Last week the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors narrowly approved a new contract for American Medical Response West (AMR) to remain the exclusive ambulance service provider, a designation they have held for over forty years.
The decision came after a closely split vote of 3-2, favoring AMR amidst legal constraints that limited alternative options. Under the fresh agreement, AMR commits to delivering shorter response times and greater oversight operations, aiming to elevate the quality of patient care within the county.
The vote comes amidst a lawsuit against the county by AMR alleging the county acted unlawfully in awarding exclusivity to Santa Barbara County Fire for ambulance services in 2023. Approval of this contract results in AMR dropping the lawsuit.
Despite the board’s approval, the decision was met with criticism from local firefighting units, specifically over response times. Firefighters presented their grievances at the meeting, highlighting unresolved issues with the exclusive contract arrangement which they felt needed addressing.
“You’re giving the AMR permission to be late to every single emergency. That’s two more minutes of a child seizing, two more minutes of a stroke killing brain cells, and that’s assuming they actually make it in the ten minutes,” a firefighter said during the board meeting’s public comment.
The new contract adds a $1,500 fine per late call by AMR and offers the Santa Barbara County Fire Department a sub-contractor position for service to Lompoc, Montecito, Carpinteria, and Summerland. The department stated they will consider the offer.
In 2023, AMR filed a lawsuit against the county claiming they acted unlawfully by awarding a $1 billion exclusive ambulance rights contract to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. AMR stated the county favored County Fire despite AMR outperforming its competitor in the bidding process.
Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Donna Geck sided with AMR in her ruling as did State Attorney General Rob Bonta. With a jury trial looming, AMR agreed to halt its legal action against the county as part of the terms for contract approval.
“This is the best we can do and a very disappointing outcome, but one which there is still room for improvement as we move forward,” said Supervisor Laura Capps.
The updated contract is now in place and will be in effect through the next four years.
Related Articles
https://www.edhat.com/news/supervisors-to-consider-new-ambulance-service-provider-agreement-during-tuesdays-meeting/
https://www.edhat.com/news/amr-plans-to-file-lawsuit-over-county-fire-winning-ambulance-contract/
https://www.edhat.com/news/ambulance-service-contract-debate-heats-up-in-santa-barbara-county/
https://www.edhat.com/news/supervisors-end-ambulance-contract-with-amr/
https://www.edhat.com/news/santa-barbara-county-supervisors-approve-county-fire-for-ambulance-permits/
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What is County Fire going to do with all those ambulances they, meaning we the taxpayers, purchased?
The current Sup’s except for Roy Lee absolutely fouled this thing up. Totally shady. Back room illegal foul up. And now they’re looking to give themselves a 48% raise. They vote on their own raise tomorrow. I sent emails to all of ‘em. Who has ever heard of anyone voting themselves a 48% raise in pay? Raise your hand.
In every corporation the top executives vote raises for themselves all the time. This may be in cash but is more likely in the form of stock options which have more incentive to mess over employees fatten the tax sheltered wealth of the executives and large stock holders.
48%? Doubt it. And corporations are completely different – we’re talking government servants of the people here. Elected officials. If you support this, I’m guessing you’re why DOGE became DOGE in the first place. Nice work!
Corporations were created as simple devices by which projects could be funded and business conducted. They were and are subject to licensing by the government. The business had to be in the public interest. Originally they had only authority to conduct the project they began and were commonly terminated by government for non-compliance, fraud and other misconduct. They were clearly servants of the people. But you are right, not now. They have morphed by corrupt means into evil and greedy machines that do not have benefits for the public but for the wealthy people who control them. Even the pretense of corporate democracy by which stockholders could vote their interests as contrasted to the interests of the boards and executives have been abandoned. Now they are proposing to extend their rapaciousness further and take over more public functions solely so they can profit from them. They do not care about the mission of these agencies. They are eliminating all examination and control of their malfeasance. And, yes, corporate leaders have engaged in conduct to give themselves much bigger “raises” than 48% when the manipulate their stock, pump and dump, evade regulation for profit and so on. Unfortunately, this is their main business model nowadays.
I’m so confused. Everything I’ve read said AMR has never been out of compliance with response times in the past 40 years.
Has anyone seen data to support the fire dept claims? Seems like they were ill-prepared for this whole debacle and just throwing tantrums
Good question. I don’t believe AMR was out of compliance, I think the County Fire said they could respond faster than AMR. Which may or may not be true. Either way AMR scored higher in the total assessment than the county did.
I had the misfortune to having to use AMR in the bay area while traveling. Terrible company and disturbing experience during the entire process. I hope we can serve the community in the future and get rid of AMR for a better alternative.
“Hire us or we’ll sue you.”
In the real world, this is called “Extortion”,
but in the shady back room deals of S.B.,
it’s just business as usual.
Elected officials tried to renig on a contract. Such professionals. Such proactive thinkers.
Obviously not one has ever run a business or studied law.
But they spend like self entitled children now asking for a 50% pay raise that you will gladly pay.
Renig?
sblets, it’s “renege”
Just another illiterate con.
You can pin this on the complete screw up by County Fire. Chief Hartwig and Chief Huff wanted the ambulance contract and tried to game the system to win. They lost the bid, appealed and lost the appeal. Then they enlisted the other fire departments to join and pressure the County Board to change the rules. Of course a lawsuit would happen and now we know AMR won. This gives AMR a lot of control with a winning lawsuit (settlement) in their pocket. Hartwig and Huff should be fired and some real leadership put in place. How much tax payer dollars have they wasted chasing this?