• EMS personnel divided over complaints of favoritism, poor communication; Obrecht cites missed calls and controversial 911 recording

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

Rescue squad personnel from throughout Columbus County packed the commissioners’ chambers Monday night.

Eight of nine rescue chiefs voted at a Columbus County Fire and Rescue Association meeting to ask that the Board of Commissioners fire Dr. Fred Obrecht from his contract position as EMS medical director and eliminate nurse liaison Becky Smith’s position, association president Tony Miller said.
The board took no action but said they would take the request under advisement.

“I’m not a one-man team here,” Miller said and pointed out that at a Thursday night meeting the majority of EMS chiefs agreed they wanted Obrecht removed.

“You’re speaking for chiefs?” Chairman Sammie Jacobs asked.

“Not all chiefs,” Whiteville Chief Shannon Strickland spoke up.

“May I ask why?” said Commissioner Ricky Bullard who asked for more specifics as to why Obrecht should be removed.

Miller said it was issues that the EMS rescue chiefs have.

“It’s boiling in the pot per se,” Miller said.

As Bullard steered the conversation toward specifics, Jacobs cautioned that the board might be touching on personnel issues that could not be discussed in open session.

“We feel like there is a lot of partiality shown,” Fire and Rescue Association Vice President Sara Spivey said. “Communication has become a big problem, continuing education – the list goes on. We feel right now, the majority feels, at this time we would be best served by a new director and nurse liaison.”

“Have you addressed any of these concerns with Dr. Obrecht?” Commissioner Ronald Gore asked.
Spivey said they were referred to the EMS steering committee.
“Did you get any answers?” Bullard asked.

“We did not get the answers we felt were appropriate,” Spivey said.
“I need to know the issues,” Bullard said.

Spivey said chiefs had no input in the system plan or new protocols adopted. “We just feel like – the majority feels like it’s just not working,” she said.

Gore asked why the group wanted to get rid of Smith.

Spivey said the Health Department has an infection and disease control specialist. “That’s $25,000 the county can save,” she said.

“I don’t think we have to have one,” Spivey said of the nurse liaison position.

“We’re not saying Dr. Obrecht is not a good doctor but it’s time for a change,” Acme-Delco-Riegelwood Rescue Chief Donna Hammond said.

She said she had attended meetings leading up to the 2002 plan adoption and prior to the November 2002 meeting when it had been “redone.”

She mentioned continuing education budget issues and spoke about favoritism also. She said that if training is offered, it should be offered to everyone.

“You’re just as important, Mr. Bullard, you and your family, as I and my family,” Hammond said. “We feel like we want equal and honest representation.”

Many in the audience applauded.

Randy Guyton, Chadbourn rescue chief and owner of a private transportation company, said he had “been through several issues.”

“It’s gotten to the point we don’t have no communication,” Guyton said. “Communication is so bad EMS don’t know what they’re suppose to do.”

He said they have tried to work with leaders but “it seems like they get mad and stir up more trouble – question our personnel and stuff.

“We need to get someone in the position that will work with all EMS personnel, not just a select few,” Guyton said.

“In the interest of fairness,” he said, Jacobs called on Obrecht to respond.

Obrecht said he had been before the commissioners before about continuing education and there was a lot of opposition then. He added that he “narrowly” kept his job.

“Not all members in all of those squads want me to resign,” he insisted. “Ronnie Watts and Wendy Norris of Tabor City didn’t know anything about this,” Obrecht said.

“I resent the implication that all squads want this,” Obrecht said. “Not everyone appreciates what I do – I’m not always the most popular guy, especially when I insist on certain standards. I get people bucking me all the time.

“All employees, 365, function under my license,” he said, and added that the medical board sees their acts as an “extension” of him.

He said he has “certain standards. There are things I insist on: patient care first and patient care fast – I insist that people answer all of their calls,” he said and added that they follow local, state, and federal regulations.

“I was on the hot seat for two to three hours,” Obrecht said of a recent meeting with the chiefs.
He argued there is not a lack of communication.

“Everybody in the county knows where I work,” he insisted. He said Guyton had spent two and half hours talking with him recently.

“I’m very approachable,” Obrecht said.

“If you look back at the 2002 plan – it turns out two members from each squad were invited,” he said, but added that a total of two showed.

He said that at meetings from 2002 to 2004 only a few members came.

Obrecht said part of his job is making sure others do theirs.

“I have to get people to do their job –I don’t think I should be fired for asking questions,” he said.

Obecht said Lake Waccamaw had missed 11 calls in four months.

“Five were in June,” Obrecht said. “The first-out truck didn’t get there.”

He said there was a 911 tape in which the Lake Waccamaw rescue chief “said he would like to divert all calls to Lake Waccamaw somewhere else because they were having a party and intended to get drunk.”

He asked Commissioner James Prevatte to confirm he had heard the tape.

“I’ve heard the call,” Prevatte said.

Obrecht said there are problems with transportation companies self-dispatching and not going through the 911 system. “It’s illegal,” he said, adding that he had talked to Guyton about it before.

“I’m asking you not to terminate me or fire me for asking people to do their job and holding them to their job,” Obrecht said.

“Is there any reason Whiteville does not want to be a part of this?” Gore asked.

Obrecht said he didn’t know but that in eight years there are “a lot of politics and turf battles.”

“Why they don’t like one another I don’t know,” he said, pointing out that when it comes down to necessity such as the Riegelwood tornado they all work well together.

Gore brought up the partiality issue.

“I don’t believe there has been partiality,” Obrecht said with gasps from the audience.

“Why have you chosen not to participate?” Gore asked Whiteville Chief Shannon Strickland.

Strickland said he had been in the field for 21 years and worked with four or five medical directors.

“I support Dr. Obrecht – he took our county a long way,” Strickland said.

Strickland said before Obrecht there was no steering committee and the director was some doctor in the ER with little interest in the program.

“I’ve heard some complaints about a SWAT team,” Bullard said.

“There is no SWAT team,” Obrecht replied.

He said Sheriff Chris Batten and Whiteville Police Chief Jerry Britt agreed that a tactical medical unit was a good idea to accompany law enforcement on actions in areas where there is not paramedic level care available in the event of an emergency.

“That’s nothing new – it is a 25 or 30-year-old idea. Surrounding counties have it,” Obrecht said.

All five tactical medical unit members are from the Whiteville Rescue Unit. Obrecht said it is because Whiteville is one of only two paramedic level units in the county. The other is Fair Bluff.

He said applications were available in the EMS office and that some of those whotrained paid their own way.

Commissioners asked if the medics carried guns.

“That’s the sheriff’s decision,” Obrecht replied, but added that some were sworn law enforcement officers.

Prevatte said Obrecht had said at a steering meeting that they carried them if they have concealed weapons permits.

“I don’t see the need for you or any rescue person to carry a weapon,” Commissioner Amon McKenzie said.

One of the board members said it was their understanding that by state law no rescue person could carry a weapon on a rescue vehicle.

Obrecht said no EMS people who are not sworn law enforcement officers can carry weapons.

“We’ve got some studying to do,” Commissioner Lynwood Norris said. “We need to take this under advisement.”

McKenzie had issues with the EMS plan not coming before the board of commissioners.

Obrecht said if they would like he would bring changes before the board but reminded them of their hands-off approach in the past and a time the board seemed overwhelmed at the size of the document and approved it without reading it.

Prevatte informed Obrecht all policies take two readings before the board.

“We’ve got a lot to work out,” Jacobs said. “We’ll take this under consideration.

“As I have said before, we’re not seven wise men up here. We have got to remember how our system is built and our volunteers.”