Turns Out It Might Be A Good Thing American Medical Response Is Handling Gloucester Township’s EMS

Gloucester Township, Camden County’s third largest municipality, has issues, some of them covered right here on The Bob & Steve Show blog, an assistant store manager from the Deptford Mall as its communications director, a newly elected school board member with connections to an “adult superstore” and the fact the newly elected school board member didn’t even live in town when he got elected now the governing body has been forced to deal with controversy with the township’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS).

Typically, this is where I would have some unkind words for the governing body in their handling of the situation, but no matter how hard I try I can’t. Mayor David Mayer will likely fall out of his chair when he reads this part of this post, but he actually did the right thing dumping the Gloucester Township EMS Alliance in favor of American Medical Response before the 30-day transition period ended.

With that said, I have been told the board of the Gloucester Township EMS Alliance are Mayer’s people, which may be true, but I cannot confirm and I certainly cannot make the argument that he is the reason they got the contract in the first place, no matter how many emails the show has received making that argument.

Folks tried to tell me that dumping the Gloucester Township EMS Alliance was the beginning of the Democrats getting Cooper Hospital into Gloucester Township. That’s completely untrue because Cooper is having trouble staffing BLS units in Camden City, proving Camden County Republicans were right when they fought against the bill that gave Cooper Hospital control over ambulance service in Camden.

Here’s what we do know. The Gloucester Township EMS Alliance should have never dumped Francis Pagurek. He knew what he was doing, saved the Alliance money, kept things running well, but asked too many questions. Pagurek is well-known in the EMS community and has been named “Outstanding EMS Administrator” by the New Jersey Statewide Conference on EMS in the past. No one has argued that the Alliance started going downhill after they dumped him a year ago.

There were serious issues with the mismanagement of money at the Gloucester Township EMS Alliance (questions that were raised by Pagurek). They guy who became acting chief is/was a board member of the Alliance, is a retired accountant (and a paramedic) and his daughter works/worked in the office. The board’s president’s wife worked in the office too. These connections, of course lead to the question, who was watching the money?

Where indeed did the money go? Several sources have told The Bob & Steve Show the Board of Directors of the Gloucester Township EMS Alliance helped an Assistant Director (to the chief) pay for her divorce attorney and new tires for her car. Additionally, we’ve been told now that the Alliance is essentially out of business the same Assistant Director is being “gifted” a command vehicle.

In an odd twist, The Bob & Steve Show has learned the Assistant Director in question was a retail manager before getting hired as an Assistant Director at the Alliance. Remember, the Gloucester Township communications director’s last job before joining the township was assistant manager at a retail store. Maybe a career in retail is the way to get noticed for a position of influence in Gloucester Township.

So, yeah, it looks like it might be a good thing American Medical Response has taken over EMS in Gloucester Township. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

PRESS RELEASE: NJGOP Chairman Steinhardt Statement On Senator Addiego's Party Flip

NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt issued a response to the news that state Senator Dawn Addiego flipped to to the Democrats today. His statement follows:

For Immediate Release

Trenton, NJ - NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt released the following statement on Senator Dawn Addiego's decision to turn her back on the voters that put her in office as a member of the Republican Party:

"South Jersey Democrats see the writing on the wall and know they are only a few months away from being down one more Senator in LD-1. This move is political self-preservation by Senator Addiego and South Jersey Democrats who know every indicator south of Burlington is bad for their coalition. From losing LD-2 to Senator Brown in 2017,  losing the Salem County Freeholder Board and not denting the Atlantic County Freeholder Board, to strong performances by Donald Trump and Bob Hugin in Cape May, Cumberland, Salem and Gloucester Counties, Democrats know they are staring down the barrel of more losses on their home turf."

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Where Are Those Women Leaders Now? Will The Hypocrisy Ever Stop?

Remember that time a “group of 88 prominent female leaders from across New Jersey” attacked former U.S. Senate candidate Bob Hugin claiming he had “a pattern of intolerance” especially toward women? I do. It was on The Bob & Steve Show blog for the first time on July 23, 2018. Basically, I wrote about the fact these women were angry about Hugin’s defense of an all-male eating club years earlier, but didn’t give a shit about a U.S. Senator helping a dirty old man play sugar daddy to young women. I called out these women many times after that on their hypocrisy. And, here I am calling them out again.

Where are those women leaders now? Where are their statements about Governor Phil Murphy’s horrible pattern of not caring about women?

Here at The Bob & Steve Show we’ve been saying for at least six months that the treatment of women on Murphy’s soccer team, Sky Blue FC, was just the tip of the iceberg. Back on August 14, 2018 I wrote a piece, “Women’s Soccer: NJ Press Lets Governor Murphy Off The Hook,” in which I promised, “If New Jersey’s press is going to continue to let Murphy off the hook for the horrible treatment of the women on his soccer team and his hypocrisy on pay and gender equality then The Bob & Steve Show will do our best to keep reminding New Jerseyans of the BS Murphy is feeding us.”

Considering this is the 32nd time this blog has mentioned Murphy’s soccer team it should be obvious that promise has been kept.

So, back to the original question. Where are those women leaders now? Why aren’t they calling out Murphy over, at the very least, his history of willfully looking the other way while women are being mistreated?

While for months it seemed The Bob & Steve Show was the only voice out there calling out Murphy on his treatment of women it appears others are catching on – FINALLY. Just two weeks ago the Star-Ledger ran an editorial, “Lift the gag rule on women in Murphy campaign,” in which they wrote, in part:

Is the mistreatment of women a common occurrence in Murphy world?

Last week, Jonathan Berkon, an attorney for Phil Murphy's campaign, testified that there were several complaints about the campaign atmosphere, although he did not specify if all were from women or related to gender hostility.

But at least three women have now complained in the press.

It’s nice to see New Jersey’s press finally starting to catch up.

Now, how about all those Democratic women? When are they going to catch up and start calling out Murphy for his mistreatment of women?

I know the answer is never, but it would be nice to see the hypocrisy come to an end.