Detroit would need about $20 million to bring its EMS services fully in-house, and even if the funding could be identified, the turnaround for more city-owned and operated rigs could take years, officials for the city’s administration say.
The timetable and price tag were the focal point of discussions Tuesday at the City Council table as members debated a controversial set of contracts for supplemental ambulance services.
A vote on the three-year contracts for a collective $5 million was delayed for the second week in a row amid discord over the proposed contract term and how feasible it is for the city to handle the services on its own.
After the council postponed a vote last week, the city adopted an emergency contract.
Several council members and the fire union are advocating for shorter, one-year agreements with the hopes of a quick ramp-up on staffing and equipment. The department has 498 members who are currently trained to work on an ambulance.
Jeff Pegg, vice president of the Detroit Fire Fighter Association, told council members to press the city administration for one-year contract extensions with supplemental EMS providers.
Pegg has said that DFD can provide better service to the citizens and should use its own members to build up the department. On Tuesday, he advocated for a one-year extension of the contracts and rejected claims from the administration that service would suffer without the agreements.
“Please do not be alarmed that you will not have coverage,” said Pegg, who represents about 1,200 men and women in Local 344. “You will 100% have coverage in the city, and there will be our members that respond to all emergencies in the city, including medical runs.”
Detroit Fire Department Second Deputy Commissioner Derek Hillman said that the supplemental contracts have aided the city with about 25% of the call volume and helped bring Detroit’s EMS response time down from over eight minutes for the most urgent runs to about seven minutes and 20 seconds. The national average is about nine minutes, he noted.
The department has 26 ambulances on the road 24 hours a day. The contracts with Hart EMS, AmeriPro EMS and Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service, Inc., bring 4 more full-time rigs into the mix. The remainder of the supplemental ambulances are deployed on peak shifts. The city responds to 450 medical calls each day and, of those, over 300 patients are transported via EMS, Hillman said during a Monday meeting of the council’s Public Health and Safety subcommittee.
The committee, chaired by Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero, voted to move the contracts for a Tuesday vote, with a recommendation to approve. She reiterated to the full council that “we want to figure out a plan” and bring all ambulance services in-house and asked Detroit Procurement Director Sandra Stahl whether one-year contracts are possible rather than the longer-term agreements.
“If we were to desire one-year contracts, we should go back out to bid to make sure we are fair to our vendors,” Stahl told the council. “I might suggest, in the alternative, that this is part of budget discussions going forward.”
Stahl also told council members that it’s in the best interest of the city to maintain the current agreements, with the knowledge that they do have termination clauses.
Detroit Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms echoed Stahl, saying, “At any given time, we can terminate.”
The commissioner said that the department also wants to bring the service in-house, but favors a phased approach.
Detroit City Councilman Scott Benson asked the council’s fiscal expert if the funding could be identified to build up the department “without significant pain” in other areas. Executive Policy Manager Irvin Corley said it’s possible to tap into the city’s corporate income tax reserve, but those figures won’t be finalized until November and the one-time funding couldn’t be allocated without support and a budget amendment from Mayor Mary Sheffield.
Even if funding did come together, Stahl said, there’s a 21-month timeline for procuring new EMS vehicles.
Detroit Budget Director Donnie Johnson encouraged a plan with a phase-in approach.
“I can’t speak to the policies behind this, but I can speak to the finances.” he said, “All at once is not feasible.”
Council Member Renata Miller expressed frustration Tuesday with DFD and the administration, asking why there hasn’t been more urgent action to phase out the supplemental ambulance services or order more EMS units.
“It seems like, to me, a slap in the face. These proposed contracts do not resemble what we’re looking for. These are really weak. It shows that outsourcing is best,” she said. “We cannot allow them (the administration) to make these negative anecdotes to make us bow down.”
Elisa Malile, chief of staff to the fire department, said that facilities are also a factor in the planning. If the fleet does increase, DFD would need more space for maintenance and storage, and the department would have to evaluate building onto neighborhood fire stations.
Detroit Council Member Mary Waters pressed Hillman during Monday’s committee meeting about how long it’ll take the department to develop a plan for bringing EMS services fully in-house.
Hillman said that the plan could be developed in a timeframe of 30 to 60 days, but it would wait until the ongoing contract negotiations with the firefighter union conclude – a process that could span six months, to a year or even be held up longer if it goes into arbitration, he said.
To take operations completely in-house, Hillman said, the city would have to buy another 20 ambulances at a cost of $5-6 million, and that “would only start if (we) hit the button.”
Waters and other colleagues, including Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway, have raised concerns about constituents being charged for service by the city and private ambulance companies, and said that she directed the council’s Legislative Policy Division to draft an ordinance aimed at protecting residents from being overcharged by EMS service providers.
“We need to put those kinds of measures in place,” Waters added Tuesday.
Santiago-Romero said the predicament is an example of why she’s pressing for more revenues and a new taxing structure to enhance city services, including public safety.
“Since I’ve been here, we have not been investing in fire as much as we should,” the second-term council member said during Monday’s committee meeting.
