The Song that Never Ends Continues to Play with the Calhoun County Commission

It’s been deemed as creative accounting, bamboozling and now even Commissioner Arthur is questioning the answers provided by Calhoun EMS’ Director, Jason Wilson during the Monday morning Calhoun County Commission Meeting of March 13, 2023.

In January Interim Director Jason Wilson assured the citizens of Calhoun County that the transparency of Calhoun County EMS was in tact following the destruction of any faith in the county entity when poor management and no accountability left the agency suspended and in need of a takeover. Minnie Hamilton graciously and appreciatively stepped up and took over the agency to operate it and keep the county’s emergency health care in place. However, a January questioning of missing run sheets and un-billed ambulance runs further concerned the citizens as to how much revenue was lost from January 1, 2022 to August 31, 2022 when Minnie Hamilton Health System took the operation over. It appears to be a story without ending.

Ridgeview News ran an intercepted email between Wilson and Arthur the week prior to the Commission meeting where a report of numbers of calls reported, charted, documented and billed were provided. But at some point between that email and Monday’s commission meeting an epiphany was had when Wilson reported a whole new series of numbers with a questionable explanation of the CAD (Computer aided dispatch) system.

Wilson reported that due to a computer glitch the system was duplicating the numbers as they were being dispatched giving a false report of how many runs there were. The new total still left $18,000+ of uncollected revenue.

While one Commissioner (Helmick) deems the citizens as “troublemakers.” Another (Walker) who longs for happier days and wishes we would just move on, the third and newest member of the County’s governing body (Arthur) continues to question if the reports are fact or fiction?

So what is the County’s solution to this never ending story? The only way that Ridgeview News and many others believe we can put this to rest and move on is for the County to have a forensic audit of the Calhoun EMS agency and 911. This matter needs out of the hands of all those involved and if there’s nothing to hide, there should be no issues with the audit. Once that audit is completed it should be published in full as soon as it is received.

For clarification of the difference between a forensic and a standard audit: A forensic audit/examination is designed to focus on reconstructing past financial transactions for a specific purpose, such as concerns of fraud, whereas an internal audit is typically focuses more on compliance and/or the performance of the organization.

The County Commission has from the beginning refused to have a forensic audit done saying that the matter of Calhoun EMS was covered during the annual Calhoun County audit. That’s not so. Because that audit only looks at whether or not the agency was in compliance and the quality of their performance. Obviously that wasn’t done to any serious degree or the matter of the run discrepancy would have came to light.

Helmick is insisting that the three volunteer fire departments have an audit done that will cost each agency thousands of dollars, but refuses to have one done on Calhoun EMS and e911. Why would the County not question his continued defense of Julie Sears and the agencies for which she was and is employed? Minnie Hamilton Health System should wash their hands of the explanations of Jason Wilson and leave him to the County, which is his employer with regards to the EMS.

“The Song that Never Ends” by Shari Lewis and Lambchops the Puppet was my childrens favorite, and immediately came to mind in the writing of today’s story – You’re welcome 😆 – Shari Johnson, Publisher