Joe Jody (speaker 13) opened the EMS briefing by outlining ambulance mileage, equipment inventories and maintenance costs and said crews are operating with limited personnel: "We're budgeted for 12 full time people. It would take 18 for me to cover," and later reported, "we were already at 2,800 calls, almost 2,900 calls for the year," a slide the presenter characterized as a 28.4% increase from 2023 to 2025.

Jody walked the board through equipment costs and examples: "our ventilators are $12,000. Our life pack monitor's almost 40,000. The stretchers are $25,000. The Lucas CPR device ... $17,000," and noted that more advanced stretchers and monitors on the market cost $60,000-plus. He said some ambulances already show more than 100,000 miles and that storage space at the north station is limited.

On staffing, Jody said the service runs three trucks daily with six personnel on a typical day (four on the south end, two on the north). He said the EMS team includes five full-time EMTs, about 16 part-timers and seven full-time paramedics; part-timer availability can cause coverage gaps during multi-day storms or large incidents.

The presentation identified operational pressure from long out-of-county transports. Jody said extended turnaround times for transports to higher-level hospitals reduce available ambulance coverage and increase the chance of 'status 0'—no available ambulances. He also described a billing change that began Oct. 1: the county moved to a flat rate for nonemergency facility take-backs after insurers increasingly denied charges when transports were judged not medically necessary. "As of October 1, we're now billing those facilities a flat rate for all these take backs," he said.

Jody described special projects including a CORE referral program for patients with substance use needs and a state-funded HELPS community-paramedicine program that checks on vulnerable residents to reduce avoidable 911 calls. He also reviewed designated helicopter landing zones and increased training for dispatchers and crews.

On patient safety and combative patients, commissioners pressed whether EMTs are placed at risk; Jody said EMS coordinates with law enforcement, uses soft restraints when needed and tries to avoid higher-risk chemical or deep sedation interventions unless necessary.

No formal budget or staffing action was approved at the workshop; commissioners asked staff to carry the discussion forward into the regular meeting and to return with specific proposals for capital replacement and staffing options.