GUEST OPINION

County ambulance debacle: Part 2!

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has decided to have American Medical Response and County Fire provide redundant ambulance services throughout the county in a non-exclusive contract.

What does that mean in practical terms? County fire department and AMR will be competing against each other for each and every ambulance call in some way shape or form.

This is a ridiculous predicament as the county spent at least one million dollars of taxpayer monies and wasted several years of staff time weighing competing proposals from county fire and AMR to be the sole ambulance provider for the county. After all that, the supes decided, against staff recommendations, to force these two providers to somehow produce an equitable plan to share the contract — meaning either or both providers will likely no longer have the customer base to fully fund their operations, including overhead.

Moreover, the current contract with AMR expires less than one year from now.

That does not give County Fire enough time to gear up to share the responsibilities and duties of the new contract.

This has to do with how long it will take County Fire to construct its own new dispatch center — which will allow the department to dispatch ambulances and fire engines countywide — and County Fire’s ability to procure ambulances, which typically take up to 18 months for delivery.

I could go with either provider if the financials pencil out. I acknowledge the fact that fire engine crews go on every ambulance call as it is right now. Hence, having them run the whole show can make sense.

One large concern with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, however, has to do with pension costs and liabilities. County Fire, along with all government employers, offers a defined benefit pension to their employees, which I do not oppose for cops and firefighters for a variety of reasons. However, what a defined benefit pension plan portends is that once the employee is vested, they will receive a portion of their