NEWS

State probes Ramapo EMS staffing company

Adrienne Sanders
asanders@lohud.com
Ramapo Valley Ambulance Corps Headquarters in Suffern.

RAMAPO - A staffing agency hired by the Ramapo Valley Ambulance Corps to provide and manage paid ambulance crew members employs existing corps members and coerces them to volunteer on their off hours, some members allege.

The agency —  Medical Emergency Decisions Information Consultations, which RVAC hired in 2014 — is also under investigation by the state Labor Department.

As part of a sweeping probe, the Labor Department will review a complaint by rank and file that RVAC leaders have assumed administrative tasks for the company, “despite having officially contracted MEDIC Corp. to assume those duties and responsibilities.”

PROBE: State investigating RVAC 
Q&A: Email exchange with RVAC chairman 
ARCHIVES: Former RVAC president indicted in 2012 

Routine checks of basic public information sources failed to reveal much about the company.

The name of its primary contact, Doniel Mendelovitz, was provided by two senior RVAC leaders — Chairman Mark Strohli and President Chaim Millman. However, he has been unreachable for several weeks through the email provided and phone numbers tracked down through investigative tools.

Strohli, who would only answer questions from The Journal News/lohud sent via email, wrote that he and Millman would not discuss the company he said they hired.

Strohli said via email that MEDIC was hired to provide paid crews during certain hours when it is difficult to have volunteers staff those shifts.

"In the past, these same shifts have been covered using paid crews from RVAC however upon reviewing our practices in 2014, our Attorneys advised having RVAC contain both volunteers and paid members could subject RVAC to penalties and fines under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act," Strohli wrote in an email.

The Fair Labor Standards Act prevents “one entity from treating people differently,” said RVAC's attorney, Dennis Lynch of South Nyack.

Michael Mastrianni, president of the New York State Volunteer Ambulance and Rescue Association, put it this way: “You cannot be both paid and volunteer for same job in same organization.”

To bid, or not to bid

Corps members told The Journal News/lohud that, in 2014, Strohli and Millman said RVAC had sent out a request for proposals and received bids from three companies: Suffern-based EMStar, Rockland Mobile Services in Chestnut Ridge and “a large company out of Lakewood, NJ, with the cheapest offer” called MEDIC.

EMStar said it had, in fact, received a verbal inquiry about pricing for its services, but not until January 2016, more than a year after RVAC contracted MEDIC. Michael Murphy, executive director and chief of operations of Rockland Mobile Services, said he had not seen or heard of any RFP from RVAC.

Ramapo Valley Ambulance Corps vehicle parked at the headquarters in Suffern.

Strohli declined to provide any names when asked to whom RVAC had sent RFPs.

He said that MEDIC “was simply the cheapest option out of 3 price quotes we received (and this is all the reason we needed, as keeping people under RVAC was not an option because of the Federal Law.”

RVAC paid MEDIC approximately $304,000 in 2015, Strohli said, noting that this figure covered both corps personnel and the staff of MEDIC.

"So, yes, 300,000 is a very good price for our paid crews and a decision we all stand behind as being financially savvy," he said.

What is MEDIC?

MEDIC was registered as a corporation with the state in 2013, at the same Nyack address that houses Lynch's office, the RVAC attorney. No CEO or agent name is listed on the state Department of State's filing. Lynch said he only vaguely recalled a “mobile” company since his office handles around 100 incorporation filings a week.

The company is not listed in any business directory or trade association, has no website, and no identifiable phone number or employees, with the exception of Mendelovitz.

Neither Strohli, Millman, Lynch or RVAC Capt. Lewis Lodini — all of whom were asked about MEDIC — would provide any contact or business information for the company with the exception of a personal email address for Mendelovitz.

Ramapo Valley Ambulance Corps headquarters in Suffern.

Staffing industry leaders say such secrecy is unusual in their realm.

“Most staffing companies are proud of their identity and are very visible to the public,” said Joel Klarreich, general counsel for the New York Staffing Association.

Strohli wrote: “Medic is run by someone who has extensive experience in staffing EMTs.”

Mendelovitz is also listed as a contact for Upstate Health Management, registered in 2011 at 15 Bartlett Road in Monsey, the same address listed on pay stubs to MEDIC employees. According to property records, Mendelovitz resided there from 2009 until 2014 and the address is currently occupied by David and Minky Mendelovitz.  (Doniel Mendelovitz' most recent address, as of August 2015, is in Pomona.)

Lodini and Millman both acknowledged they have been employed by MEDIC to help with operational and financial duties. Lodini said he was hired by MEDIC to serve as its “onsite manager” for paid RVAC staffers.

“I’m responsible for shift scheduling and for the interview process and for hiring. I do the first line of applications and then my recommendation(s) go up” to Mendelovitz, Lodini said.

He said MEDIC was separate from the ambulance corps but RVAC was its only client.

Strohli wrote that "Mr. Millman was engaged by MEDICS as their payroll manager to help them get this account up and running 2 years back."

"This was not a prerequisite to the MEDIC contract but a matter of convenience as Mr. Millman has extensive experience with payroll and new account set ups. Once everything was up and running, a MEDIC employee undertook those duties,” he wrote.

Who does MEDIC employ?

Though MEDIC was hired to bring in outside staffers, RVAC members say that most of its emergency medical technicians were RVAC volunteers.

“I would say about 95 to 99 percent,” said one member who spoke with The Journal News/lohud on camera under condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation against him.

Strohli acknowledged, “Myself and Mr. Millman are among MEDICS employees and cover some hourly shifts for them as do many others at the corps.”

The complaint from RVAC's rank and file contained an allegation that puts Lodini in the center of MEDIC's hiring process.

“RVAC’s volunteer-elected Captain Lewis Lodini, who also works as a paid supervisor of MEDIC Corp., coerces paid EMTs working for MEDIC Corp. to volunteer for unpaid shifts,” read a portion of the complaint.

Lodini disputed this, saying that, to be a MEDIC employee, one does not also have to a volunteer at RVAC. He also said that paid staffers are not required to volunteer.

“I wasn’t going to give them my information," said one member. "The whole thing smelled fishy.”   

Twitter: @ASKSanders