No More Free EMS Rides in Havelock, N.C.

May 17--Collecting unpaid bills for Havelock's emergency medical services could pay the salary of an assistant fire chief for almost three years.

Fire Chief Rick Zaccardelli requested funding to create an assistant chief's job during a Havelock Board of Commissioners budget work session Monday evening. City leaders said improving the collection rate for EMS fees could help fund the new position.

"There's several reasons why we need the position. Number one is call volume," Zaccardelli told the board. "We certainly need help answering calls. I need help on the administrative side, and this position is going to help me in that sense."

Lee Tillman, city finance director, said Havelock absorbed about $161,000 in unpaid EMS fees in the last fiscal year. Patients who receive emergency medical treatment are currently billed twice and face no apparent consequences for failing to pay.

City leaders said collecting a greater percentage of those fees could provide revenue to pay an assistant chief and asked to receive proposals from billing and collection agencies.

"This is a very expensive service that we provide, and I'm certain that there are people who it does create a financial hardship for, but for those people who simply ignore that bill and think they're free lunches, I think they need to be told that they're not," said Mayor Jimmy Sanders.

The assistant fire chief would receive a salary of $44,633 and a benefits package totaling $11,159, Zaccardelli said. He added that he probably would promote one of the fire department's three shift captains if the position was created.

"Hiring from within, I think, is a good move for the morale of the department," he said, explaining that it would also create a captain vacancy, allowing him to promote another firefighter. Commissioners favored exploring debt collection as a way to fund the assistant chief job. Tillman said some of the debt could be recovered through "soft collections," which she described as a polite phone call reminding people that they had been billed for medical services.

"I would like for us to demonstrate the ability to generate additional revenue, and when we have additional revenue, then revisit this issue," Sanders said.

Commissioners also placed $56,000 into their "parking lot"-- a temporary reserve for budget requests to be reexamined before completing the city's budget -- for a fund to replace the fire department's aging vehicle fleet.

During Monday evening's budget work session, the board also:

-- Approved a request by Scott Chase, city planning director, to reclassify the zoning code enforcement position to a zoning administrator and senior planner job and pay Robin Maxbauer, who currently has the job, half of a requested $4,903 raise for a 180-day probationary period;

-- Discussed a $40,000 request from the Planning and Inspections Department to draft a unified development ordinance, which was reduced from an earlier request for $80,000 because Chase said he hopes a federal grant could be used for the project; and

-- Approved a pay raise for Cindy Morgan, Havelock's deputy city clerk, and discussed a reclassification of her job as that of the city clerk.

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