Advisory council warns EMS programs strained; board accepts end‑of‑year report

Julie (S7), presenting the End‑of‑Year report from the Essential Services Advisory Council, told the board the FY26 distribution covered Jan. 1–June 30 and summarized surveys of EMS services and citizens used to compile a SWOT assessment.

"The most serious situation for all of EMS in Tama County still is workforce," Julie said. She told supervisors many small services struggle to recruit volunteers, and that services that had hoped to use essential services dollars to add staffing often instead used the funds to cover existing payroll, reducing the ability to expand capacity.

Julie said the council surveyed services and citizens and found some cities requested lump‑sum distributions or treated essential service money as a budget substitute rather than an enhancement. She urged stricter compliance with the law requiring expenditures be reported and documented as EMS spending.

Supervisor S2 praised the council's work and the board moved to accept the report. "Motion to accept the end of the year report from the central service," S1 said; the motion was seconded and the vote carried. The board approved publishing the report to the EMS Association website and distributing it to cities and services within the county.

Julie said the council had recommended considering whether units with excess funding could roll unused funds back into a reallocation process to assist services with greater need. The board did not change policy at the meeting but accepted the report and authorized posting it as public information.