Recommendations for a Washington County Ambulance Services Director have been delayed. At Tuesday’s County Board of Supervisors meeting, a recommendation for a director was on the agenda, however it was explained that the process changed. Initially there were 17 applicants, the top candidates were interviewed by a committee. At their January 7th meeting the board named the hiring committee but no official vote was taken. The hiring committee included supervisors Richard Young and Abe Miller, Washington County Sheriff Jared Schneider, Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Marissa Reisen, Washington Police Chief Jim Lester, and Human Resources Director Amber Day.
Chairman Jack Seward said he expected the committee to have a consensus with one or two candidates for the entire board of supervisors to consider. Young explained what happened, “We would’ve had that decision made. We were in that discussion and at that time Abe [Miller] said that another supervisor wanted to interview the candidates. We thought we were assigned to make that decision, to bring you a final two. That was my whole thinking from the very beginning and other members on that committee, and we thought today we would give you a list of two people or one people, and then Friday afternoon it stopped. I’m just as frustrated today as I was Friday when I left here because I thought we had a task to do, and we had a very good interview committee to make a decision for this board. We wasn’t going to hire them, we had no intentions of offering anybody a job. Our intention was to give you a number one and a number two, and we could have a discussion and then this board could make a decision. That all got changed Friday and I still do not totally understand it all, that’s all I’m saying. I just don’t understand it all and I’m just frustrated.”
He added that the time to get things in place by July 1st is quickly passing, as the current ambulance services contract ends at midnight June 30th, “I just want people to understand that this is getting down to crunch time. You know, it’s almost in overtime. It’s very important that we get this done. And it’s very important that then we start the whole process of looking for employees to work for the county – paramedics, EMTs, and billing, and whatever we’re going to hire. And to get the Medicare number and all that. I don’t know how much more I’ve got to say, but we are in the end and we’ve got to get going. It’s important that this is done and we get all these people in place for July 1st.”
Seward and Bob Yoder both said that they didn’t want to interview the candidates and looked to the committee for recommendations. Four finalists are now going through a second interview by phone with Seward and supervisor Stan Stoops. The hiring of an ambulance director will be on next week’s agenda.