State says EMSA had 'unwarranted, extravagant' spending habits

State Auditor Gary Jones' office just finished a special audit of EMSA, and found the ambulance service engaged in extravagant, unwarranted spending on behalf of its CEO Steve Williamson.

Jones said some of the highlights of the finding from the audit include spa treatments and services for Williamson, as well as the Admiral Club membership at airports, and multiple lifetime subscriptions to Sirius Satellite Radio.

"And what we said was, this IS a public entity, and the board ought to be looking at these expenses and determine whether or not they're reasonalbe and have a procedure in place to approve them," Jones said.

He said EMSA's board does not appear to have that kind of oversight and said it needs to have it to prevent any future extravagant spending.

He said EMSA ratepayers and the general public deserve to know if their money is being spent responsibly by EMSA.

An EMSA spokesperson says the organization plans to review the audit at Wednesday's board meeting. Lillian Perryman, chairwoman of the EMSA board, says, “The audit, released this afternoon, was requested by the EMSA board, as part of our efforts in past months to improve the organization’s overall practices and policies.”

Perryman went on to say, “We requested it because we wanted specific areas evaluated by a third party and look forward to seeing their recommendations. We are still reviewing the report and it will be discussed in detail in tomorrow’s (Wednesday) board meeting."