Clean house and start from scratch.
It is the message Robert Pettinella has regarding the Board of Directors of the Valley Emergency Medical Services (VEMS).
VEMS is a regional paramedic service for Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton.
Pettinella, an Oxford resident, is the executive director.
In an interview with the Valley Indy Friday, Pettinella called the VEMS Board of Directors a dysfunctional group rife with conflicts of interest and in-fighting.
The problem is that most of the VEMS Board of Directors is made up of people from Valley ambulance services, some of whom want to replace VEMS with their own, town-based paramedic service, Pettinella said.
The situation has created a hornet’s nest of in-fighting and ever-changing allegiances among the varying town ambulance personnel and Griffin Hospital representatives who comprise the VEMS Board of Directors.
The solution is to bring in a new Board of Directors of people who are not directly connected to emergency services such as doctors, lawyers and business people. It’s a practice many other non-profit organizations follow, Pettinella said.
Pettinella said he made the argument in 2005 and then again shortly after he was named executive director in June 2010.
It’s the same message he’ll give to the Valley Council of Governments, where officials have requested a meeting with VEMS leaders to talk about the organization’s “operations.”
The meeting is scheduled to happen at 4 p.m. Jan. 31 in Derby City Hall.
“I’ll say it again Jan. 31. The board for Valley EMS needs to be fundamentally changed once and for all,” Pettinella said. “The way the board is set up is not correct. There are too many conflict of interests and that’s why the board operates the way it does.”
What’s Happening?
The Valley Council of Governments is a regional planning and economic development group. Its membership includes the mayors from Ansonia, Derby and Shelton, along with the Seymour First Selectman.
The request for a meeting comes after a new VEMS response vehicle was damaged in an auto accident Dec. 21. The vehicle was being used on personal trip to Virginia by Madalene Taggart, treasurer of the VEMS Board of Directors.
After the accident, Taggart contacted her son, Jerry Schwab, president of the VEMS Board of Directors.
According to a VEMS internal investigation, Schwab was concerned that news of the accident would be made public. He allegedly asked a local mechanic to “make sure that the vehicle was not visible in an effort to avoid involvement of the press.”
Schwab told the Valley Indy the trip was OK because the new vehicle needed to be broken in.
VEMS has revised its vehicle policy so that only VEMS paramedics can use the response vehicles.
“I would say it was poor judgment,” Pettinella said about the actions of Taggart and Schwab.
Fall Out
The crash and the VEMS response to the crash is indicative of larger problems within VEMS, according to Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri.
He called for resignations or an external probe into the accident.
Derby hasn’t paid its annual $30,000 in dues for years because the city has no influence or authority over VEMS, Staffieri said earlier this month.
Derby officials are also concerned with the number of administrators within VEMS, some of the salaries — and how raises are doled out.
Staffieri said he won’t pay until VEMS becomes more accountable for how it spends Derby taxpayer money. Former Derby Mayor Marc Garofalo also withheld money from VEMS during his years as Derby mayor.
VEMS is still sending paramedics to Derby calls, Pettinella said, even though a large percentage of Derby patient bills are written off because the Derby patients do not have the ability to pay.
VEMS meeting minutes show its Board of Directors were concerned that the City of Ansonia was also cutting back on its VEMS contribution. VEMS meeting minutes also show the organization has been pressuring Derby to pay up.
Pettinella said he has tried to talk to Derby about the city’s concerns with his organization.
“I told them, ‘Look, I understand that there was some personality issues in the past, but I’m not those people. I’m here to run the organization the right way for the right reasons,’” he said.
Same Old Song?
Derby Storm Ambulance — city’s non-profit volunteer ambulance corps — has been butting heads with the VEMS Board of Directors for years.
David Lenart, the new chief of the Storm Ambulance, said his organization has been pushing for VEMS to change for some 20 years.
The board is simply too large and unwieldy, Lenart said.
Lenart said four of the five ambulance companies on the VEMS Board — Ansonia, Derby, Seymour and Shelton — have issues with the organization. However, many on the board feel they can’t change anything.
Many of the issues could be aired at the meeting scheduled for later this month at Derby City Hall.
“Since the mid-90s Storm Ambulance has stated that the VEMS Board is too big,” he said. “It’s time to reorganize the make up of the board in order to move VEMS ahead.”
While both Lenart and Pettinella are calling for a shake-up, it’s not clear whether they and the entire VEMS Board have the same ideas as to how to shake it up.
VEMS Board of Director meeting minutes show the organization has been going back and forth for months in an attempt to change its bylaws — apparently the only way to cause real change within the Board of Directors.
Don’t Blame The Paramedics
Officials — including VEMS critics — stressed the bad press is not reflective of the 26 paramedics and two supervisors who are out saving lives every day.
“I feel sorry for the paramedics because they are great,” Lenart said. “They do a great job. The problem is the board.”
Pettinella said the VEMS paramedics are among the best in Connecticut.
“They have the best equipment in the state.They have the best trained paramedics in the state. I would put them up against anyone in this country,” Pettinella said. “The board is dysfunctional. Thankfully the board does not run the organization. They are just a financial oversight board.”
The 2009 form 990 submitted to the Internal Revenue Service shows VEMS generated $1.4 million in revenue with $1.15 million in expenses.
Pettinella was hired in 2010 with a salary of $70,000.
The 2009 form 990 shows that former executive director Jason Perillo was paid $97,211.
A copy of the form 990 is printed below.
A copy of the VEMS vehicle accident report is printed below.
