Response to J&C Article

The Journal and Courier published an article on my work for accountability and response times in TEAS. This blog post aims to point out the places where things appeared unclear, and where Director Clase and Commissioner Murtaugh do not appear to be telling the truth.

EMS

Justin Kendall

8/28/202616 min read

While it was nice to finally see some broader news attention to get the word out, it was behind a paywall, and several things were misrepresented in this piece. Some were just unclear in the piece because they were jumbled in with other things, but in quite a few spots there are outright fabrications from the people quoted in the piece.

J&C Article here: Concerns grow over Tippecanoe ambulance delays. But who's making the decisions?

NFPA Standards

What was said:

"Indiana follows the National Fire Protection Association 1710 Standards, which says that in emergency situations, the first responder should arrive at the scene in four minutes, and the ALS — advanced life support — vehicle should arrive within eight.

According to Indiana EMS Incidents 2025, Tippecanoe County fire departments’ average response time in 2025 was seven minutes, 24 seconds, much faster than TEAS's average."

How this doesn't line up:

  1. The standard is for ALS response to show up within 8 minutes, 90% of the time. That is the 90th percentile. The stat here in the article references average, which is the 50th percentile. Saying the average number makes it look a whole lot closer to the standard if you don't realize that average isn't the standard.

  2. The fire departments in the county typically provide the Basic Life Support (BLS) response, while TEAS is supposed to be providing the Advanced Life Support (ALS) response and ambulance transport. BLS response time from fire departments is supposed to be within 4 minutes, 90% of the time. For most of 2025, the only fire departments in the county that had the ability to transport patients were the Purdue Fire Department and Westpoint, because everywhere else TEAS is the one providing transport. Wabash Township created an ambulance service for unincorporated Wabash Township late in 2025, specifically because TEAS was not appropriately serving the residents. It staffs an ALS ambulance for those residents of the county, the only township to do so today.

    It's a giant hodgepodge of different entities using slightly different systems, overlapping one another in different ways, that makes it very difficult to pin down exactly what is happening where.

Call Counts & Population

What was said:

"The Journal & Courier requested the Lafayette Fire Department's 2026 data to date on June 16 and received data from 2,480 calls on June 23. The average had remained below eight minutes.

“When I started looking at things, we were between 13 and 14 minutes on some of our response times ... but right now we are averaging around 12 minutes and 40 seconds,” said Darrell Clase, who became the TEAS director in 2025. The Journal & Courier confirmed this average from the data.

Clase had also been TEAS director from 2013 to 2019. Between 2019 and 2022, he was the manager of community development for Indiana Donor Network and a security manager for Unity Healthcare. He has also been the director of Franciscan Alliance since 2022.

In 2025, Tippecanoe County's population was 190,456. Hendricks County with 193,510 people and Vanderburgh County with 181,995 are the closest matches to Tippecanoe's population. Both counties' emergency systems are run by the local fire stations."

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • The first sentence is talking again about averages. Averages are not the standard, the 90th percentile is. Continuing to use the average makes the stats look better than they really are. The gap between the 50th percentile and the 90th percentile varies widely depending on where you are in the county. Check out the interval breakdowns here: EMS_Run_Analysis_Indiana_2025 | Tableau Public ("Time_To_Scene_Intervals" tab). This data is county-wide from a state-collected dataset rather than by area.

    • Here are the intervals of response time for the entire county. When looking at this, it seems like a somewhat smooth distribution of time it takes for units to get on scene.

Hendricks & Vanderburgh County

What was said:

"According to Indiana's 2025 incidents, Hendricks County's average 2025 response time was 13 minutes, 86 seconds, and Vanderburgh County's was nine minutes, 96 seconds.

At the July 14 Tippecanoe County Council meeting, Wabash Township trustee Angel Valentín said that in 2026, the Hendricks County response time is now within eight minutes.

Hendricks County examined the number of non-emergent calls it takes. Hendricks Regional Health began a paramedicine program in 2019 that sends paramedics to a non-emergent call, so an ambulance does not need to respond. This reduces the number of ambulance runs."

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • In the first sentence, I'm not exactly sure where this is coming from. Maybe it's lumping together hospitals and fire departments? Maybe all types of calls, not just 911 calls "with transport"? If you just look at the fire departments in the state dataset that I have been analyzing, you can change the county to Hendricks and see for yourself. EMS_Run_Analysis_Indiana_2025 | Tableau Public

  • By all accounts, the only thing that has changed since Darrell Clase came on board as director at the start of 2025 is repositioning the ambulances more across the county. But that was in February of 2025. That increased the percentage of the time they were hitting the 8 min standard considerably for the first few months, and then slowly kept sliding downward again. See the data here: EMS_Run_Analysis_Indiana_2025 | Tableau Public ("Calls_In_8_Mins" tab)

'Lafayette's Response Times'

What was said:

"Lafayette's average response time at the end of 2025 was 12 minutes, seven seconds; West Lafayette's average was 16 minutes. This includes times from both TEAS and the fire departments.

This percentile also includes calls not classified as emergencies. TEAS does not turn on the ambulance sirens for those, which Clase said makes the response times longer."

What Doesn't Line Up:

'There is zero transparency'

What was said:

"Later that month, the Journal & Courier filed a public records request with the Tippecanoe County sheriff’s office dispatch center requesting this data.

The 2,897 pages received on July 22 included the time an ambulance was dispatched to a scene, when it arrived, and the date of the call from January to the end of June.

The Journal and Courier found that Clase was correct that the average response time for the first six months of 2026 was about 7 minutes, 31 seconds.

Yet Kendall said he had been waiting for his updated set of data since March. “There is zero transparency into how any of this works today,” he said."

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • Again, talking about averages here, and not 90th percentiles.

  • The "7 minutes, 31 seconds" number is contradicted by what Clase was quoted as saying earlier in the article: “When I started looking at things, we were between 13 and 14 minutes on some of our response times ... but right now we are averaging around 12 minutes and 40 seconds,”

    • No idea what they were actually looking at here. All types of calls, not just 911 calls with transport?

'There is zero transparency' Continued

What was said:

"Kendall addressed these slow response times in a commissioner meeting in May, specifically to commissioner Tom Murtaugh, who is both a TEAS director and member.

In April, Kendall and Murtaugh met privately to discuss issues about TEAS’s slow responses.

“I think this is an important topic, and I appreciate Mr. Kendall," said Murtaugh, who said the county gives TEAS $100,000 per year. "We probably should be talking more about the emergency services that are being provided for the community."

"We use Franciscan's accounting system, so you know it's technically held by Franciscan Alliance, but it's a fund dedicated to TEAS," Murtaugh said. The money TEAS makes from its services is also transferred into this fund.

"Franciscan isn't willing to provide any information, any actual proof what they are doing with the money," Kendall said. "It seems like there is a giant disconnect between what TEAS should be bringing in, and what it appears to actually be spending.""

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • "We use Franciscan's accounting system, so you know it's technically held by Franciscan Alliance, but it's a fund dedicated to TEAS,"

    • Yes, it's technically held by Franciscan. Franciscan performs the operations of TEAS on behalf of the TEAS, Inc non-profit through a lease agreement, whose bylaws require Franciscan to provide a yearly audit of operations to all members of the corporation, which it is not doing.

'Franciscan's Role with TEAS'

What was said:

On TEAS's board are voting members from Franciscan Alliance and IU Hospital, with whom TEAS is part of a joint venture, West Lafayette Fire Chief Jeff Need and Lafayette Fire Chief Brian Alkire.

Although the fire chiefs sit on the board, Kendall said TEAS does not effectively collaborate with them, increasing miscommunication.

"There don't seem to be any actual mutual aid agreements defining what the relationship is between them. The commissioners have created a legal structure in which they say TEAS is the primary provider but then have put zero details as to what that actually means," Kendall said.

“They (the fire chiefs) told me that they are attending the board of directors meetings,” said Kendall, who said he spoke to the fire chiefs in February, “and they don’t really have the power to vote on anything of any consequence. So, it’s mostly for them just hearing whatever it is that TEAS decides to tell them then going on their way and trying to adjust.”

Kendall said Franciscan seems to be making most of the decisions.

After multiple attempts to speak to the fire chiefs about their roles on the board, Alkire told a reporter that board members have been advised to direct all questions to the president of TEAS, who Need said works for Franciscan.

Daniel Wickert, who represents Franciscan Alliance on the board, is the current president of TEAS. On Aug. 10, the Journal & Courier requested an interview with Wickert. An email confirmed an invitation for an interview on Aug. 14.

But on Aug. 11, Wickert’s administrative assistant said in an email, "Based on internal discussions, this interview is being declined and will not be rescheduled."

Indiana Administrative Code Title 836 requires fire departments to maintain a written agreement with the certified ambulance provider for West Lafayette and Lafayette. Kendall said he cannot find this agreement and has not received a response from a records request filed in March.

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • I think this basically all lines up.

'Who makes the decisions?'

What was said:

"If you look at state law, nonprofit corporations that have members are required to at least have an annual member meeting where they do specific things, and considering that nobody seems to have any records of these meetings ever happening, they seem to be in violation of state law," Kendall said.

TEAS has been filed as a domestic nonprofit corporation since its original organization in 1977 through its most recent joint agreement in 2013. Indiana Code Title 23 Article 17 says a nonprofit organization with voting members must hold annual meetings, and directors must have quarterly meetings.

The registered agent for the company is Kevin Leahy, Franciscan Alliance CEO, although he is retiring at the end of December. Tony Veneziano, Franciscan media relations specialist, said Leahy was also not available for an interview.

Public documents from the city of West Lafayette show meeting minutes from a directors meeting on June 13, 2024. This date is the latest proof of a board meeting that was received.

These meetings are not open to the public, Veneziano said.

The TEAS bylaws states that the organization's secretary "shall ensure the keeping of minutes in all meetings of the members and the Board of Directors and any committees of the Board of Directors."

The listed secretary on the 2026 business entity report is Jim Siemers from Franciscan Alliance, who also sits on the board. The board includes Wickert and Siemers from Franciscan Alliance, Christopher Mansfield and Emily Gentry from IU Health, Murtaugh, Alkire and Need.

Representatives from Franciscan Alliance and IU Health are "Class A" members, who have one vote for each member, two for the organization, and unlimited voting rates.

The other representatives' votes — from the county and West Lafayette and Lafayette — are limited.

"There are some things within the bylaws that 'Class A' members decide on themselves. I think like the CEO and the medical director and that type of thing. But the truth is, it's been a very cohesive board," Murtaugh said.

None of the "Class A" members agreed to be interviewed for this story.

The Journal & Courier dropped off a public records request to the commissioners' office on July 21 asking for these meeting minutes, a copy of the 2013 mutual agreement between TEAS, the county, Franciscan Alliance and IU Health, proof of the $100,000 sent to TEAS annually and all records Murtaugh had received from TEAS to his public email.

Paula Bennett, the commissioners' executive assistant, insisted to a reporter that the commissioners do not have any of the documents requested.

In an interview with Murtaugh on July 30, he answered all questions about these documents by directing a reporter to William Kealey, an attorney from Stuart and Branigin. Kealey has not responded to several attempts to contact him for more information.

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • "These meetings are not open to the public, Veneziano said."

    • Correct, they're not open to the public, but their legal agreements with the county and cities require them to give the meeting minutes, decisions made, operational reports, and financial reports after the fact, in member meetings, which do not appear to be occurring, in violation of state law.

  • "There are some things within the bylaws that 'Class A' members decide on themselves. I think like the CEO and the medical director and that type of thing. But the truth is, it's been a very cohesive board," Murtaugh said.

    • This is a large departure from what Commissioner Murtaugh has been saying all year when confronted about response times and bylaws. He has stated several times that he personally sat down with the lawyers and made the bylaws and he knows everything about them.

      • I'm pretty positive he's never actually read the bylaws of the organization, and this would seem to confirm it that he's either misleading people or after 13 years of serving as the director for the county, he still has no idea what the legal agreement is that he made.

  • "In an interview with Murtaugh on July 30, he answered all questions about these documents by directing a reporter to William Kealey, an attorney from Stuart and Branigin. Kealey has not responded to several attempts to contact him for more information."

    • This is one of the funnier things that I've seen in the article so far. The public records request was to the county, not to TEAS. Why is the county attorney not answering these questions, given this is an agreement between the county and others?

    • William Kealey appears to be the counsel for the TEAS, Inc non-profit, but his paycheck comes from Franciscan, because Franciscan handles all operations of the non-profit, including paying for a lawyer. At the end of the day, it's money controlled by Franciscan. William Kealey has also been simultaneously representing Franciscan in lawsuits at the same time he was representing TEAS, Inc to respond about documents that Franciscan is legally required to provide to the county. This seems like a pretty massive conflict of interest.

      • It's no wonder he's not responded to any inquiries. His job seems to be to protect Franciscan's interests, not protect what's legally appropriate for the TEAS, Inc non-profit.

'Redistributing ambulances throughout the county'

What was said:

Murtaugh did not directly address concerns with meeting minutes but said he is concerned about the service's response times.

“What the board has tasked the new director, Director Clase, to look into is that we're very, very concerned about response times. They need to come down,” Murtaugh said.

One of the first decisions Clase made was to scatter the seven TEAS vehicles throughout the county.

The seven ambulances are not all used at one time.

"The seventh truck we added, we put it on from 8 to 4, because traditionally that's very busy," Clase said.

When Covid-19 quarantine began, emergency vehicles that had previously been stationed across the county were all pulled into the ambulance bay outside of Franciscan Home Care on Hartford Street in Lafayette, from which they were dispatched.

Clase changed this when he resumed his director role in 2025, resuming the stationing of ambulances at different stations so they could travel across the county faster, he said. TEAS is also working to buy more vehicles.

“That’s basically what we’re doing right now, is trying to reduce our response times,” Clase said in an interview June 9. Clase said they were also actively hiring paramedics and EMTs to staff these ambulances.

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • “What the board has tasked the new director, Director Clase, to look into is that we're very, very concerned about response times. They need to come down,” Murtaugh said.

    • He was tasked with this more than a year and a half ago. Nothing has changed in response times beyond them moving the units around in February of 2025. This is an outright fabrication, or he does not know what he's talking about.

  • "The seventh truck we added, we put it on from 8 to 4, because traditionally that's very busy," Clase said.

    • Back in April, Commissioner Murtaugh told me not to worry because this unit was being added. I requested unit activity logs starting the month where this was supposed to happen. Guess what? It appears fabricated.

      • See my analysis here: https://justinonthewabash.com/juking-the-stats

      • I'm currently waiting on county dispatch records for this period so I can validate whether this unit ever took a call during a time that appears to be fabricated. The unit appeared when Director Clase was on duty like clockwork, and only on the days where he was also on duty. This wasn't even close to 7 days a week during the day, and only appeared for shifts during 12 days in May.

'GPS trackers and new technology to help'

What was said:

Kendall first began researching the service in February after seeing Eric Ehrman, former Tippecanoe Township trustee candidate, publicly commented about TEAS being understaffed.

“I just thought that the response from commissioners to Eric Ehrman when he gave public comment was just so weird to me,” Kendall said.

Clase denied Ehrman's assertions in an interview on May 19.

“We recently went through, and market evaluations were conducted, and so our staff did receive a pay increase,” Clase said. “We’ve been very fortunate in having numerous applications and candidates to choose from, which has been helpful for us.”

A TEAS ambulance is staffed with at least one EMT and one paramedic per call.

The service currently includes 21 EMTs and 19 paramedics as well as 40 part-time staff members, Veneziano said. An EMT is trained in basic life support, and a paramedic handles advanced life support, or life-threatening issues.

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • “We recently went through, and market evaluations were conducted, and so our staff did receive a pay increase,” Clase said. “We’ve been very fortunate in having numerous applications and candidates to choose from, which has been helpful for us.”

    • This is interesting, because all year Commissioner Murtaugh has said the response times are bad because there's an EMT shortage.

  • A TEAS ambulance is staffed with at least one EMT and one paramedic per call.

    • This is 100% false. Ambulances with an EMT and a paramedic are Advanced Life Support units and thus would be designated as "MED" for the unit name in dispatch data. Units that do not have a paramedic are BLS units and are designated with "AMB" in the dispatch data. See for yourself here, that a lot of the time on nights and weekends, there are several units that are only BLS certified. TEAS_2026 | Tableau Public

    • In fact, TEAS removed the following whole section from their website after I called them on this in the 8/17 Commissioners meeting.

'GPS trackers and new technology to help' Continued

What was said:

Although response times have improved, Kendall's concerns continue to grow.

"The commissioners have made it clear that they do not intend to fix this problem," Kendall said. "It seems they're more interested in covering up the fact that they didn't know that these requirements existed and haven't known for the last 13 years."

Kendall said he intends to keep following the issue. He filed a complaint to the Indiana attorney general on July 20, asking that office to investigate TEAS. He has yet to hear an update.

“Maybe I’ll hear something back from the attorney general’s office that they’re going to make this nonprofit start complying with the law,” Kendall said. “I don’t have any hope anymore the commissioners are going to try to fix this, which is a shame because they are supposed to be representing the county and not protecting Franciscan.”

What Doesn't Line Up:

  • "The commissioners have made it clear that they do not intend to fix this problem," Kendall said. "It seems they're more interested in covering up the fact that they didn't know that these requirements existed and haven't known for the last 13 years."

    • The writing on this is unclear, and in the middle of other things. What the Commissioners have no intention of fixing are the legal issues of document and reporting disclosures that TEAS, Inc is supposed to be performing today during member meetings of the corporation. When I started pointing out that these records didn't exist and pointed to the legal agreements the county has with TEAS, Inc, they all responded as if they'd never even seen the bylaws before. My public records request for meeting minutes in the Attorney General complaint shows that the county attorney certainly never read them. My request for public records was denied not because he read the bylaws and asserted that it isn't what the bylaws say, he simply called up Franciscan's lawyer and asked their opinion. Which, of course, was not to release the documents.

    • But when you start to break it down by area of the county, it looks a whole lot different. You can find the county-level dispatch data that lets us break it down by area of the county here: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/justin.kendall2389/viz/TEAS_2025/TEASALSRuns

      • Below is Dayton, as an example. TEAS didn't get to calls in Dayton anywhere near 8 minutes, 90% of the time in December of 2025. In fact, the 90th percentile was 18 minutes.

    • Below is Tippecanoe Township.

  • In the second sentence, Darrell Clase says this includes calls not classified as emergencies. This is incorrect. You can filter this dataset by the type of problem that was asserted to dispatch when the 911 call is made. Look at the screenshot above, on the top of the right-hand side. Remove any type of event other than "MEDPRO", which is a medical problem, and the stats don't appreciably change. Things like "standby", when dispatch asks an ambulance to sit and wait for something, those are already filtered out. They don't appreciably change the response times. Commissioner Murtaugh has repeatedly asserted this to me as well, but it's not true. It's simply a convenient excuse to be given to people to try to get them to go away.