County Commissioners, Dillsboro Emergency Ambulance Unit Fail to Reach Contract Agreement

In 2023, DEAU responded 12 percent of the time they were called out.

(Dearborn County, Ind.) - Dearborn County Commissioners held a public meeting on Tuesday morning regarding contract negotiations with Dillsboro Emergency Ambulance Unit, Inc. (DEAU).

The Board of Commissioners would pass a motion to reject a contract provided by DEAU.

Contract talks have been going on for months.

Dating back to December 19, 2023, the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners approved a Contract for Emergency Medical Service with the DEAU.

Shortly after approval, it was alleged that the individual that executed the contract on behalf of the DEAU did not have the authority to do so. Commissioners were also notified by Dearborn County 911 Communications that the DEAU had only responded 12 percent of the time they were called out during 2023, and that the DEAU had been “Administratively Dissolved” by the Indiana Secretary of State and was not a valid nonprofit corporation at the time the contract was executed.

The Board of Commissioners voted to terminate this contract on January 16 with the termination effective on March 17.

Since that time, Commissioners have been trying to resolve the issue and bring the DEAU back into the fold as a provider of emergency medical services in Dearborn County. In effort to ensure that citizens have been properly protected in the interim, the Dearborn County Council authorized, and the Commissioners approved, supplemental distributions to Aurora EMS and Moores Hill EMS to provide coverage to the citizens of Dillsboro.

On June 1, a proposed Provisional Contract was hand delivered to the DEAU, which would have provided funding to the DEAU so long as they met “special terms” such as meeting response rate benchmarks. The first three months of the Provisional Contract contained no benchmarks, but the DEAU would be required to respond 50 percent of the time beginning in September 2024 and increase the response rate by 10 percent each month until reaching 80 percent response rate in December 2024.

County Commissioners say the average response rate for EMS units providing coverage in Dearborn County in 2023 was 80.58 percent. Lawrenceburg EMS had the highest percentage at 91.11 percent, while Dillsboro’s response was the lowest at 12.3 percent.

The provisional contract also called for the DEAU to have a financial and inventory audit conducted beginning on January 1, 2021, through the current year. Net asset forms show that the DEAU’s net assets or fund balances have decreased by over one million dollars between 2019 and 2021. Over the past three years, Dearborn County has been providing the DEAU with over $60,000 in public funds each year.

Under the provisional contract, the Board of Commissioners asked that the DEAU answer “what these funds were being used for if the DEAU wasn’t carrying out its stated purposes of being a life squad serving the Town of Dillsboro and surrounding areas?”

Commissioners requested a response to the provisional contract by June 14. On June 18, the DEAU instead submitted their own proposed contract to Commissioners. The DEAU says they hand delivered a letter to the Dearborn County Administrator before the June 14 deadline, stating that they would have at least two members at the June 18th meeting with a contract that will be approved by the DEAU Board of Directors.

Steve Gemmer, a representative of DEAU, stated at the time that the DEAU could not accept the provisional contract because it violated the Constitution and By-Laws of DEAU.

The contract provided by DEAU included a monthly dollar among of $22,958, which is more than has ever been allocated by the Dearborn County Council ($14,600 per month). Furthermore, the DEAU contract did not contain any response rate benchmarks, or commitment to a financial and inventory audit.

The Board of Commissioners released the following statement:

“The DEAU has not responded to the Provisional Contract as requested. Rather, the DEAU provided their own contract that would maintain the status quo and ignore the issues they are facing. The proposed contract from the DEAU does nothing but confirm they are content with the service they were providing previously and that they believe they are entitled to funding from Dearborn County in exchange for an abysmal response rate. The citizens of Dillsboro deserve better.”

Dearborn County will continue providing supplemental funding to Aurora EMS and Moores Hill EMS, and work to enter a contract for emergency medical responder service with the Dillsboro Volunteer Fire Department.

The DEAU was hopeful that their contract proposal would be negotiated at the public meeting. 

Moving forward, there will be no contractual relationship between Dearborn County and the DEAU, according to a statement from Dearborn County Commissioners.