Kern County, CA Looks Hard at Screening Rescuers

After nearly giving a woman just released from jail an emergency medical technician certification card and issuing EMT cards to a registered sex offender and identity thief with 11 felony convictions, Kern County is moving to better screen its rescuers.

The county's Emergency Medical Services Department is joining its counterpart in Monterey County in looking to adopt mandatory criminal background checks for all EMTs as early as this summer.

The two counties are considering urgent action even as legislators study a Senate bill that would require mandatory background checks for all California EMTs and statewide licensure by Jan. 1, 2009.

"There's a loophole in the system, and I don't want people to be profiting from a weakness in the system or loopholes here," said Ross Elliott, emergency medical director for Kern County. "It cannot continue."

Kern County officials fear their county may have become a magnet for rescuers with criminal records from around the state intent on dodging their own county's background-check requirements. EMT certificates issued by one jurisdiction are valid statewide. Half of Kern County's more than 4,000 active EMT certifications were granted to people who don't live or work there, according to a county report obtained by The Bee.

"This raises a question as to why people would travel from as far away as San Diego for an EMT-1 certification issued by Kern County," Elliott stated in his February report.

Tom Lynch, Monterey County's director, said he does not want to wait for state legislation.

"It is absolutely incumbent on us to protect public health and safety now," Lynch said.

In both counties, the proposal for mandatory background checks through the state Department of Justice will require approval by the board of supervisors. A Bee investigation published in February reported that flaws in California's patchwork licensing system for rescuers was letting people with serious criminal records get EMT certifications in counties without background-check requirements.

The Bee also found that the Office of the State Fire Marshal does no background checks and had issued EMT cards to convicted criminals, including one to a convicted child molester who was later re-arrested.

Of course, some EMTs may be certificate shopping from county to county because of delays of up to eight weeks in some areas, Elliott's report suggested.

Kern County issues EMT cards over the counter -- often within minutes -- under what the department calls its honor system. On the county's form, if applicants say they have no convictions, no attempt is made to verify their claims. A recent case offered a wake-up call, Elliott said.

A woman fresh out of the Kern County jail walked in to apply for an EMT card, lied about her convictions and almost got away with it until a county clerk noticed her jail wristband and made a call to the jail. The woman had been released 20 minutes earlier.

"Had our staff not noticed the bracelet, she would have been given the EMT certification," Elliott said. "It just blew us away."

In Monterey, both the Salinas Rural Fire Department and Monterey County emergency medical agency were troubled by the case of firefighter-EMT Frank Savinon, according to Fire Chief Mike Urquides.

Savinon was arrested in December 2005 for soliciting a teenage girl to commit a lewd act and was later convicted of a misdemeanor for the crime in July 2006, Monterey County court records show.

Urquides said neither his department nor the county agency knew about Savinon's record until a Fire Department employee accidentally noticed Savinon's name on an Internet court docket and reported it to the union, which informed Urquides.

Urquides said he launched a probe that led to Savinon's termination in November 2006.

Savinon was re-arrested in January for allegedly kidnapping his former girlfriend, stabbing her and trying to kill her and himself by running the car engine in the closed garage of his Salinas home, court records show.

Lynch, the county's emergency director, confirmed that he immediately revoked Savinon's EMT certification, but only after the Fire Department notified him of the first arrest.

Kern officials cited two other EMT cases in calling for background checks:

* A tipster informed the county that it had granted an EMT card to a man who hid criminal convictions in Los Angeles County. Kern County officials then confirmed the EMT had lied about a 10-year prison sentence and 11 felony convictions, many of them for identity theft.

"This individual used four aliases, 11 Social Security numbers and four driver's license numbers," Elliot's report stated.

* Another Kern County EMT failed to disclose he was a registered sex offender. Kern officials discovered the man's background only after he was arrested in Los Angeles for impersonating a firefighter -- with his Kern County EMT card in his wallet.

The Bee's Andrew McIntosh can be reached at (916) 321-1215.

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