ELY- The four person Ely Area Ambulance Joint Powers Board (EAAJPB) met on June 12 without resolving any of a host of outstanding issues.
That includes a substantial budget shortfall for renovations and new construction at the planned ambulance quarters. Engineers TKDA submitted its report on the estimated costs for the work, which came in at $793,540, well above the $650,000 allocated for the project.
Ely Clerk-Treasurer Harold Langowski commented that the EAAJPB and the ambulance service had to “either reduce the scope or put more money in,” to fund the project.
In the subsequent discussion, ambulance service board chair Chuck Novak noted that the service’s “revenues are up 120 percent but expenses are up 220 percent between 2010 and the present.”
The EAAJPB discussed different ways to increase revenues and funding but took no action at the meeting. The board members voted to allocate $300,000 for the renovation and $350,000 for the new construction, acknowledging that those funds likely won’t be enough.
Rift with hospital
The meeting started with one change which received no discussion or mention: Fall Lake Supervisor Rod Gruba, the EAAJPB representative for Fall Lake Township, was replaced by Fall Lake Supervisor Eric Hart. Though no mention was made at the EAAJPB meeting, Gruba had announced he would step down at the June 6 Fall Lake Township meeting, citing concerns that his membership on both the EAAJPB and the Ely Area Ambulance Service (EAAS) board could be a potential conflict of interest.
Conflicts of interest were one of the concerns cited by the Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital in an April 13 letter, where the hospital withdrew its substantial voluntary support of the ambulance service.
The other EEAJPB member who is also on the EAAS board is Morse Township Supervisor Bob Berrini, who did not give up his position on either board as of Morse’s monthy meeting on June 13.
The conflict-of-interest issues are on debatable ground. Minnesota’s conflict-of-interest law is mainly concerned with individuals benefiting financially through association of personal and governmental interests.
Yet it was hardly the hospital’s only concern. As previously reported in the Timberjay, the hospital and its representatives cited multiple concerns in its letter, including over EAAS “governance and operation,” the lack of monthly meetings with the hospital at an appropriate level to maintain the quality of patient care, and the lack of a timely budget for 2023.
The hospital letter was on the agenda at the EAAJPB meeting and garnered some distraught commentary. When EAAJPB chair Marlene Zorman announced the agenda item, complete silence reigned in the Winton Community Center, the site of the EAAJPB meeting, for several long seconds before the discussion started.
“People feel that the ambulance service is under attack from the hospital,” Novak finally said.
Hospital board member John Saw replied, “All of our concerns (about the EAAS) are for patient care.”
There was some discussion about how to bring the hospital back to the table to talk about its concerns, with Zorman reflecting on the need to address the hospital’s concerns over reestablishing monthly meetings with ambulance service.
Berrini had his own take. “The problem is that (the ambulance) board rejected Rochelle Sjoberg (as the hospital representative for meetings) … the hospital threatening the withdrawal of funds is extortionist.”
EAAS executive director Dusty Moravitz said he had tried to reach out to hospital personnel to set up meetings, but had received no response from EBCH chief nursing officer Colin Yahnke and unnamed others.
The EAAJPB did not make any motions regarding the situation between the hospital and EAAS, though Zorman and Saw both volunteered to start the process of talking out the problems the two entities.
After the EAAJPB meeting, the Timberjay noted that some ambulance staff present at the meeting commented that they would not work for the hospital if it were to resume management of the service, as was done in the past. Regardless of current sentiment, before 2008, the hospital ran the ambulance service and used hospital staff to respond to 911 calls, allowing EMTs to work in the hospital and then go out on calls as they were received.
In 2008, EAAS became a nonprofit but maintained an arrangement with the hospital that helped to operate the service without the current high staff costs due to Minnesota state law that requires ambulance services to have a written on-call schedule, seven days a week, 24-hours a day.
The hospital severed its connection to the ambulance service when it became apparent that Medicare payments to the hospital were being reduced by the presence of the ambulance bay within the hospital, as covered by a Timberjay article in the October 21, 2022 edition.
In other business, Novak remarked that the current 2023 budget was “still a work in progress,” stating that it would be ready for consideration by the EAAJPB at the next meeting in July. Langowski said the city of Ely “needs the budget request from EAAS by July so that city can set its levy in August.”
In other action, the EAAJPB:
• Approved the disbursement of $40,000 to the EAAS on the recommendation of Moravitz to cover expenses.
• Reported on the progress of the audit, expected later this summer.
• Approved the payment of bills, leaving an EASJPB fund balance of $73,833.
• Approved putting the large stove from the former Kondos building out for bid.
• Heard an update on the lease between EAAS and EAAJPB by Langowski, who was part of the four-person committee to craft the lease. “The lease is in the works,” Langowski reported, “and it will be ready at the next (EAAJPB) meeting.” Ely city attorney Kelly Klun is responsible for the actual drafting of the lease terms. After the lease is approved by EAAJPB, it will then need to be considered and approved by the EAAS board.