ACC staff have reached a tentative agreement with Piedmont Athens Regional regarding transparency on emergency medical response time data. Piedmont Athens Regional has agreed to provide quarterly reports and a semi-annual presentation to the mayor and commission including metrics like the number of ambulances and their coverage zones, total response times and a breakdown of the top complaints received about the service.
Oconee County reached a similar agreement with St. Mary’s Hospital in February.
Ambulance services in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties have been run by National EMS, a for-profit company, since 2009. The two county governments, Athens Regional and Saint Mary’s established an oversight committee in 2013 to track National EMS’ performance regarding response times and other metrics. The oversight committee carried out their responsibilities behind closed doors until 2020, when they stopped meeting altogether after learning they were subject to Georgia sunshine laws.
The proposed agreement calls for the oversight committee to be officially dissolved, with quarterly reports and semi-annual presentations taking its place. These data will be publicly available unlike information presented to the oversight committee.
Commissioners generally seem pleased with the agreement at last week’s meeting.
“I’m very encouraged that we’re replacing the oversight committee model, which clearly hasn’t functioned. I’ve been appointed to that my entire tenure on this commission and we’ve never met,” Commissioner Jesse Houle said.
Even so, Houle and Commissioner Carol Myers expressed a few concerns that they’d like to see addressed before voting to approve the final document. Both Houle and Myers mentioned the need for clarity on whether the agreement guarantees that paramedics will be present in certain ambulances.
“Other communities do have paramedics on their ambulances. I’m curious why this contract wouldn’t stipulate that,” Houle asked.
Myers said that having paramedics on higher-tier advanced life support ambulances was required back in 2013, and that she will ask for changes to this agreement before a vote scheduled for Wednesday, June 5.
Local public safety advocate Sam Rafal, a former emergency medical technician who has been a persistent critic of National EMS, expressed serious concerns about the agreement. Not only is he worried about the lack of a requirement for paramedics, but Rafal told Flagpole that crucial information would be missing from Piedmont’s quarterly reports.
The mayor and commission would not receive National EMS’ raw response time data if this agreement is finalized, only the mean of all response times. This could be a problem, because even if the commission finds National EMS’ average response time to be satisfactory, Rafal says there could still be many patients suffering through extremely long responses which would be hidden within a “misleading” average.
“The only way we’re ever going to get transparency in terms of response times and level of care is if we fully implement the commission-approved upgrades to our 911 center where we handle all 911 calls from beginning to end, including medical calls,” Rafal said, referencing a decision made in 2020 that has still not been implemented.
Currently, the ACC 911 center dispatches fire and police vehicles but does not handle dispatching for medical calls, which they pass along to National EMS.
Athens Achieves
The commission is considering a workforce development plan put together by the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with local businesses, educators and other community stakeholders. The plan, called “Athens Achieves,” has a goal of creating a pipeline of skilled workers to meet the needs of Athens businesses in the immediate and long-term.
Chamber President David Bradley told the commission at a recent work session that ”crafting a valuable workforce is the most effective way to combat generational poverty, to grow our economic vitality and to expand well-paying, fully benefitted jobs that allow all Athenians the opportunity to fund the quality of life they desire.”
Bradley is asking for $1.9 million in seed capital to create an online portal for job seekers, to support the development of academic and leadership skills in the Athens workforce, and to create pathways towards employment. This will involve the creation of a new nonprofit to hire and train navigators who can match those looking for work with the available jobs or training opportunities. The nonprofit will also hold career fairs, including a focus on “second chance” employment for those returning from incarceration.
The mayor and commission are working in parallel on a similar plan as part of the local government’s Business Development and Workforce Support Task Force. That plan, which will be complete later this year, was originally conceived as a bottom-up approach to workforce development, including support for worker-owned cooperatives, union organizing and advocacy for living wages.
The two plans now appear to be in competition for the same pool of funding.
Athens Achieves is a more traditional workforce development program developed by a large group of community stakeholders over the past two years. It has strong support from some commissioners, including Commissioner Dexter Fisher.
“I truly believe this will be a game changer for our community,” Fisher said at last week’s agenda-setting meeting. “We talk a lot about poverty in this community. The best way to get out of poverty is first of all to get the training and find good paying jobs… I think it’s the right thing for us to do as a commission.”
Other commissioners were less enthusiastic about the proposal. Commissioner Ovita Thornton seemed to indicate that she would not support any new workforce development initiative, saying that there were six such programs already in existence in Athens.
“We are putting money out there with no real accountability,” Thornton said. ”I really did expect something different [from this plan].”
Houle expressed a desire to wait on giving approval for Athens Achieves until the local government task force plan is completed so that the two could be compared.
The commission will vote on providing the seed funding for Athens Achieves on June 5.
Affordable Housing for Seniors
Some affordable housing may be on the way if the commission approves a request from Blue Ridge Atlantic Development to build a new apartment complex on Atlanta Highway near Target. Its plan is to build 68 units of one and two-bedroom senior housing, made affordable through a partnership with the Athens Housing Authority.
The developer told the commission that they intended the apartments to be affordable for seniors making between 30%–70% of the area median income. The one-bedroom apartments would rent for as low as $385 a month and up to $1,057 a month on the high end. The two-bedroom apartments would rent for between $456–$1,262 a month.
ACC Assistant Planning Director Bruce Lonee said that Athens Transit would serve the apartment complex in some capacity, perhaps through a new or relocated bus stop or through the existing stop near Target.
The ACC Planning Commission has recommended approval of the development in a unanimous vote.
Rules for Public Comment
Commission meetings have often run quite long in recent years, in part due to commission rules that allow anyone to speak at voting sessions for three minutes on any topic. Commissioners have been faced with long lines of speakers on topics that they feel at times are not directly related to their work in local government.
For example, protesters have packed meetings in recent months calling for a resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza. In addition, right-wing agitators have been a constant presence since the killing of nursing student Laken Riley in February. Earlier this month, a right-wing street preacher caused a major disruption and then forcefully resisted a police escort out of the commission chamber, leading to his arrest.
In response, the local government is installing enhanced security at City Hall. In addition, the commission suspended their rules so that they could limit public comment this month.
The commission was preparing to adopt new rules to ban protest signs inside the commission chamber and to limit public comment to two minutes per speaker, down from three minutes. They would also require those wanting to speak on a topic not on the commission’s agenda to sign up in advance of the meeting.
Yet, when it came time to vote, Commissioner Patrick Davenport spoke against the new rules for limiting signs and public comment, calling for further discussion.
“It’s a disservice for our constituents… to reduce the amount of minutes that they speak,” Davenport said. He added, “I think signs are freedom of speech.”
Thornton agreed, saying “The time things got a little hairy, it wasn’t the three minutes [that was responsible]. It was when folk got out of control, more so. They can get out of control in two minutes.”
Despite coming to an agreement on this topic at a recent retreat, most commissioners sided with Davenport to deny the public input changes. Only Houle and commissioners Allison Wright and Mike Hamby voted to limit public input, with Commissioner John Culpepper being absent.
Houle told Flagpole that their reasoning for voting to push the changes forward was simply so that the commission could stop talking about it as a body after spending a lot of time to come to a compromise.
“I’m tired of talking about this topic ad nauseam for years,” Houle explained. “We should be talking about affordable housing, but instead we’re talking about whether people should be able to speak for two or three minutes.”
At the next commission meeting, signs will again be allowed and public comment will be back to three minutes per person, unless the commission suspends their rules again.
Firefighters’ Collective Bargaining Agreement
The Professional Firefighters of Athens‐Clarke County and ACC management have come to an agreement regarding salaries and working conditions in the ACC Fire Department for the next fiscal year.
The most significant change in the new contract involves shortening the current 28-day work cycle to 14 days for the purpose of overtime calculation. It also establishes a labor-management committee to facilitate problem solving and allows firefighters with grievances to have union representatives assist them throughout the complaint process.
ACC Manager Blaine Williams is requesting that the commission apply these new rules to all ACC public safety departments to maintain parity and to preserve morale in the police department and other agencies. The total cost of the new contract will be at least $600,000 once the benefits are extended across these other agencies.
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Agreement Will Bring More Transparency to Athens Ambulance Service
ACC staff have reached a tentative agreement with Piedmont Athens Regional regarding transparency on emergency medical response time data. Piedmont Athens Regional has agreed to provide quarterly reports and a semi-annual presentation to the mayor and commission including metrics like the number of ambulances and their coverage zones, total response times and a breakdown of the top complaints received about the service.
Oconee County reached a similar agreement with St. Mary’s Hospital in February.
Ambulance services in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties have been run by National EMS, a for-profit company, since 2009. The two county governments, Athens Regional and Saint Mary’s established an oversight committee in 2013 to track National EMS’ performance regarding response times and other metrics. The oversight committee carried out their responsibilities behind closed doors until 2020, when they stopped meeting altogether after learning they were subject to Georgia sunshine laws.
The proposed agreement calls for the oversight committee to be officially dissolved, with quarterly reports and semi-annual presentations taking its place. These data will be publicly available unlike information presented to the oversight committee.
Commissioners generally seem pleased with the agreement at last week’s meeting.
“I’m very encouraged that we’re replacing the oversight committee model, which clearly hasn’t functioned. I’ve been appointed to that my entire tenure on this commission and we’ve never met,” Commissioner Jesse Houle said.
Even so, Houle and Commissioner Carol Myers expressed a few concerns that they’d like to see addressed before voting to approve the final document. Both Houle and Myers mentioned the need for clarity on whether the agreement guarantees that paramedics will be present in certain ambulances.
“Other communities do have paramedics on their ambulances. I’m curious why this contract wouldn’t stipulate that,” Houle asked.
Myers said that having paramedics on higher-tier advanced life support ambulances was required back in 2013, and that she will ask for changes to this agreement before a vote scheduled for Wednesday, June 5.
Local public safety advocate Sam Rafal, a former emergency medical technician who has been a persistent critic of National EMS, expressed serious concerns about the agreement. Not only is he worried about the lack of a requirement for paramedics, but Rafal told Flagpole that crucial information would be missing from Piedmont’s quarterly reports.
The mayor and commission would not receive National EMS’ raw response time data if this agreement is finalized, only the mean of all response times. This could be a problem, because even if the commission finds National EMS’ average response time to be satisfactory, Rafal says there could still be many patients suffering through extremely long responses which would be hidden within a “misleading” average.
“The only way we’re ever going to get transparency in terms of response times and level of care is if we fully implement the commission-approved upgrades to our 911 center where we handle all 911 calls from beginning to end, including medical calls,” Rafal said, referencing a decision made in 2020 that has still not been implemented.
Currently, the ACC 911 center dispatches fire and police vehicles but does not handle dispatching for medical calls, which they pass along to National EMS.
Athens Achieves
The commission is considering a workforce development plan put together by the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with local businesses, educators and other community stakeholders. The plan, called “Athens Achieves,” has a goal of creating a pipeline of skilled workers to meet the needs of Athens businesses in the immediate and long-term.
Chamber President David Bradley told the commission at a recent work session that ”crafting a valuable workforce is the most effective way to combat generational poverty, to grow our economic vitality and to expand well-paying, fully benefitted jobs that allow all Athenians the opportunity to fund the quality of life they desire.”
Bradley is asking for $1.9 million in seed capital to create an online portal for job seekers, to support the development of academic and leadership skills in the Athens workforce, and to create pathways towards employment. This will involve the creation of a new nonprofit to hire and train navigators who can match those looking for work with the available jobs or training opportunities. The nonprofit will also hold career fairs, including a focus on “second chance” employment for those returning from incarceration.
The mayor and commission are working in parallel on a similar plan as part of the local government’s Business Development and Workforce Support Task Force. That plan, which will be complete later this year, was originally conceived as a bottom-up approach to workforce development, including support for worker-owned cooperatives, union organizing and advocacy for living wages.
The two plans now appear to be in competition for the same pool of funding.
Athens Achieves is a more traditional workforce development program developed by a large group of community stakeholders over the past two years. It has strong support from some commissioners, including Commissioner Dexter Fisher.
“I truly believe this will be a game changer for our community,” Fisher said at last week’s agenda-setting meeting. “We talk a lot about poverty in this community. The best way to get out of poverty is first of all to get the training and find good paying jobs… I think it’s the right thing for us to do as a commission.”
Other commissioners were less enthusiastic about the proposal. Commissioner Ovita Thornton seemed to indicate that she would not support any new workforce development initiative, saying that there were six such programs already in existence in Athens.
“We are putting money out there with no real accountability,” Thornton said. ”I really did expect something different [from this plan].”
Houle expressed a desire to wait on giving approval for Athens Achieves until the local government task force plan is completed so that the two could be compared.
The commission will vote on providing the seed funding for Athens Achieves on June 5.
Affordable Housing for Seniors
Some affordable housing may be on the way if the commission approves a request from Blue Ridge Atlantic Development to build a new apartment complex on Atlanta Highway near Target. Its plan is to build 68 units of one and two-bedroom senior housing, made affordable through a partnership with the Athens Housing Authority.
The developer told the commission that they intended the apartments to be affordable for seniors making between 30%–70% of the area median income. The one-bedroom apartments would rent for as low as $385 a month and up to $1,057 a month on the high end. The two-bedroom apartments would rent for between $456–$1,262 a month.
ACC Assistant Planning Director Bruce Lonee said that Athens Transit would serve the apartment complex in some capacity, perhaps through a new or relocated bus stop or through the existing stop near Target.
The ACC Planning Commission has recommended approval of the development in a unanimous vote.
Rules for Public Comment
Commission meetings have often run quite long in recent years, in part due to commission rules that allow anyone to speak at voting sessions for three minutes on any topic. Commissioners have been faced with long lines of speakers on topics that they feel at times are not directly related to their work in local government.
For example, protesters have packed meetings in recent months calling for a resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza. In addition, right-wing agitators have been a constant presence since the killing of nursing student Laken Riley in February. Earlier this month, a right-wing street preacher caused a major disruption and then forcefully resisted a police escort out of the commission chamber, leading to his arrest.
In response, the local government is installing enhanced security at City Hall. In addition, the commission suspended their rules so that they could limit public comment this month.
The commission was preparing to adopt new rules to ban protest signs inside the commission chamber and to limit public comment to two minutes per speaker, down from three minutes. They would also require those wanting to speak on a topic not on the commission’s agenda to sign up in advance of the meeting.
Yet, when it came time to vote, Commissioner Patrick Davenport spoke against the new rules for limiting signs and public comment, calling for further discussion.
“It’s a disservice for our constituents… to reduce the amount of minutes that they speak,” Davenport said. He added, “I think signs are freedom of speech.”
Thornton agreed, saying “The time things got a little hairy, it wasn’t the three minutes [that was responsible]. It was when folk got out of control, more so. They can get out of control in two minutes.”
Despite coming to an agreement on this topic at a recent retreat, most commissioners sided with Davenport to deny the public input changes. Only Houle and commissioners Allison Wright and Mike Hamby voted to limit public input, with Commissioner John Culpepper being absent.
Houle told Flagpole that their reasoning for voting to push the changes forward was simply so that the commission could stop talking about it as a body after spending a lot of time to come to a compromise.
“I’m tired of talking about this topic ad nauseam for years,” Houle explained. “We should be talking about affordable housing, but instead we’re talking about whether people should be able to speak for two or three minutes.”
At the next commission meeting, signs will again be allowed and public comment will be back to three minutes per person, unless the commission suspends their rules again.
Firefighters’ Collective Bargaining Agreement
The Professional Firefighters of Athens‐Clarke County and ACC management have come to an agreement regarding salaries and working conditions in the ACC Fire Department for the next fiscal year.
The most significant change in the new contract involves shortening the current 28-day work cycle to 14 days for the purpose of overtime calculation. It also establishes a labor-management committee to facilitate problem solving and allows firefighters with grievances to have union representatives assist them throughout the complaint process.
ACC Manager Blaine Williams is requesting that the commission apply these new rules to all ACC public safety departments to maintain parity and to preserve morale in the police department and other agencies. The total cost of the new contract will be at least $600,000 once the benefits are extended across these other agencies.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
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