Whenever cars crash in Oxford and someone calls 911, fire Chief Gary Sparks said recently, the dispatcher on the other end of the line typically asks two questions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIs anyone hurt?\u201d An answer yes triggers an Oxford Emergency Medical Services ambulance, Sparks said. An affirmative to the second question \u2014 \u201cIs anyone trapped in the vehicle?\u201d \u2014 dispatches Sparks\u2019 firefighters, who assist paramedics on the most severe wrecks and in other medical emergencies.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The two agencies were called together to emergencies 287 times last year, Sparks said. The ambulance dispatchers likely answer many more calls than his agency does. Every call to 911 for medical assistance made in the city or the surrounding area results in a crew from Oxford Emergency Medical Services climbing into a white and gold ambulance and racing toward whoever\u2019s hurt.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the nonprofit ambulance agency \u2014 which has existed in Oxford in some form since at least 1970 \u2014 as well as its current board of directors have been drawn into litigation in recent weeks. An office manager working at the agency in June filed a lawsuit against the directors, alleging they habitually ignored state laws regarding public meetings as well as a city policy on nepotism.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n That employee and the agency\u2019s other office manager were put on paid leave the morning after a recent board meeting. Board members voted unanimously at that meeting to retain a Birmingham law firm to represent them. One of those lawyers, to whom all requests for comment on the suit have been referred, did not know who would replace the two women, who say they handled all of the agency\u2019s office work, including bookkeeping and billing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The agency\u2019s director, Ricky Howell, declined to speak to a reporter this week. Howell referred questions to two attorneys \u2014 one representing him, and the other representing the board as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Speaking to a reporter recently, the two suspended employees described a close-knit operation made tense by decisions from Howell and the board of directors concerning employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite that tension, the employees said, the agency\u2019s paramedics remain focused on doing their jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOur guys are totally professional down there,\u201d said Missy Hall, the office manager who filed the civil suit against the agency. \u201cIt leaves them with questions, and you can\u2019t blame them for that … honestly, no one sits around and talks about it at work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The agency’s 24 full-time paramedics work 24-hour shifts, Hall said, from a city-owned building along U.S. 78 on Oxford’s west side.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The paramedics get two days off after each shift \u2014 and those shifts can be hectic, with more than 40 calls for help answered some days.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a really busy shift,\u201d Hall said. She compared the operation to Sparks\u2019 Fire Department: \u201cWhen a call comes in, you go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In that suit, Hall alleges that the agency\u2019s board members held a meeting April 19, but gave no public notice of that meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hall believes the board hired Howell\u2019s daughter for a full time position at the agency, and promoted a paramedic to training officer \u2014 a new position within the agency.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Shortly thereafter, the training officer received a nearly 50 percent pay raise and choice working hours.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been questionable for months now what it is that he actually does,\u201d Hall said. It seemed the man was responsible for more than making sure paramedics were adequately trained, Hall said, when he started disciplining employees.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThat confused everyone,\u201d said Hall. \u201cIf he was given that authority, none of us were told.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lance Bell, an attorney representing Howell, on Wednesday said by email he did not have time to answer questions about the training officer\u2019s employment.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hall\u2019s attorney, Ted Copland, on Wednesday asked for a judge\u2019s verdict in his client\u2019s favor. He argued that the defendants, Oxford Emergency Medical Services\u2019 board of directors, had failed to make any response to Hall\u2019s suit within the time allowed by law.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Attorneys for the agency later the same day argued against Copland\u2019s motion, saying in court documents that Hall\u2019s complaint provides no claim that a judge could satisfy. The filing did not address her allegations, but asked the case be dismissed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Writing by email Wednesday, Mark White of the Birmingham law firm White, Arnold & Dowd, called Copland\u2019s filing \u201cspurious.\u201d White said he would be traveling to the Alabama State Bar\u2019s annual meeting, and did not have time to answer other questions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bell, Howell\u2019s attorney, emailed a statement Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhen individuals start running to the media in order to fabricate stories to further their cause then they are scared of the true facts,\u201d Bell wrote. \u201cThese individuals will be held accountable for the vicious lies they are spreading. We look forward to the future and bringing the true facts to light at the appropriate time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Circuit judge Shannon Page has set an Aug. 8 hearing on the agency attorneys\u2019 request for dismissal.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hall\u2019s lawsuit and the agency\u2019s reaction to it \u2014 suspending Hall and Moody, who both characterized that move as \u201cretaliation\u201d \u2014 has raised other questions about Oxford EMS.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The employees say whether the agency is a part of the city\u2019s government or separate from it has been a gray area for as long as they\u2019ve worked there. Oxford\u2019s mayor has said he believes it separate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the City Council in 2009 approved an application for incorporation of the agency, though it already existed. Mayor Alton Craft has said that move was made to allow for Oxford EMS employees to have access to Alabama\u2019s retirement system. State and local government employees as well as public education employees are members of that system.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Joel Laird, a retired attorney and former circuit court judge who has protested a request to state regulators by Oxford EMS to expand its services, believes the 2009 incorporation is invalid.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Laird has argued that no state law allows for the creation of an agency like Oxford EMS, which he alleges operates throughout Calhoun County and far beyond the city limits of Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The application made in 2009, meanwhile, noted that the three people interested in forming Oxford EMS \u2014 Moody, Howell, and then director Randy Third \u2014 all were \u201cduly qualified\u201d electors of the city of Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Moody lives inside Talladega city limits, she said recently. She\u2019s never lived in Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moody says that in 2009, Third asked her to sign on as a founder of the EMS agency. Neither he nor anyone else told her she needed to be a resident of the city of Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhat I was told was that … this was the best way to keep the business functioning,\u201d Moody said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reached by phone Wednesday, Third declined to comment before consulting with his attorney. While not involved in the suit directly, Third said he sought a lawyer after being asked by Laird to sign an affidavit in the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n Staff writer Zach Tyler: 256-235-3564. On Twitter @ZTyler_Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Whenever cars crash in Oxford and someone calls 911, fire Chief Gary Sparks said recently, the dispatcher on the other end of the line typically asks two questions. \u201cIs anyone hurt?\u201d An answer yes triggers an Oxford Emergency Medical Services ambulance, Sparks said. An affirmative to the second question \u2014 \u201cIs anyone trapped in the … <\/p>\n\u2018That confused everyone\u2019<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Beyond city limits<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
\n
Source link <\/a>
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/dominiclevent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/footer-300x100.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"