Valley EMS Sues Derby For Lack Of Payment

A regional paramedic service served Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri with a lawsuit Tuesday because the city hasn’t paid its annual fee since 2007.

Derby owes Valley Emergency Medical Services $190,000, according to the lawsuit.

VEMS executive director Robert Petinella said the lawsuit is a last-ditch effort to get Derby to pay up.

The lawsuit claims that Staffieri promised the organization the city would pay the money, so VEMS has continued to provide paramedic service.

Paramedic service to Derby could — key word, could — come to an end in January due to lack of payment, VEMS officials said.

This is after six years of them not paying. Valley EMS just can’t do it anymore,” Petinella said.

But Staffieri says the rate Derby pays is much too high, and that he is simply protecting local taxpayers. He said VEMS is attempting to bully” Derby into paying.

V. Michael Simko, an attorney in Shelton, is representing VEMS.

The return date on the lawsuit isn’t until Dec. 10, which is an unusually long time for a civil case. The lawsuit has yet to be officially filed in civil court in Milford.

Simko said the board of directors still hopes to get Derby to the negotiating table.

VEMS, based in Oxford, bolsters local ambulance services in the lower Valley. It provides highly trained advanced life support paramedics who hop in ambulances to treat the most seriously injured or ill patients.

Staffieri has long been a VEMS critic and has raised questions about the practices of the organization’s board of directors.

The tension between the organization and the mayor boiled over in December 2011, when a VEMS board member took a VEMS response vehicle on a private trip and was in an automobile accident out of state.

Staffieri, through the Valley Council of Governments, asked a lawyer to review the organization’s practices.

The mayor wants VEMS to change its funding formula, because he said it doesn’t make sense for Derby to pay the same annual bill as Shelton, a much larger community.

VEMS provides a valuable service to the residents and visitors throughout the Valley. However, their management has consistently attempted to bully’ the tax payer’s of Derby into paying a disproportionate rate to supplement their operations,” Staffieri said in a prepared statement.

In 2010, VEMS serviced approximately 1,200 calls in Derby, 3,000 in Shelton, 1,500 in Ansonia, 750 in Seymour and 340 in Oxford,” the mayor said.

The mayor said VEMS calls in Derby are inflated because there are two nursing homes and two major roads. Those factors should also be taken into account when it comes to paying for the organization, he said.

Staffieri called VEMS’ demands unreasonable” and unfair to Derby taxpayers. He also noted that if VEMS wanted money, they should have gone to the city’s tax board.

His full statement appears at the bottom of this article.

Simko said VEMS has addressed every concern Staffieri has raised over the years. More recently, the composition of the board of directors changed and Pettinella himself is new to his position.

Yet Derby still won’t pay its $30,000 annual fee.

Mr. Staffieri has not acknowledged VEMS’ very reasonable and responsible responses to clarify his every concern,” Simko said.

Derby has been connected to VEMS since 1984. The non-profit organization has never sued one of the towns it services.

Pettinella said Derby can’t get paramedic service any cheaper than $30,000. The going rate for an individual town for paramedic service is between $265,000 to $425,000 annually, he said.

He can’t possibly get it cheaper from any other organization,” Pettinella said. He urged the city to hold up its end of the agreement Derby has with VEMS.

Derby’s lack of payment is putting VEMS in a tough position, Pettinella said. Other towns are looking at the fact Derby never kicks in its $30,000 and wondering if they should keep paying.

If one other town were to stop funding the program, VEMS would collapse,” Pettinella said. We run so tight on money, there is no wiggle room.”

Mayor Staffieri’s Office issued the following statement on the legal action started by VEMS:

VEMS provides a valuable service to the residents and visitors throughout the Valley. 

However, their management has consistently attempted to bully’ the tax payers of Derby into paying a disproportionate rate to supplement their operations. 

In 2010, VEMS serviced approximately 1200 calls in Derby, 3000 in Shelton, 1500 in Ansonia, 750 in Seymour and 340 in Oxford. Keep in mind that Route 8, and Route 34, travels through the Derby City limit. 

Griffin Hospital and two convalescent home are located in Derby. 

In these economic times the residents of Derby should not bear the costs to supplement the disproportionate amount of VEMS calls for other municipalities and without considering the calls due to accidents and to medical facilities. 

VEMS charges each of their patients for the call; and still demands Derby to supplement its salaries and purchase of vehicles. Recall that a newly purchased vehicle was damaged in Virginia during a personal” trip. That is not fiscally responsible. 

VEMS was free at any time to seek payment from the Derby Tax Board. They chose to commence litigation during the election season as another example of their bully” tactics. 

As long as I am Mayor, I will fight for the Derby Taxpayers to defend against VEMS’ unreasonable demands.”

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