Paramedics get salary increase
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 21, 2016 1:46 PM
Effective March 1, paramedics in the Wayne County Office of Emergency Services will see an increase in their salaries.
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday approved a job reclassification plan for that department just as they did two weeks ago for the Sheriff's Office.
Tuesday's action is the last one for this year, but commissioners sought to assure county employees that more reclassifications will be forthcoming over the next several years.
Commissioners have said they wanted to start with the Sheriff's Office and Emergency Medical Services because they are among the larger departments in the county.
"This is kind of part two for job reclass for this year," said Assistant County Manager Tommy Burns, who oversees the county's EMS. "At your last meeting you approved the reclass for the sheriff's department.
"We did a pretty thorough salary study. We looked at several areas. One, we looked at counties of similar size, and then the second was we looked at the adjoining counties where we are losing medics to."
Under the new classification a paramedic's starting salary would be $33,726, up from $30,600.
That is "right in line" with Johnston County that Wayne County has lost paramedics to, Burns said. Some also have gone to Wake County, but Burns said it was not included in the survey because it was felt that it would "skew" the averages.
The plan does not address salaries for emergency medical technician basics or intermediates.
"Our goal is to attract qualified paramedics by offering a competitive starting salary with opportunities for advancement," Burns said. "We also hope that this new pay plan will serve as an incentive for our basic and intermediate medics to continue their education and eventually become fully certified paramedics.
"Our goal is to get all of our emergency medical professionals to the paramedic level that provides a higher level of care in the county. Paramedics are able to do more things medically on the scene than basics or intermediates."
Burns said he thinks the change, which will affect about 53 positions, will make the county's EMS more competitive.
"This year's reclass involves addressing salaries within the ranges above, but higher than the beginning range because of the seniority of many of our EMS staff and the fact that they had not received increases for several years," he said. "Therefore, many of the increases for this year's reclass are a percentage of their current salary, placing them within their new pay grades, not necessarily at the beginning of the pay grade."
Also on Tuesday, the board approved $388,950 to purchase three new ambulances from Select Custom Apparatus of Falkland in Pitt County.
Custom Apparatus was the next-to-the-lowest bidder with a price of $129,650 per vehicle.
The cost was $709 more per vehicle than the total bid of $386,850 submitted by North Western Emergency Vehicles of Jefferson in Ashe County in western North Carolina. That bid was for $128,950 per vehicle.
The third bid of $395,895 (or $131,965 per vehicle) was submitted by Southeastern Specialty Vehicles in West Jefferson, also located in Ashe County.
Normally the county would accept the lowest bid from a responsible bidder, County Manager George Wood said.
"However, you might want to take into consideration the possible additional cost in travel time for warranty work or repairs for the ambulances," Wood said. "North Western is four hours from Goldsboro whereas Falkland is 45 minutes."
Commissioners agreed and unanimously approved the purchase from Select Custom Apparatus.