On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors are set to deliberate on the fate of 35 new ambulances that have become a financial quandary for taxpayers. These ambulances, currently housed at a private hangar in Santa Maria Airport, are costing $15,000 a month while they await their fate.
This situation arises from the county’s transition in ambulance service providers and a subsequent legal battle that has kept these emergency vehicles sidelined.
For over four decades, American Medical Response (AMR) has been the primary ambulance service in Santa Barbara County. However, critique over AMR’s performance led county officials to seek alternative solutions, propelling the Santa Barbara County Fire Department to propose an initiative aimed at enhancing ambulance coverage and reducing response times across the county.
In 2022, with AMR’s contract nearing its end, a competitive proposal process was initiated. The County Fire Department received approval for a lease-purchase of the 35 ambulances for $3.5 million, emphasizing their readiness to undertake the ambulance contract with promises of improved services.
Despite an independent review favoring AMR over the County Fire Department by a significant margin, the Board of Supervisors initially chose to award the contract to the latter in September. This move sparked controversy and a subsequent lawsuit from AMR, alleging bypass of proper competitive processes. The California Attorney General Rob Bonta also stepped in, signaling potential conflict with the Emergency Medical Services Act.
After reconsideration, in February, the contract was reverted to AMR, setting new standards for response times and integrating County Fire as a potential subcontractor in specific areas. Under this new agreement, AMR must achieve quicker response times in various settings or face contract breach consequences.
However, the dilemma of what to do with the already procured ambulances loomed large. The County Fire’s recommendation against utilizing the subcontract options with AMR for Ambulance Transport in designated compliance zones punctuates a financial analysis revealing a bleak outlook. Projecting a $41 million loss and no path to a break-even point, the financial sustainability of taking over ambulance services under the current conditions appeared dire.
The upcoming supervisors’ meeting will thus not only address whether County Fire will serve Montecito, Summerland, Carpinteria, and Lompoc but also how to manage the surplus ambulances. The recommendation is clear: to initiate the disposal of these unused assets through returns to vendors, resale, or repurposing strategies that align with state and county surplus management policies.
This decision aims to recoup some of the initial investments and mitigate taxpayer burden, while still upholding the county’s commitment to emergency medical services.
The Board of Supervisors will review County Fire’s recommendations on Tuesday, April 1, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
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“In 2022, with AMR’s contract nearing its end, a competitive proposal process was initiated. The County Fire Department received approval for a lease-purchase of the 35 ambulances for $3.5 million…”
Approval from the Board of Supervisors, I believe.
“The upcoming supervisors’ meeting will thus not only address whether County Fire will serve Montecito, Summerland, Carpinteria, and Lompoc…”
County Fire has already said they’re not interested in serving these cities as doing so would be unprofitable.
“American Medical Response’s new contract allows the fire department to take over services in Lompoc as well as Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria. County Fire’s financial consultant recommends passing on the subcontract, because those areas will not generate enough money to pay for operating costs.”
“The way to make an area profitable, or in our case for it to be sustainable, is you have to have a unit hour utilization that’s high enough to keep the unit busy and do enough trips to pay for the crew, the overhead, the billing,” he [Hartwig] said. “Those areas don’t happen to be busy enough; the areas we were offered were areas that are generally not profitable.”
https://www.noozhawk.com/county-fire-wants-to-pass-on-the-ambulance-services-subcontract-sell-vehicles/
“AMR has promised to settle its litigation against the county as a condition of the contract approval. To date, Santa Barbara County has spent $830,000 on outside counsel to litigate the matter, said Kelsey Buttitta, a spokesperson for the county.”
And County Fire is still complaining about the outcome!
Also: “…votes from Supervisors Bob Nelson and Roy Lee against the contract [with AMR].” hmmm
https://www.independent.com/2025/02/12/amr-granted-exclusive-santa-barbara-ambulance-contract/
This was a total disaster and yes, the Board of Supervisors & County Fire leadership are responsible. Too bad there’s no one else to vote for; no one runs for the offices.
How can we hold fire chief hartwig and the board of supervisors responsible for this disaster? It looks like it cost us millions and reeks of collusion. I never once saw the fire depts give any data to suggest AMR was under performing, and every independent review said they could not outdo them.
Firefighters have the highest pension liability in the county, and we have no way to hold their leadership responsible for their poor decision making
FFs’ pensions and this debacle have nothing to do with each other. The SBC fire chief also has nothing to do with SB County’s retirement system.
I’m not talking about our firefighters, this is 100% about the fire chief who gets off scott free. We’re going to be paying hartwig gobs of money for the rest of his life with zero accountability. Seriously, there is no recourse and as a taxpayer it is incredibly unjust.
Local – I believe anyone can file a complaint with our Civil Grand Jury requesting an investigation into this government issue. How/why were all these ambulances allowed to be leased/purchased (before) it was known whether or not county fire would be awarded the contract? Who, in their right mind, spends three million dollars on equipment they may never use (if they did not receive the contract)? The manner in which this issue was handled can truly lead one to believe something improper occurred that led to the county owning a large fleet of brand new ambulances they can’t use. A government incident worthy, at this time, of a (civil) grand jury investigation. I’ll guess AMR might have a chance to buy some new equipment at “fire sale” prices. No pun intended:) AMR wins twice.
Please stay on the topic. Your vendetta against pensions has no grounds for discussion here.
No blanket vendetta against pensions, and certainly no blanket vendetta against our firefighters
The point is firefighters have the most robust pension in the county, and the fire chief is the highest paid of them all, which means his pension – despite any poor leadership decisions – will likely be higher than any other county employee. Perfectly on topic since the taxpayers will be paying him $$$ for the rest of his life.
Zero, with a capital Z accountability. That’s the problem folks.
Yeah, that’s the problem with our country’s administration. Glad you’ve finally figured it out.
“Accountability” from the guy/gal (who even knows anymore) who refuses to honor his/her bets, acknowledge being proven wrong and/or lying almost daily, voted for a convicted felon and has no problem with hundreds of convicted cop beaters (and many rapists, pedos and drug dealers) being released from prison.
Accountability, indeed.
Haha! So yeah, you think it’s no big deal to waste millions of local taxpayers dollars on a botched ambulance contract and have zero accountability for those who failed us. On record. Thank you. I’m good with that.