Keep ambulance service in-house
To the Editor:
In the May 6 issue, The Sentinel ran a story on the possible plan of KVH outsourcing its ambulance service. The KVH CEO, MaLisa Mudgett, made a statement, “Nothing has been done yet.” This is not totally true. KVH has hired Mark Bryan as the ambulance manager, who has his own business called Hadassah Management. He contracted ambulance services in White Salmon and has already presented himself to the KVH board of commissions, as well as the CEO, CFO, and the human relations office, to contract our local ambulance service. I have been told Mr. Bryan has already gotten the contract and was told by one of the paramedics that she will lose her job on June 23, along with other employees who have worked with the ambulance for more than 10 years.
As a citizen of this hospital district, I am taking a stand against the contract. Now a petition has been signed by KVH employees against outsourcing our ambulance service. We as a community need to take a stand and not let this contract take place.
Employees at KVH ambulance are doing a great job. Please commissioners, do not let this management contract happen, in which my opinion is very wrong.
Delbert Brown
Goldendale
(Editor: Given the nature of what was reported in this letter, we wanted to get comment from KVH in response. We spoke with KVH CEO MaLisa Mudgett and with KVH Development Director Jeff Teal. Mudgett reiterated the statement she made in an earlier interview: “Nothing has been done at this point,” she said. “There is a contract with Mark, but it’s to manage the ambulance department, not to outsource the ambulance service. There has been no decision whatever on outsourcing yet.”
And what about the statement that some people have been told they will lose their jobs on June 23? “We’re required by our union contract to give employees a 60-day notification that action is possible,” Mudgett says, “but that doesn’t mean it will necessarily happen. So a notice was sent about the possibility of outsourcing.” That 60 days’ notification ends June 23. “But no one was given notice that they were definitely going to lose their jobs.”
Mudgett says a handful of people have come and asked her questions about possible ambulance service outsourcing. “It’s clear from what they say that most of the information they’re given is incorrect,” she says. Teal added, “We have less outsourcing today than we’ve had before, and we’re always looking for ways to keep things in house.”)
Tax bill still comes to deceased
To the Editor:
I am writing about the Klickitat County treasurer’s office. Several years ago, James Stout passed away, yet every year the treasurer’s office sends him a tax bill, and every year the bill is paid with a notice to correct the records, and every year it is ignored. I have written to the department. This year, in addition to checking the notice on the back, I called the office. I got a staff member who said that they needed a death certificate, and then she said “Oh, I see we have one.” She said she would look into the matter and call me back, but apparently she followed department policy and didn’t. Then, following the advice of a friend, I wrote the appropriate supervisor. What a surprise, same thing happened—nothing. What does it take to jar elected officials to do their jobs?
Curtis L. Stout
Graham
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