More Changes At County Ambulance Service

The County government has continued its shakeup of the Bergen Regional Emergency Medical Service, eliminating the top two positions there and installing a former officer to oversee the ambulance service.

The coordinator and assistant coordinator of the REMS program were eliminated in July, Bergen County Executive Chief of Staff Jeanne Baratta said.

Former Paramus Police Officer John Bentz will oversee the REMS program in their place, as part of his new role as Coordinator of Monitoring and Evaluation for the County Department of Law and Public Safety. Bentz will assist Law and Public Safety Director Brian Higgins as he evaluates the viability of the REMS program.

Bentz's hiring represents a savings of more than $160,000 for the County. The Paramus resident will be paid $70,000, with no medical benefits, to replace the coordinator and assistant coordinator of the REMS program, who were making $76,875 and $74,087, respectively.

Bentz is also the new head of the Consumer Affairs Division in the Department of Law and Public Safety. His predecessor was making $82,209 and had a take-home car, a perk Bentz won't inherit.

County Adminstrator Ed Trawinski said Bentz's background burnished his application for the Consumer Affairs role.

"He did similar investigatory-type work on consumer-related issues" as a Paramus Police officer, Trawinksi said.

Bentz will play an important role as the County decides the fate of its ambulance service, Trawinski said, both in running REMS and reporting back to Higgins.

"I hope the information he gleans will assist the Director of Law and Public Safety, who will be making a recommendation to us as to what to do with the program," Trawinski said. 

The REMS program rents space from the  and covers the many county facilities in the Borough. But the program is , Trawinski said. 

He's hoping the program will break even by Sept. 30, when he expects to receive a recommendation from Higgins on whether to continue the program for another year or sell it to a hospital or private ambulance company. Trawinski said that if the county decides to outsource, current employees will get a first crack at being hired by whatever company takes over.

"This is just another example of government having to take a look, in this day and age of the 2% spending cap and 2% tax cap, of how it delivers services and to be sure that it does in a cost-effective way," he said.