Three-year dispute with Augusta ambulance provider hits turning point
"The budget is coming up, and unless a decision is made, this contract automatically renews itself at the end of the year," he said.
Sias announced his intention to cancel the contract 10 days ago and quickly garnered support from commissioners who have long questioned the deal and welcome saving the city a
Gold Cross says it can't function well without the subsidy, which is used to cover nonpaying customers when
Customer
Gold Cross appeared to carry on without a hitch for its first seven years as primary EMS provider in a self-renewing annual contract negotiated by former City Administrator
The agreement guaranteed "sufficient ambulances" available to Augusta and a prioritizing of calls from "1" to "3," with late fines for each, in exchange for a
After former Fire Chief
Half of the fire department's call volume is first responders heading
to medical emergencies. They just can't transport the sick or injured to a hospital.
By summer of 2012, James had the job permanently and started pushing to rework the EMS contract, arguing that it did not define what call priorities were and left no way to verify the number of ambulances in service. Mandatory reporting wasn't being done, and Gold Cross had never been fined for a late response time.
Gold Cross' next move was an administrative one. It requested to become the state-designated "zone provider" in
Though the company later withdrew the request, Augusta activists including Sias and the Rev.
In
A few days later, the commission flip-flopped and voted 6-4 on Commissioner
Russell came back a few weeks later with a contract that reduced Gold Cross' annual subsidy to
The contract didn't go far enough for some.
Gold Cross uses its own dispatchers to assign call priorities and dispatch ambulances after the calls are referred over from
In November, the Region 6 Council gave
A few months into the three-year contract,
Days before
Council member
Commissioners didn't, however, and spent the rest of the year busy with municipal elections -- including the election of Sias -- two commission resignations and hiring a city administrator.
With the time now right, Augusta has little reason to remain in the contract, Sias said. Despite the changes, Gold Cross remains "the provider of its own data on itself" and assigns call priorities.
"This is a process for making it better for the citizens of
Throughout the debate, commissioners have insisted Gold Cross' service was not the issue.
Gold Cross CEO
Opposing his colleagues' effort, Commissioner
"It's the fire chief trying to build his own little castle," Williams said, while city attorneys working on the case have "stepped out of bounds many times."
City Administrator Janice Allen Jackson, who became contract administrator when she started work last year, said she was unaware whether Gold Cross was submitting quarterly call reports.
"I probably would prefer that the fire chief do that," Jackson said, because of the emergency medical certifications held by him and his staff.
Depending on the outcome of the appeal, the city might be left with few options, but it must examine all of them, she said.
"It is worth looking into because it is quite expensive for us," Jackson said. But "what would the consequences be if we were to stop payments?"
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