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Why is Lehigh Acres Fire Department paying $20,000 more for the same service? Lehigh Acres Fire Department would not comment, why? Where is the transparency to the taxpayers of Lehigh Acres?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why are the taxpayers of Ft Myers Beach and Lehigh Acres paying for double services when we all pay into the Lee County general funds?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Pereira has a questionable back ground:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pereira was the top medical official in Sedgwick County Emergency Medical Service (Kansas), she resigned from her position after 18 months. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the email that the Wichita Eagle News received under a records request, shows that County Manager Tom Stolz said Pereira told him she was \u201cscared to do her job\u201d as deputy medical director and needed to leave, citing a work environment where EMS employees \u201care allowed to have secret meetings with commissioner(s) and are able to send things to the media or place on social media with no discussion, communication, or ramification.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pereira\u2019s resignation comes three months after state Rep. Blake Carpenter, a Derby Republican, called for county officials to consider removing EMS Director John Gallagher amid what he described as a \u201cmass exodus\u201d of EMS personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EMS Director John Gallagher was Pereira boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carpenter said turmoil in the short-staffed department has reached a breaking point and that current and former paramedics with the county are turning to lawmakers for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom what I\u2019m hearing there\u2019s majors, captains, lieutenants and even just the normal rank and file folks who, if things don\u2019t change, they\u2019re out the door. That\u2019s dozens, if not more,\u201d Carpenter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March 2020, the Kansas Board of Emergency Medical Services called for an investigation into Gallagher over his handling of a 2019 suicide call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The board proposed disciplining seven Wichita-area emergency responders for failing to take a suicide victim to a hospital five minutes away, even though he had a pulse and labored breathing. The victim survived for another five hours without medical attention beyond palliative medication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 50 people who left their full-time EMS jobs after Gallagher’s appointment filled out the online survey. Roughly 64% mentioned Gallagher \u2014 either directly by name or by pointing out management (Pereira) \u2014 as the reason they left Sedgwick County EMS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the town hall meetings when the county tried to fix the issues, some EMS employees also called for the immediate termination of Pereira.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The reason I left Sedgwick county EMS was due to the toxic leadership from Dr. John Gallagher (and deputy directors Dr. Carolina Pereira) and Paul Misasi,” one former employee wrote. “I felt that they have very little value in the employees, and I no longer felt like a valued member of the organization.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pereira put in her resignation a month after being interviewed by The Wichita Eagle and just days before the Eagle’s “Unresponsive” series published July 11, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Sedgwick County EMS records, Pereira, Sedgwick County EMS deputy medical director, gives 90 days\u2019 notice that she will resign from her position dated July 7, 2021. But she started in Lee County July 29, 2021. Did the 90 notice to Sedgwick County EMS get thrown out the window?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Stolz\u2019s email, he said Pereira told him she wanted out of Sedgwick County \u201cbecause things here are \u2018wrong\u2019\u201d and employees \u201cmake up falsehoods and spread them with no ramification or accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pereira, 34, was hired by Sedgwick County EMS in March 2020 and was in charge of training and helping write new protocols. Her position was created when Gallagher was promoted to EMS director in a massive restructuring of the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But according to documents from Sedgwick County EMS, she failed to live up to her duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wichita Eagle editor stated the \u201cSedgwick County EMS was a broken emergency medical system that’s growing worse by the day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wichita Eagle article states Pereira is returning to her home state of Florida, where she was previously an assistant professor in emergency medicine at the University of Florida Health-Jacksonville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pereira visited Lee County on June 13 and 14, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why wasn\u2019t Pereira vetted more closely by Lee County?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul DiCicco Lee County EMS Chief is quoted, \u201cDr. Pereira will bring considerable value and experience to Lee County. Not only does she meet the qualifications for the position of Medical Director, her values pertaining to culture and medicine align with our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A inside source has said that Lee County EMS is having issues with EMS personnel and it\u2019s continuing to hire new employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is this because of the values pertaining to culture of the Lee County EMS organization with Dr. Carolina C. Pereira is now a part of?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Editor\u2019s note: Wichita Eagle\u00a0investigative series on Sedgwick County EMS was used to write this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On July 29, 2021 Dr. Carolina C. Pereira was hired by Lee County as the Lee County Medical Director salary $234,000.26 (32 hour work week) plus she is the Ft… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":51975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[1022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51981,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51974\/revisions\/51981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/sedgwick-county-government.jpg\")
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