GARFIELD — The VAS Ambulance Service Corporation Finance Committee, minus the recently resigned Wes Baker, met Tuesday night, Sept. 29.
The meeting was attended by Dorothy Williams, Sharon Barnett, Tony Miltich and Jim Geddie.
“Let’s see what’s been going on,” said Miltich, explaining he has taken over as the chair person.
The topic of discussion leading the meeting was payroll wages and taxes. Barnett said the yearly VAS finances are normally recorded in fiscal years that include three quarters. However, this new board took over in the middle of the year, therefore, an entire fiscal year’s records are not available.
From May to August, 2009, VAS paid out $69,034.92 in wages and payroll taxes. Multiplied by three, the projected yearly expenditures for these areas is $207,104.76.
With other expenses included, such as utilities, next year’s estimate is $294,442.
To date, VAS has collected $81,000 through the Emergency Services District fund, a fee collected from every property owner in the district on their property taxes.
From January to August, $62,000 in ambulance fees have been collected.
“We’re billing more than we were, we didn’t bill beyond what insurance would pay,” Miltich said.
Barnett, VAS treasurer, thinks VAS can cut up to $60,000 by reducing the amount of overtime wages paid. One employee, according to his time sheet, recorded 64 hours of overtime in one pay period.
Full time employees work 24-hour shifts, one day on and two days off. It is inevitable the employee will receive overtime in one pay period, sometimes working anywhere from 16-32 hours over the regular 80.
“I don’t know who’s signing the time sheets,” Barnett said, adding the sheets are not being filled out until the end of the pay period.
“We need to tighten that up,”Miltich said.
The group’s solution is to utilize more part-time employees and volunteers, but claims the 12 people on the volunteer list now are not always available to work.
Miltich himself offered to work a 12-hour shift.
“I’ve heard we may not be offering enough to part-timers to make it worth their while,” said Miltich, speaking of the $100 per 12-hour shift they are offered now.
Offering $20 more per shift would save the company $125 in overtime per person in a pay period, according to Barnett.
The group agreed that would be a good move. Another effort to save would be to work in more part-time 12-hour shifts and set a 40-hour per week maximum.
“You can only do that if you have volunteers come in from the outside,” Geddie said.
Including overtime, full-time employees at VAS should be earning $28,156 annually. The group admits they have been overpaying for the past six months, as a result of the Federal Wage and Hour Law requiring them to pay for all overtime hours worked.
“We are not trying to cut wages down, we are trying to make economical use of manpower,” Miltich said.
“When we start getting some turnover - we’re not going to fire anybody, nothing like that - we’ve got to start integrating 12-hour shifts into the schedule.
We have no choice financially,” he said.
“The problem isn’t volunteers.
I have all kinds of volunteers but they’re not appearing,” Geddie said.
The group agreed to recommend to the board raising wages for part-time workers in an effort to save money on overtime and taxes, as these employees would be 1099 contract workers.
The next VAS board meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13.
News, Pages 1 on 10/07/2009