Ambulance cost increase raises concern for council

Local News X The Brown County Council opened the second half of its April 2 work session with a warning that ambulance service could soon cost the county much more, with one option now under discussion carrying a price increase of about $290,000. The county currently pays $560,000 a year for two ambulances to service the county. Commissioner Kevin Patrick said the commissioners just had their first talks with IU Health about the current ambulance contract and were told that the county’s two-ambulance setup is not breaking even because the service is being underused. Patrick said several options may exist, but the commissioners want more data before discussing them publicly in detail. He said the county’s ambulance service handled 1,045 patient transports last year, with just 29 of those runs leaving the county for mutual aid. He said overall usage is only about 11 percent, below the roughly 15 percent IU Health says is needed for the service to break even. Council member Jim Kemp raised the idea of the county exploring whether it could run its own ambulance service instead of continuing to contract with an outside provider. He said he knows of a system in Decatur County where a locally run service operates successfully and even generates revenue by transporting patients to hospitals in other areas. Kemp made it clear he was not claiming to be an expert, but questioned whether Brown County should at least study the option. “I don’t know what I don’t know,” he said, suggesting the county could look into whether an in-house service might eventually “cash flow” rather than operate at a loss. He acknowledged it would be a large and long-term project, likely not something that could be implemented in the immediate future, but said it may be worth exploring as the county faces rising ambulance costs. In another budget issue, the county’s IT director, Eric Evans, explained that Brown County uses VMware software to help run many of its computer servers. The system lets one larger machine do the work of many smaller servers, which saves space and makes it easier to quickly create new server capacity when needed. He said the county has used the system for years and that the cost had remained mostly stable until the software company was bought by Broadcom. Now the price has increased from $5,128.32 last year to $17,510.40 this year. “It’s a 241 percent increase by Broadcom, which is, in my professional opinion, egregious. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Evans. He said much of the county’s day-to-day digital operation depends on it, and while the county wants to move to a competitor, that process would take six to eight months. For now, he said, the county has little choice but to pay the bill and ask for another $11,500 to cover the difference. He said the county hopes to switch to a cheaper competitor next year. Earlier in the meeting, the council also received a bond spending update tied to several county projects. Commissioner Patrick said about $2,637,740.28 remains from the 2024 bond. Money already spent has gone to legal and financial setup, courthouse studies, community corrections work, IT upgrades, body cameras for the sheriff and mechanical work tied to the jail and courthouse. He said the Koch Mechanical portion of the law enforcement center heating and cooling project remains on budget at $949,400. The council also talked through courthouse repair issues that grew out of earlier work. One of the main topics was water pooling near the courthouse security entrance. Officials said the county was outside the warranty period, so it had to spend another $4,800 to correct the drainage problem even though the issue should not have happened in the first place. Recent heavy rain appears to show the fix worked. Another $3,100 was spent for tree removal and trimming near the judge’s office to help with gutter and drainage problems. A separate study by Browning Day estimated that replacing courthouse windows would cost $220,144.50, including a 15 percent contingency. Professional services and legal spending was another topic. Council members discussed how much money the county is putting into outside lawyers, financial consultants and other professional help, and whether there needs to be a clearer countywide limit. It was discussed that it would be in the taxpayers’ interest for both the council and commissioners to sit down together and look hard at what is being spent across departments on legal, accounting and advisory work. Commissioner Patrick noted that some of the latest legal costs involve personnel matters that cannot be fully discussed in public, but they also said more money may still be needed. Vehicle needs also came up. Council member Kemp said the sheriff has a 2017 Ford Explorer that could be passed down for coroner use if the sheriff’s department receives a newer replacement vehicle, but doing that would require an additional appropriation because a new vehicle was not budgeted this year. The vehicle in question was said to have about 138,000 miles. The council discussed the possibility of eventually treating this as part of a regular fleet rotation, with older but still usable sheriff’s vehicles shifting into other county uses rather than each department buying entirely separate replacements. There was also an extended discussion about county employee pay and how to continue adjusting wages after earlier work with compensation consultants WIS. Council members talked about trying to move county employees toward a target based on outside market comparisons, while also recognizing the county cannot afford to bring everyone all the way there at once. Officials said the earlier approach had been to move roughly one-third of the way toward a 50 percent external benchmark for lower-paid positions first, instead of giving every employee the same increase. They also discussed asking WIS to help sort out how to keep moving people upward without flattening the pay scale so much that too many jobs end up bunched together at the same level. The meeting ended with a long discussion about budgeting, financial planning and how to avoid the confusion that has affected recent budget seasons. Council members and financial consultant Jerry Hickman with Reedy Financial talked about the need to get ahead of the 2027 process, especially with the impact of Senate Bill 1 and changing revenue projections hanging over future county budgets. Hickman said the council’s next focus should be on year-end results, first-quarter trends, legislative changes and 2027 revenue projections. Attorney Susan Bevers also urged the council to set out a clear process so department heads and elected officials know exactly when to come in, what information they need and what deadlines they are facing. “So nobody is surprised. Nobody is on a short deadline. Everybody knows the plan,” she said. Featured Local Savings