By Justin Sabata
Ellis County EMS Director Jason Kennedy approached the Ellis County Commission with a proposal to give county EMS workers extra pay during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The proposal included an extra $50 a week for full-time employees and an extra $10 per shift for part-time workers. The plan would be in place until May 4 (current State of Kansas stay-at-home order) but would be reconsidered if the order is extended.
If the stipend went until May 4, it would cost Ellis County EMS an estimated $5,300.
“These are really unprecedented times,” Kennedy said to the commissioners. “This request is really just in response to these unprecedented times and what’s going on out there.”
Kennedy also acknowledged that the current pandemic has affected more than county EMS workers.
“I fully understand that this situation, COVID, has really impacted everyone in their own way,” Kennedy said.
Though the commissioners agreed to the proposal in principle, each agreed that law enforcement would need to be included in the stipend before it was to go forward.
“One of the issues I have with this is to, I guess, award EMS personnel with this kind of a stipend, and then we have our law enforcement personnel who are out there providing the same risk,” said First District Commissioner Butch Schlyer. “They’re at the same risk, and oftentimes, maybe more because they don’t have the PPE (personal protective equipment).”
Kennedy agreed with Schlyer and included that Ellis County first-responders have made changes to the dispatch process.
“They’re doing kind of a pre-arrival questionnaire, basically, with COVID questions,” Kennedy said. “So, we’re doing our part to try and protect all of our first-responders.”
Second District Commissioner Dustin Roths raised similar concerns and encouraged discussion of stipend pay in the future.
“My concern and my thought would be to table (discussions),” Roths said. “Only to table this, even if we have to have a special meeting next week to reconvene, to the point where we have more cases (of COVID-19) and possible greater risk to our frontline employees.”
Dean Haselhorst, Third District commissioner, agreed to delay discussions and brought up the importance of the county fire department, who dispatches at the request of EMS.
The commission will reconvene to discuss stipend pay for these county services at a later date. No exact date was given, but discussions should resume in the next few weeks.