Recently in Emergency.Services Category

Source: Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News, March 21, 2012

City Hall aides repeatedly bungled supervision of a massive upgrade of the 911 system, even as the project fell years behind schedule and its cost ballooned by as much as $1 billion, an audit has found.

When Mayor Bloomberg launched the 911 project in 2004, he promised a seamless system that would replace antiquated police, fire and EMS call-taking and dispatch functions with 21st century technology. It had a price tag of $1.3 billion and was supposed to be done in three years.

City Hall now concedes the cost has zoomed to at least $2 billion, and Controller John Liu will claim Wednesday that the price tag is closer to $2.3 billion....Liu refused early last year to register a contract for Hewlett-Packard's successor on the project, Northrop Grumman, unless the new contract contained safeguards against runaway costs.

Source: Plunderbund, March 22, 2012

We wrote yesterday about the Request For Proposal put out by Sycamore Township, near Cincinnati Ohio, for private companies to take over their fire and EMS services....Numbers presented by Mr. Weidman show that Sycamore Township is losing 25% of their total budget - or over half of their police and fire budget - because of Kasich's budget and tax cuts....Today was the deadline for responses to the RFP and about an hour ago the four submitted responses were made available. It turns out there were no submissions from public fire departments. Only private companies have made offers. The companies included CGH Global, Public Safety Services Inc., Community EMS and BGI Staffing.

Source: Steve Zabroski, nwitimes.com, Wednesday, March 14, 2012

City officials launched plans Wednesday to fast-track privatization of the city's ambulance services. Hopefuls received just a week to submit offers to take over duties for emergency medical care. The official request for proposals the Board of Public Works approved holds a March 21 deadline. Privatization would transfer services from the East Chicago's Fire Department to another provider. Mayor Anthony Copeland first suggested in January that privatizing emergency medical transportation could cut $1.4 million from a potential budget shortfall of $3.7 million this year...The city would pay nothing. The provider would be responsible for collecting all fees, which "shall not exceed the usual and customary rates for ambulance services in Lake County," the request state....The companies that already have expressed interest in taking over the EMS -- Prompt Ambulance Service and Superior Air-Ground Ambulance Service of Indiana, both with offices in Highland -- would not be bound by those collection restrictions.

Source: Columb Higgins, Shore News Today, 07 March 2012

Committeeman Tony Inserra said he will continue to pursue privatizing Upper Township's EMS services despite reports that AtlantiCare's EMS manager falsified response times to at least one municipality that it served. .... Northfield is just one of several municipalities in Atlantic County that have contracted with AtlantiCare for EMS. Egg Harbor City, Linwood and Mullica Township also have contracts with AtlantiCare.

Source: Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene, Governing, March 2011

In tight times, governments push for more centralization. But it doesn't always produce the positive results that are hoped for.

Source: Paul Abowd, Mother Jones, February 15, 2012

A new "emergency" law backed by right-wing think tanks is turning Michigan cities over to powerful managers who can sell off city hall, break union contracts, privatize services--and even fire elected officials....

Gov. Rick Snyder put Louis Schimmel in charge of Pontiac last September, invoking Public Act 4, a recent law that lets the governor name appointees to take over financially troubled cities and enact drastic austerity measures....With an indefinite term and a city salary of $150,000, Schimmel doesn't answer to anyone but the governor, at whose pleasure he serves. ...Schimmel is also a former adjunct scholar and director of municipal finance at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank that shares his enthusiasm for privatizing public services. The center has received funding from the foundations of conservative billionaire Charles Koch, the Walton family, and Dick DeVos, the former CEO of Amway who ran as a Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2006....The Mackinac Center is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a clearinghouse for pro-business state legislation.

Source: Chris Moran, Houston Chronicle, February 7, 2012

The city should consider privatizing its ambulance service, reducing survivors' pension benefits, turning over libraries and other operations to the county, taking one firefighter off each truck, requiring employees to pay more for health insurance, imposing a blight tax on neglected foreclosed homes and scrapping cost-of-living allowances to pensioners, according to a list of suggestions sent to Mayor Annise Parker by an advisory group Tuesday.

Source: Paul Petrone, Waterford Patch, February 6, 2012

On Jan. 25, Patch ran an article on a proposed agreement between Waterford and East Lyme to regionalize emergency dispatch services. East Lyme would end its dispatch services, and Waterford would hire four more dispatchers and cover both towns, according to Waterford First Selectman Dan Steward...

...East Lyme has three dispatchers. Under the proposed agreement, those dispatchers would be laid off, and then Waterford would hire four new dispatchers. The dispatchers who would be laid off from East Lyme can apply for the new positions, but would not be guaranteed a position, Steward said. While they have experience, if they can't pass Waterford's employment test, they won't be hired, Steward said....

Source: Taryn Asher, WJBK, January 30, 2012

...City leaders are now looking to make huge cuts and privatizing ambulance services is one possibility. The clock is ticking as Governor Rick Snyder's threat of an emergency manager looms....Council members, who voted to take an additional 20 percent pay cut, are considering selling city cemeteries, closing recreation centers, ending vehicle leases, eliminating subsidies to city museums, cutting six figure salaries by 15 percent, raising casino taxes and privatizing DDOT and possibly EMS....

Source: Pete Donohue, New York Daily News, January 25, 2012

...The Fire Department has used the communication system since 2009, but the NYPD decided to remain offline after tests revealed hiccups like signal interference and dead spots. To fix the glitches, the MTA's NYC Transit division spent $36 million to replace old antennae cable and make other adjustments...The MTA awarded a contract to build the system to a joint venture of E.A. Technologies and Petrocelli Electric in 2000. It was installed in 2006, about two years behind schedule. The original contract was for $140 million but grew to $160 million.
See also:
Transit cops getting subwalkie-talkies
Source: Sally Goldenberg and Josh Margolin, New York Post, January 26, 2012