PENDER COUNTY — A fast-growing southeastern NC county has been contracting with a private nonprofit to provide fire and emergency services for more than a decade. However, following a recent contract dispute, a newly elected official believes fusing the entity into the county would give taxpayers greater accountability over the public service.
READ MORE: Contract dispute ongoing as Union Rescue and Pender EMS finally talk
Pender EMS and Fire Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization that contracts with the county to provide emergency services and fire protection. The nonprofit received $20.27 million from the county in fiscal year 2024. According to its most recent annual tax filing for the previous year, Pender EMS and Fire’s net income was $1.9 million in fiscal year 2023; it spent $18.3 million but brought in $20.2 million in revenue.
Randy Burton — elected to the county commission in November and appointed chair in December — spoke in favor of integrating the private nonprofit into the county at the Monday meeting. He emphasized it would not result in reduced employee benefits or services.
“There’s a new board and it’s time for things to start happening,” he told Port City Daily Friday.
Pender EMS and Fire received $16.5 million from county taxes in fiscal year 2023, $2.3 million from patient fees, $1.1 million from contributions and grants, and $254,000 from contract services. The nonprofit’s largest expense was compensation and benefits at $13.5 million. It also spent roughly $1.2 million for equipment operating costs and maintenance and paid $632,000 in interest payments on past debt.
“Once [tax] money gets sent to Pender Fire and EMS Inc,” Burton said Friday. “Then the accountability and the transparency leaves the taxpayers.”
Burton has a three decade career serving as a first responder and retired as operations battalion chief with Wilmington Fire Department in 2018. He believes Pender and EMS’s employees would benefit from inclusion into the State Health Plan and retirement pension; he said one employee told him their monthly family healthcare premium was $1,752. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey similarly told Port City Daily a merger would likely lower health insurance costs.
“I’m not questioning their fire and EMS practices or what they do,” Burton said. “They do a great job and their employees are outstanding. But, some of the communication I’ve had with some of their employees — they want transparency and they welcome their citizens being involved.”
The county appoints Pender EMS and Fire’s board members. Appointments were scheduled for the Monday meeting, but commissioners agreed to postpone the decision to provide more time for a resolution in an ongoing contract dispute between Pender EMS and Fire and Union Rescue Squad.
The volunteer department’s contracted services cover night-time emergency response in the Union district including Willard, Watha, Penderlea, and Maple Hill. But Pender EMS made non-negotiable changes to its annual contract renewal with Union in September that would require it to respond to 60% of calls in its district rather than only night calls.
Union warned it did not have capacity to meet the new conditions and retained legal counsel amid a breakdown of communications with Pender EMS. Union refused to sign the new contract and Fire Chief Everette Baysden issued a notice of termination to shut down the contracted service on Jan. 22. The parties have since agreed to pause the dispute to allow further negotiations.
“They’ve agreed to come together and have a 30-day cooling off,” Burton told PCD. “Where everybody just takes a breath. After that, each board of directors will talk. We didn’t want even the chiefs to be involved because of personal discrepancies or animus and we’re going to let the boards work it out.”
Phil Cordeiro — Pender County GOP Treasurer and a former school board member — submitted an application to join Pender EMS and Fire board of directors. He told Port City Daily he was concerned about the board’s lack of responsiveness to inquiries about its spending, potential conflicts of interest, and Bayden’s nearly $200,000 salary.
Baysden urged commissioners to vote against Cordeiro’s appointment at the Monday meeting because Cordeiro made public posts about the nonprofit’s salary information in an attempt to allege impropriety. He and other EMS staff urged for any potential merger to be done carefully.
Commissioner Brad George similarly spoke against Cordeiro’s appointment at the meeting.
“I can understand the hesitation by that board — and by me — to approve someone like that,” George said. “He is on a witch hunt now. He has requested pay documents from not only Pender County, Pender EMS and Fire, the Town of Burgaw, Pender County Schools, the Town of Atkinson, the Town of Surf City, and the Town of Topsail Beach.”
George noted salaries would be public record for every entity except Pender EMS and Fire Inc, but alleged Cordeiro’s motive for seeking the information was to gain leverage over the commission.
Cordeiro filed campaign finance and self-dealing complaints against George last year. Cordeiro’s campaign finance complaint to the State Board of Elections alleged the commissioner failed to report receipts and expenditures and missed disclosure deadlines for the 2024 election cycle. The commissioner said the complaint was partly true because he missed filing deadlines; he attributed delays to reporting questions he’d shared ahead of time with the county’s board of elections.
The State Bureau of Investigation and District Attorney’s office dismissed the self-dealing allegations in December. Cordeiro pointed to George’s position on Pender EMS and Fire’s board of directors as a potential conflict of interest because George’s wife, Audrea, is chief financial officer of the private nonprofit.
Pender EMS and Fire’s board determines employee compensation during its annual budget process. Other Pender EMS board members include Pender finance director Meg Blue, deputy fire marshall Michael Carlisle, and EMS supervisor Steve Yopp.
Cordeiro argued George’s positions as commissioner and board member of a contracted private entity present a potential violation of G.S. 14-234 — which prohibits public officers from administering contracts that provide income to their spouses — as he voted for the 2024-2025 budget appropriating funds to his wife’s employer.
Cordeiro’s complaint against George also stated the commissioner lobbied the county board of education to declare a property it owned as surplus to transfer to Pender EMS. Commissioners agreed to a resolution supporting the transfer of a two acre property on the Malpass Corner Elementary School campus to build a new EMS station last year.
George — former county chair — described Cordeiro’s complaints as an effort to target him ahead of the Dec. 19 appointment of county commission chair.
“I received a copy of an email from one of my sitting colleagues here today,” George said at the meeting. “That pretty much agrees with Mr. Cordeiro that the reason the current Pender EMS and Fire board needed to be reevaluated is because of close contact of board members and employees. So it’s not only outside of here but it’s inside here too.”
PCD reached out to George to ask him about the potential merger, the self-dealing complaint, and which commissioner he was referring to but did not receive a response by press.
“Perception is reality to people,” Burton said. “And it looks on its face that some things are kind of shady when it’s operated like that. I think it’s an opportunity for the citizens to have a direct say in their fire and EMS.”
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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