EMS director defends pay‑scale changes, says new salaries will aid recruitment

Houston, identified in the transcript as the county EMS director, described a new EMS salary plan approved by the budget committee that is based on a regional pay study. "The result of that ended up which was approved accepted by the budget committee," Houston said, describing a process that aligned EMS pay with neighboring counties and addressed disparities in the department's prior structure.

Houston explained the change included increases that lifted some long‑tenured employees and made director pay competitive after the new structure created situations where the director earned less than other employees. "I did not ask for a raise of this," Houston said, adding that the committee increased his position only to correct a compression issue. The budget committee adopted the pay plan to better match nearby counties and to prevent turnover that has plagued staffing.

He said the county used an external pay study (cited as conducted by an "Upperland Development District" in the packet) that compared nearby counties' director and paramedic pay: "Smith County ... they make 75,361. Putnam is 85,000. White County is 73,799. Cannon County is 75,000." Houston said the county's EMS director pay was the lowest in the region before the change and that the new scale aims to reward credentials and stabilize staffing costs tied to overtime.

Commissioners asked whether overtime was included in pay comparisons; Houston answered that overtime calculations were considered as part of the 24/48 schedule and that the new structure accounts for guaranteed overtime inherent to ambulance schedules. He said the plan is intended to reduce recruitment gaps and that interest in applications has already increased since discussion of the plan, noting "we have had more applications in the last two months to our service because of just the talks of this right here."

Houston also provided operational illustrations: he estimated staffing costs to open new stations and gave an example of annual staffing costs under the new scale (transcript contains a fragmented numeric example). He emphasized the plan's goal was to align wages with regional peers while managing predictability in overtime and part‑time staffing costs.

Next steps: the pay plan was discussed and recommended by the budget committee; transcript segments here do not show a final commission vote on the pay plan itself within these excerpts.