Ambulance Proposal Stirs Contention

A proposal to improve paramedic response time by creating a city-run ambulance service is causing a rift among city officials.

The city’s staff is recommending that the city end its contract with Santa Ana-based MedTrans Ambulance Inc. and run its own service by using existing paramedic vehicles and cross-training all firefighters to be paramedics.

A staff report says that such a system would reduce average paramedic response time to five minutes or less, down from eight minutes now, and would earn the city more than $200,000 a year in new revenue.

Fire and Marine Chief Timothy D. Riley and City Manager Kevin J. Murphy say a city-run ambulance service would better serve residents. But in an e-mail debate in the past two weeks with Murphy, Mayor John W. Hedges has argued that there is no need for paramedics on firetrucks and that firefighters are trying to “justify their ever-higher wages and benefits in the face of declining demand.”

That brought a heated response from the Newport Beach Firefighters Assn., which said it has logged an average of 5,000 calls annually for the past 20 years and that demand has not eased.

“We are not pushing for [the proposal], but we support it because it enhances the level of services,” said Rich Thomas, president of the Firefighters Assn.

The issue is on the agenda for a vote at Monday’s City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd.

Information: (714) 644-3005.