LEGISLATURE STUFF - The Elephant Has Exited

By Michael Ryan

CAIRO - The elephant left the room when the Greene County Legislature held the latest in a series of meetings aimed at creating a single, countywide ambulance system.

Lawmakers gathered with emergency medical response professionals and municipal government leaders, last Wednesday night, at the county Emergency Services Center in Cairo.

It was the third such session, with the next sitdown slated for April 10 when county administrator Shaun Groden is expected to present what is being called a “theoretical budget” for operating the would-be system.

Groden, in this initial on-paper look at costs, will be focusing on a worker wage package, not yet getting into the supply side of spending or calculating administrative aspects for a director, etc.

It is widely agreed that finding and keeping enough men and women to be in the trenches will be a major expense and the key to a successful shift away from disparate units to unity.

That will necessarily mean a substantial increase in salaries to reduce the existing work overload along with top notch health benefits, opportunities for career advancement and a union presence.

Groden and legislature chairman Patrick Linger have already readied town officials for the inevitable fact that the overall numbers will be higher than they are now, very likely millions of dollars higher

Exactly how that new ambulance world impacts each town will only become more clear as Groden illuminates the dollars.

The tradeoff is getting out of the ambulance business, with its headaches, even as the county shapes what will become its largest department.

Which brings this to the pachyderm in the room - at one point will a final decision be made and who is going to make it?

The ongoing meetings include consistent input from town officials on what should be done and how it should be done in terms of the final product.

Information is being presented in a way that appears to be heading toward the towns making the ultimate decision about whether or not they will support and participate in the county system.

Linger, however, over the course of the conversations, has suggested the legislature will be the deciders, reinforcing that idea, last week.

The chairman has been quick to remind everyone involved that similar talks happened a decade or so ago, resulting in no changes while leading to the present situation of towns coming to the legislature, seeking help with the recurring and steadily worsening problem of maintaining an ambulance.

Asked during last week’s meeting how long the debate between county and town officials would continue on giving the green light or not, Linger said, “the towns don’t have a decision in this.

“This ultimately falls on this legislature. The current system is beginning its failure. If we remain with the status quo, we’ll just be back here again sometime down the road,” Linger said.

“The bottom line is, it doesn’t do any good for this legislature to set this up without help from the people we’re doing this for,” Linger said.

A contingent of mountaintop town leaders journeyed to the legislature in the late fall of 2023, beseeching lawmakers to provide direction for what those officials said was an unsustainable system.

An outside consultant was hired, a thorough study of the current system was conducted and four possible alternatives were outlined.

These meetings were then organized by the legislature, and there was swift consensus a countywide system was a viable solution.

However, as in the past, the devil is showing up in the details, threatening to bog down the talks in innumerable “what ifs” and unknowns.

Ashland town supervisor Richard Tompkins is a major player in this issue, operating an ambulance while contracting with the neighboring towns of Lexington and Prattsville to provide them service.

Tompkins was in attendance at last week’s meeting, saying to lawmakers, “I’m not against this but you have but put the marbles on the table.”

A sticking point is, how many marbles do town leaders want to see before jumping on board and are those marbles able to be seen at this stage?

Several lawmakers have said they are willing to fully invest in whatever is required to create a new and better and sustainable system.

But having been down this road before, and expecting to be here again if nothing is done, lawmakers want a commitment from towns.

While all the money will ultimately come from taxpayers, “we don’t want to see the money you’re presently budgeting for ambulance going from the left pocket to the right pocket,” Linger said.

Towns could conceivably move those dollars to another budgetary line item rather than reserve them for ambulance expenses that will consequently result in the county holding the bag.

Switching to a different large critter, Groden said, “the gorilla in the room is, what do the towns do with that money, give it to the county or use it somewhere else in their budget and our budget balloons?”

Lawmaker Michael Bulich (District 1, Catskill), in a telephone interview after last week’s meeting said, “I think the towns are already giving their okay to moving forward” on the county plan.

“But I have to be honest. There’s still a lot up in the air. Somehow our local people are coming up with different numbers than [the consultant] on how many ambulances we’ll need and things like that,” Bulich said.

“Once I have the numbers, I can make a rational decision. I see the town taxpayer on my right and the county taxpayer on my left,” Bulich said.

“This legislative body is well aware this is going to cost more than we have been paying, but I would ask you,” Bulich said. “If my right side is already paying, why should my left side pay too?”

While the elephant exiting the room plods to whatever future it is plodding, Linger said, “I’m not saying that what the towns think doesn’t matter.

“The towns are the ones telling us they can’t sustain this method. Some system is going to end up collapsing, so either we’re all in or let’s stop wasting our time,” Linger said.