa Attorney General's Office.

-- Contact the writer: (319)-9343172 or orlan.love@gazcomm.com

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