By Alan Mauldin
The Albany Herald
ALBANY, Ga. — Dougherty County’s Emergency Medical Services personnel are used to dealing with critical patients, but in a period of about three months, the agency has itself taken a turn for the worse.
During that time it has suffered nearly 20 resignations, and most of the departures were related to money as paramedics and EMTs left for locations where the pay is better and, in many instances, the call volume is not as heavy as is the case here.
“We were holding steady this year up until September, and then we had five in one week,” EMS Director Sam Allen said. “For all but two, it was down to money.”
The departures include 10 paramedics and eight EMTs, leaving Allen, who reported the situation on Monday to the Dougherty County Commission, scrambling to staff the county’s ambulances.
“We had 18 resignations this year, with a combined 90 years of experience,” the EMS director told commissioners. “I’m now (competing) against private ambulance services. They’re paying (for) years of experience. They’re paying signing bonuses.”
Experienced employees also are leaving for other counties, including Lee County, which has a higher starting salary and a much lower volume of calls than is the case in Dougherty County, Allen said.
In Dougherty County, the starting salary is $20.77 per hour, County Administrator Deron King said during an interview following the meeting, compared to $24.50 for Lowndes County and $21 in Lee County.
In light of the situation, officials are working to present a proposal next week that will address some of those issues, including boosting pay.
The proposal could include a pay increase and longevity pay, as well as a lump-sum distribution, the equivalent of an annual bonus, as well as a signing bonus that would be paid over the first two years.
The signing bonus also could be made available to personnel who recently left but would return to work in Dougherty County.
“We’re also looking to those who just left and see if it’ll attract them to come back,” King said. “There’s less of a learning curve for those who have left recently.”
With the work week being shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, the county administrator said he is hoping to quickly draft a proposal that commissioners can vote on next week.
“My commissioners and Sam and my team are going to prepare (a proposal) for salaries to make us more competitive,” he said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the county rewarded employees with one-time lump-sum payments, with first responders also receiving “premium pay” bonuses, using federal pandemic-relief funds. The extra payments for the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office, Dougherty County Police Department and EMS came during another crisis when Sheriff Kevin Sproul alerted commissioners that jail staffing was at a critical level as employees were leaving for better-paying jobs.
Those payouts were made in 2021 and 2022. In 2023, the commission approved implementing a pay scale. The commission also made lump-sum distributions to employees last year
The commission also approved initiating a pay scale that went into effect in October 2022 that increased pay based on employee job position and years of employment and also increased the starting salary for the lowest paid from $10 to $13 an hour. That was the first time the county had put a pay scale recommendation into effect in two decades, and following the 2008 financial crisis, county employees went nearly 10 years without a boost in pay.
Commissioners also handed out cash payments for its roughly 600 employees in 2023.
Commissioner Gloria Gaines suggested linking employee cost-of-living adjustments to inflation.
“We have never addressed it until we got in trouble,” she said.
The county should address employee pay each year when the Finance Committee prepares the budget and in putting the spending plan together each year, Commissioner Ed Newsome, who is a member of the Finance Committee, said.
“That’s what I’m trying to impress on the board is we need to look at it every year,” he said.
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