Northeast fire district board meetings are like reruns of old TV sitcoms – but less entertaining.
The Aug. 31 board meeting could have been a rerun of the May 25 meeting, when Fire Chief Angelia Elgin told board members that the district’s computer system was in dire need of an overhaul.
On May 25, she also told board members they need to nail down a financial control policy, which St. Louis County Circuit Judge John Ross requires to lift the Oct. 20, 2009 court order restricting the district’s finances.
Now it’s September, not much has changed. Elgin is still asking the board to approve the financial control policy. And now, she is putting a little more emphasis on the fact that all administrative, personnel and patient records could be lost in a computer glitch if action isn’t taken soon.
Yet at an Aug. 20 court hearing, board member Bridget Quinlisk Dailey helped to change the storyline.
Dailey provided the court with contracts and checks that she said Elgin had no authority to approve. One of the contracts was for the long-awaited information technology upgrades.
At the hearing, Ross ruled to extend the court order to October 2010, if all goes well. Ross’ decision was prompted by court-appointed Special Master Booker T. Shaw’s recommendation that the restrictions remain until the financial control policy is in place.
Shaw said he will hold a hearing on Sept. 24 to hear concerns that Elgin signed contracts and district checks without board approval.
IT backstory
Last summer, the former board administration signed a contract with Zoll Medical Corporation for about $60,000 to establish software for EMS record keeping. However, because of various factors – including the lack of a functional IT system, legal turmoil and a change in command – the work was never completed.
Now the system’s software and hardware is outdated and, “for lack of a better word, a mess,” Elgin said.
At a May 25 board meeting, the chief presented a $9,980 binding contract for a local group, Turn Group, to upgrade the IT system and do necessary groundwork for the Zoll software upgrades. Earlier on May 25, Elgin said she also emailed the board members the contract and mentioned that IT improvements were among top priorities for the district.
Two weeks later, Elgin signed the contract.
“It was discussed in a board meeting,” Elgin said Aug. 10 in open board session. “Those were high-priority items that we were trying to get accomplished, and it was my impression that it was okay to move forward.”
Dailey told Elgin she was wrong. For the past several weeks, Dailey has accused Elgin of violating a state law that requires board members to approve binding contracts.
“It was miscommunication,” Elgin said. “This is not going to happen again.”
Elgin apologized repeatedly throughout the Aug. 10 meeting for misunderstanding.
Dailey replied, “We’re going to be sorry ourselves we’re not having any money.”
Dailey also said Elgin did not have authorization to sign at least three other checks.
When residents asked why there wasn’t a policy in place for check-writing, board chairman Derek Mays said he takes part of the blame. Months ago, the chief provided the board with a financial control policy that outlines the check-writing guidelines.
“I will take some responsibility in not forcing us to get that done to date. I want to get it right,” Mays said at the Aug. 10 meeting. “Thankfully, there was not a great deal of money lost in this process. I agree with you that controls have to be in place.”
On Aug. 31, Mays told residents they would discuss the policy at the next meeting.
Records in peril
Currently the EMS crew members are recording their trip information on paper and driving down copies of the sheets to ProClaims, a claims services agency, Elgin said. The paper trail often creates delays in billing, Elgin said, and the State recommended 10 years ago that ambulance services move to a digital record-keeping method.
Turn Group owner Keith Turner said his company will largely be “installing and reconfiguring both servers to allow for the proper networking.” Turner’s work will allow for the Zoll software to have the proper platform to operate on, he said. With full cooperation, the work could be completed in a couple weeks, he said.
When completed, the IT system will connect laptops on the ambulance trucks with the server and billing agency.
EMS crew members will be able to push one button after they finish a run, Elgin said, and the information will automatically go to the district server and billing agent.
Once Turn Group finishes the work, the district will have to pay about between $10,000 to $12,000 for Zoll to finish up the software installments the company began last year, due to the time lapse, Elgin said.
Elgin said the district continues to have long meetings, and equally long delays in making decisions.
“There are always things that are put on backburner,” she said.
One resident, Joe Love, a St. Louis Public School teacher, believes that Elgin is trying to do her job through repeated attacks.
“She apologized if she was preemptive,” Love said. “She was clearly trying to get their computers online and get service to the ambulances. It’s expensive, but it needs to be done.”
Tangled phone web
At the Aug. 10 meeting, St. Louis city firefighter Percy Green III questioned Dailey about her involvement with the Local 2665 firefighter’s union shop steward Greg Wood and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Elizabeth Holland, who has done a lengthy series on the district.
Board members and district residents sympathetic to Chief Elgin have been critical of the Post series and claim Holland’s sources are weighted toward a previous board majority and the union.
“Are you working with [Elizabeth Holland] to discredit the chief?” Green said. “Are you working with the union to get rid of the chief and the other black firefighters out here?”
To both questions, Dailey replied “No.”
According to district cell phone bills obtained by The St. Louis American from May 25 to Aug. 17, Dailey engaged in a clear pattern of calling the Post reporter and district staff that have been critical of Chief Elgin.
In less than three months, Dailey made 28 calls to the cell phone of Post reporter Elizabeth Holland, sometimes in the middle of night. Yesterday Holland answered the number that a district source identified as hers and confirmed that it was her number.
Some of these conversations between Dailey and the Post reporter suggest extensive collaboration. On July 23, Dailey phoned Holland at 11:29 p.m. and they spoke for 56 minutes.
In this same period, Dailey made 26 calls to a cell phone identified by a district source as belonging to Greg Wood, union shop steward for Northeast. A call placed to the number asking if it belonged to Wood was not returned.
Dailey also placed 21 calls in this period to a number registered to Q Services, LLC, a janitorial business operated by Quinten R. Randolph. Randolph is a shift commander who initiated the “letter of no confidence” against Elgin in February.
Often Dailey called all three individuals – a Post reporter, a union leader and a firefighter – back to back. A complete list of Dailey’s calls are available on The American’s website, www.stlamerican.com.
For a full list of aforementioned phone records, click here
