THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 1, 1995 TAG: 9508310216
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The City Council really had no choice but to pay Emergency Medical Service workers the 300 grand in back pay it owes them.
The possibility that citizens might be without round-the-clock emergency service was unthinkable.
Yet, clearly, the system under which Chesapeake's paramedics had been working - 24-hour shifts on a rotating weekly schedule - violated federal labor law. It would have been foolhardy to try to defend it against a lawsuit brought by seven local EMS employees.
So the Council agreed to pay, even though there's not that kind of extra money in the city budget. It had no choice.
Fire Chief Michael L. Bolac, who helped develop the city's response to the crisis, was able to say, ``Nothing is going to change. When the citizens dial 911, they're not going to notice anything different.''
But something has changed. The city has spent another $362,469 of the taxpayers' money on an unexpected, unbudgeted expense. We may not notice the difference when we dial 911, but notice it we will.
Frankly, it's getting tiresome hearing city officials claim that they do what they do because they have no choice. They accept runaway growth because they have no choice. They go deeper into debt because they have no choice. They jack up the price of public services because they have no choice.
What we need in Chesapeake are some choices.
We are told that city officials have been operating under the assumption that paramedics, like firefighters, were exempt from the overtime requirements of federal law. That assumption was wrong.
Is anyone curious to know who made that assumption and whether it was a reasonable assumption based on information available at the time?
Other cities in Hampton Roads somehow managed to set up Emergency Medical Services systems that meet their needs without violating federal regulations or compromising employees' rights. How did they avoid making the mistake that Chesapeake made?
Then there's the future to think about. Can we afford to continue the EMS system as it now exists, considering that with every week that passes paramedics are earning more unbudgeted overtime pay? Or must fundamental changes be made to create a new system that provides all the protection we need at a manageable cost?
By making the appropriate choices now, we can avoid being put in situations later where we have no choice. by CNB