One of the most important functions of journalists is to be the watchdog for their community and inform the public about how funds are being spent or proposed to be spent.
A recent flurry of meetings of the Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service’s board of directors reinforces this responsibility.
In March, the six towns that make up the service – Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Newcastle, Nobleboro, and South Bristol – held special town meetings to update the interlocal agreement, which is the governing document for the ambulance service to function.
The proposed changes would structure the agreement in a manner that would allow ambulance service employees to join the Maine Public Employee Retirement System.
During the special town meeting in Damariscotta on March 4, Service Chief Nick Bryant was asked what financial impact the changes would have on taxpayers. Bryant told voters that there would be no cost to making these changes, and no changes to the towns’ financial responsibilities.
Bryant also stated the change would allow employees to get into the Maine Public Employee Retirement System, “a huge benefit for people that work in EMS, fire, law enforcement there that is a huge benefit that we have never had.”
This is a great benefit for the staff of the service as PERS has a defined benefit plan with retirement available after 25 years of service or at certain ages for the participants. This was a defined outcome stated at public meetings.
Let us also be clear: the staff at Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service, much like all of the first responder agencies in our community, works hard to treat and rescue patients in this area. Their work should be commended and their agency provides tremendous value to the region they serve.
However, now the conversation has shifted and the terms have changed, all without a public, transparent process.
The governing board of the service has been meeting without public notification in an attempt to rapidly push through a buyback program for some of the employees of the service.
When an individual enters PERS, there is a chance to buy back creditable time, but it comes at a substantial cost.
According to a document obtained through a Maine Freedom of Access Act request, the cost to purchase the creditable time back for eight to nine listed employees is just over $1,000,000. The board has been discussing what level the service would pay toward buying back employee’s time into the retirement system.
This is not typically a cost paid by employers.
When the board finished their meeting on Monday, June 8, the proposal on the table was for the service, funded through taxpayer dollars, to contribute 75% of the cost for prior service and to make these payments over 10 years. According to the document provided to this paper, the cost of this would be $108,735 a year for a total of $1,087,350 over the decade.
As the budget had already been set for the fiscal year, board members discussed how to pay for the first year’s buyback contribution if it was approved. The option proposed was delaying employee pay raises to cover this proposed obligation and delaying ambulance replacement a year, which Bryant endorsed at the June 8 meeting.
“You’re (funding) most of it by keeping a truck longer than you normally would, which does make your employees a little less happy. But I’ll ride around in an older vehicle for an extra year if it means I can retire,” he said.
A list of employee identification numbers was provided with nine listed. Eight of the employees contributed to the total on the sheet. From the data provided, the cost to purchase the prior service for one employee is nearly 50% of the total. The top four employees’ time makes up 92% of the total, a very limited reach for a benefit the board is looking to commit taxpayers to cover.
What is most distressing, for us, is the lack of transparency in this process. Most of these discussions have been held without notice and in executive session. It’s a bad look.
The amended interlocal agreement makes it more clear that Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service operates as a quasi-governmental agency, owned completely by the six partner towns. This distinction, as well as the increasing reliance on taxpayer funding, forces the need for public transparency and an obligation to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar.
Each town held public hearings about the interlocal agreement changes. Public statements we reported on stated there would be no financial impact.
The interlocal agreement grants the board of directors the authority to run the organization, conduct business, and exercise and delegate all the powers necessary to operate the service. It also states that each of the membership towns’ select boards would appoint a representative to the service’s board of trustees.
While the board does have such authority, the question becomes does this large change and cost not warrant public discussion or at least discussion among the select boards in public meetings.
The ambulance service board took a brief pause to allow the towns of Nobleboro and South Bristol a chance to have a conversation at the select board level.
After initially indicating that all directors must provide a vote by email on the matter before noon on Friday, June 12, there is now a virtual meeting of the directors planned for that day to hold this vote.
No public hearings scheduled, no notification to the public of the increase in taxpayer responsibility, no offering a forum to exchange ideas.
This is an extremely high cost under consideration, saddling up the taxpayers to take on over $1 million of liability. Nearly all of the amount would benefit a small group of employees, for the taxpayers to buy time back their individual time into a retirement system that was never available to them until now. A board vote is expected at the virtual meeting this coming Friday.
Our job is to inform. Yours is to decide what to do with that information.
The current board of directors for Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service includes Dr. Peter Goth, of Bremen; Joe Rose, of Bristol; Tom Anderson, of Damariscotta; Angela Kostenbader, of Newcastle; Jon Chadwick, of Nobleboro; and Betsy Graves, of South Bristol.
