To: Greenville County Council and Greenville County Administrator Joseph Kernel

We, the undersigned, submit the following petition to the Greenville County Council and Greenville County Administrator as a Vote of No Confidence in the leadership and administration of Greenville County Emergency Medical Services. As the citizens of Greenville County, we recognize that Greenville County EMS is absolutely essential to our county. We remain in full support of our emergency medical technicians and paramedics that serve our community and continued emergency medical services provided by Greenville County.

Greenville County Emergency Medical Services is in critical condition and demands immediate intervention. Current “leadership” continues to willfully endanger the lives of those in our community and any loss of life is an unacceptable cost. The following are some examples of the many problems within Greenville County EMS administration.

• There is a refusal to measure or publish accurate response times. Greenville County currently has an established goal to achieve a response time of 12 minutes and 30 seconds or less, however most of the time this goal is not met. For some in our community that call 911 it may take more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. This is too long when a child is choking, someone is having a heart attack or can’t breathe. These are not isolated or occasional occurrences but what happens every day.
• Administration has been negligent in their duties to the community by not adding additional ambulances for more than 10 years despite the rapidly growing population and increased number of 911 calls. As a result there are many times each day that there are no ambulances available to respond to an emergency in our community (also known as “Level Zero”). 
• Although Greenville County Emergency Medical Services is subsidized by tax dollars, it does not mean that citizens will receive a Greenville County EMS ambulance. In the frequent instances that a Greenville County EMS ambulance is not available, an ambulance from another private ambulance service may respond. These ambulance services do not necessarily offer discounted rates for the citizens of Greenville County.
• There is a complete disregard of the safety, health, and well being of the emergency medical technicians and paramedics that work for Greenville County EMS. They are often held over for hours after their shift should be complete to continue to run calls resulting in dangerous levels of fatigue. Furthermore, the paramedics and emergency medical technicians are not allowed to take breaks for any reason because of the severe staffing crisis and lack of available ambulances. This contributes to stress and burnout.
•  Administration has failed to recognize or address the staffing crisis. Greenville County EMS continues to lose experienced advanced level providers and replace them with inexperienced or less qualified staff. Far more employees are lost than recruited and this pattern is unsustainable. Multiple ambulances are shut down each day due to lack of personnel. 
• The culture is toxic and morale is at an all time low. A complete lack of transparency and accountability exists at the administrative level. It is common practice for those in administration to come into work late and leave early if they are there at all. Policies are outdated (by decades in some cases) and applied inconsistently at best. Major disciplinary issues are not addressed while minor infractions are punished severely. Greenville County EMS is plagued by harassment, bullying, discrimination, favoritism, and fear.
• Training has been on the decline and considered one way to cut costs. This has a negative impact on the skill level of the emergency providers.
•  The behavior and actions are highly unprofessional and unethical. The Director and Deputy Director have been involved in a very public lawsuit because of their long term affair. In another incident several years ago, the Captain of Operations was caught in an affair on county time. This is behavior that Greenville County has yet to address but is completely inappropriate for the leaders of our county.
• Recently an administrative coordinator was fired for doing nothing more than providing followup to employees after they had taken a retention survey. Administration was concerned that the results from the retention survey would make their way to county council and make the administration look bad because of the truth. Other administrative coordinators have been fired in the past for similar causes and any attempt to improve the system or address the above issues is met with resistance.

 The above reasons justify this petition as a vote of no confidence for Greenville County EMS Administration. As citizens of Greenville County, we expect that immediate action will be taken by council members and the county administrator to remove these individuals from these positions and enact proactive strategies that will remedy the crisis at hand. This will ensure that our community receives the level of emergency medical services that is deserved for all.