This letter is to address concerns of the recent decisions and actions of the Washington County Board of Supervisors regarding the Ambulance Director.

As a result of Closed sessions, a decision was made to place the Ambulance Director on Unpaid Administrative Leave. Later this was changed to “Paid Administrative Leave” since that was not a legal option -- either “Paid Administrative Leave” or “Unpaid Suspension”.

Closed sessions are to protect identity of involved employee. That was not followed by identifying the position. Jermey Peck’s name was made public and went through the nation on the EMS1 publication and was the most viewed article that week.

What we do know is this:

Jeremy Peck has been, and is, a qualified servant of the Washington County community and has dedicated most of his adult life serving and leading a response to the needs of emergency care.

Jeremy Peck has served the Wellman Fire Department as Fire Chief for 14 years.

Jeremy Peck has served and built up the Wellman First Responders into an active involved response team.

His approach has been an educated, no nonsense, no need for control, leading by example.

His experience gives a calm and knowledgeable response in the time of emergencies.

As Director of the Washington County Ambulance, with the funding provided by the Washington County Supervisors, he was able to bring the fleet of vehicles purchased by the county, to a well-maintained fleet along with adding a new vehicle.

As director, first and foremost meeting the emergency needs of the community, he established and acquired a location in Kalona for an emergency vehicle to reduce the response time. This required a working relationship with community leaders.

As director, he took the business approach and had people in place to first, meet the emergency needs in the county, as well as obtaining ways to increase the revenue by filling transport needs, and having proper coding in place to file Medicare and Medicaid claims.

This resulted in NET revenues of $130,000.00 to date.

What we also know:

There appear to be conflicts of interest in the Board of Supervisors.

While they may be legal, are they moral, ethical, and are they in the best interests of the county?

One of the current Board of Supervisors was the previous owner of the purchased ambulance vehicles by the County, while serving in that capacity. He also was the supervisor of some of the current Washington County Ambulance employees.

He has not recused himself from decisions, but rather very active in overseeing the issues related to the Washington County Ambulance.

When the county was considering purchasing the fleet from the current supervisor, members of the community involved with the committee raised concerns regarding his involvement and it was not received, but rather defended.

An additional conflict of interest is when the “portion” of current employees came to the Board of Supervisors meeting and read their statement regarding the director, it was presented by a part time employee and a brother-in-law of one of the supervisors. Legal, just not a good representation.

We also know at the last meeting, the advice of the Interim Director was ignored, and ONE employee was given a $3/hour raise on the spot.

The Interim Director has now resigned, and Washington County is now at a vulnerable state with emergency needs, and no active director.

A Director cannot succeed with a Board of Supervisors micromanaging, and the influence of previous owner involved in decisions as a supervisor.

We are asking that the previous owner/supervisor either recuses himself from decisions regarding the Washington County Ambulance, or step aside.

We know there have been countless phone calls, conversations, emails, and zoom comments on this issue in support of Jeremy.

We are asking that the Board of Supervisors put aside their personal perspective, put the citizens of Washington County first, and reinstate Jeremy Peck as Ambulance Director.

Thank you,

Merle & Fern Bontrager, Tim Smith, Tyler Hershberger, Ed & Bobbie Hershberger, Rob Young, Jesse Gingerich, Blake & Jenni Hershberger, Toni Rios, Robert Kanagy, Ryan & Amy Allen, Rebecca Bush, Chris Swart, Tammy Swart, Amber Swart, John Conway, Clint Humphrey, Art & Dana Peck,       Ryan Miller, Twila Beachy, Steven Ebersole, Angela Ballard, Nicole Hall, Austin Knupp, Joshua Kelly