BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle
CANEY — Mayor Dale McBride was called upon to break a deadlocked vote of the Caney City Council Monday night concerning the council’s consideration of outsourcing the city’s ambulance service to a private firm.
After the council voted 4-4 to stop further discussions about privatizing the city’s ambulance service McBride cast his seldom-used, tie-breaking vote in favor of discontinuing the discussions concerning privatization.
“From what people have told me, they are comfortable with the present ambulance service, and the reason they are comfortable with it is that they know the people who run the service,” said the mayor. “These people (who run the ambulance) are well known in the community and they have a vested interest in this community. And, when you have a community with a lot of elderly residents, that’s an important of that service. The citizens don’t want strangers coming to their door.”
So, as of Monday’s meeting, consideration of privatizing the city’s ambulance service will not be pushed by members of the council. At the council’s October meeting, the council heard a proposal from Integrity EMS, based in Afton, Okla., to establish a private ambulance service in the community for a 60-day trial period. The issue of outsourcing the city’s ambulance service was first discussed by councilor Jason Moore at the council’s September meeting.
The decision to not seek any further information from private ambulance services did not sit well with one city councilor.
“I honestly cannot vote in favor of that motion,” said councilor Penny Coy concerning the motion to stop further discussions about a private ambulance service. “I feel like we’re shutting the door on getting more information.”
Prior to the council’s decision, the council received copies of an informal opinion poll produced by Caney resident Dan Johnston. Johnston said the opinion poll, similar to a petition, asked citizens if they agree or disagree with the council’s consideration of a private ambulance service. Johnston said he had received more than 251 responses — mostly from Caney city residents. Of the more than 251 responses, only five people indicated agreement with the council to consider a private ambulance firm.
“My opinion is why can’t we do something with our own ambulance service and try to get its level of service up,” said Johnston, after presenting the opinion poll to the council. “I also feel that if something needs to be decided, it ought to be up to a vote of the people.”
While councilor Penny Coy said she appreciated Johnston seeking the opinions of local residents, she questioned if the poll was premature.
“There has been absolutely nothing decided on this,” she said, adding that many citizens have been misinformed about the council’s discussions. “We want to look at our options, and that’s all we’re doing.”
The vote to stop discussions about outsourcing the city’s ambulance service came after a report was given by city administrator Don Whitman concerning bid specifications for prospective ambulance service firms. At the council’s special meeting on Dec. 1, the council directed Whitman to have bid specifications ready for the council’s consideration at its Dec. 15 meeting. However, Whitman said at Monday’s meeting that he still felt uncomfortable with the degree of some bid specifications that many cities have used. A group of three counties in Georgia collectively sought a private ambulance service with only a three-page document. Meanwhile, a California county sought private ambulance proposals through a 75-page bid specification document.
In many other cases, cities and counties have hired professional consultants to assist those governmental entities move into a transition of private emergency services and the preparation of bid documents.
With the information he had in hand on Monday night, Whitman said he felt uncomfortable seeking bids from private firms with little information to present to them.
“I think there are a lot of questions,” said Whitman referring to a short-document bid specification proposal. “It leaves a lot open to interpretation. It’s very basic, and it’s very generic.”
In a related matter Monday night, the council did vote unanimously to upgrade the city’s ambulance personnel training to a level of EMT-I (intermediate), which is a step above the EMT-B (basic). Whitman said the costs to upgrade the training level of ambulance personnel would be about $4,300, and the training would come via Coffeyville Community College beginning next February. Eight members of the city’s police/ambulance service would undergo the training, which takes two to three months to complete.
The city also will have to upgrade its stock of pharmaceutical drugs that EMT-I personnel can administer on ambulance runs. The price tag for those drugs is about $1,300, Whitman said.
City councilor Chad Bradford said he liked the idea of upgrading the personnel training level but that he would also like to see a contractual commitment from those employees to stay with the City of Caney for a period of time before seeking jobs elsewhere.
“I would like to see us have a contract with the employees so that we aren’t paying to train them to go to work in Independence, Coffeyville or elsewhere,” he said.
Police chief Rick Pell said he, too, would like to see a committment from each worker but that it would be difficult to bind those employees to a specified term-of-service contract.
The council did have a discussion as to whether the City of Caney could require workers to pay back the City for training should a worker accept a job elsewhere shortly after the completion of that training.
