DeKalb County is weighing bids that will award roughly $8.5 million worth of business to a private ambulance company. But one of the companies seeking that business says the county’s requirement that the winner pay $620,000 a year to reimburse taxpayer money spent on dispatching and another $1.4 million for new heart monitors on county firetrucks is unreasonable.
“We have serious concerns whether it’s even legal what DeKalb County is doing,” said Rural/Metro Corp’s. division manager Tony Anteau, the company that now provides the service in DeKalb and is competing for the new contract. Anteau calculates the winning company would lose $3.4 million a year to meet those requirements. County administrators have largely remained quiet, bound by confidentiality rules during the review of bids from four companies, but dispute the claims.
Chief Operating Officer Zachary Williams said DeKalb is asking only that industry standards be met, so that those unfortunate enough to need the service can rely on it.
“The best policy is for us to go through our open competition,” Williams said. “The market will determine what we can and can’t do.”
The market already handles how Cobb and Fulton counties provide ambulance service. Rural/Metro handles medical transport in north and south Fulton, while Cobb relies on two private ambulance firms for service.
Cobb pays $581,000 for the two companies to split, to cover indigent care, but also requires both to own and maintain their own trucks, medical gear and supplies, said Special Operations Chief Spencer Miller. In return, the companies make their profits by charging $850 for each trip, plus a fee for mileage.
DeKalb has said since 2010 that it wants to move to that fully private model from its current hybird. The county’s fire department runs its own ambulances, supplementing them Rural/Metro.
DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis awarded the company an “emergency” yearlong contract three years ago when the idea of privatizing first emerged. The county has since extended it on a month-to-month basis and charges patients $750 per trip.
But the deal has not been without controversy. Ellis’ former campaign manager, attorney Kevin Ross, represented the company when the CEO gave it the current no-bid deal. Ellis had previously said the choice was a coincidence. But Rural/Metro was one of six firms identified by name in search warrants served in January at the homes and offices of both men.
DeKalb District Attorney Robert James’ sought the warrants as part of a yearlong probe looking into allegations of corruption in county contracts. That investigation remains under seal.
“It sure sounds like they’re kicking up dust because they have the business now and never had to bid,” said Commissioner Elaine Boyer, who led the push for privatizing the service. “All we want is some accountability.”
Anteau said Rural/Metro can provide more public accountability by providing the service as it sees best. For instance, the company also takes exception with the contract’s requirement that, 90 percent of the time, a private provider respond on scene of a call within nine minutes.
The county now meets that standard, according to the National Fire Protection Association. But Anteau said the public would be safer if the company can prioritize more serious calls instead of rushing to all of them.
That argument strains credibility, said David Ewoh, the director of Kennesaw State’s public administration program.
Rather, the county is reasonable to ask for fees upfront, to make sure the winning company has a financial stake in the public service. Demanding performance measures be met serves the same purpose, just as Sandy Springs can fine the private contractor that runs its 911 service if it does not meet national standards for response times.
“If they can’t abide by the requirements, free enterprise tells us a company needs to get out of the competition,” Ewoh said. “They are trying to make a case where none exists. The council is going to see that.”
The state Department of Public Health, which regulates ambulance service, runs 10 regional EMS councils that oversee local coverage. The metro Atlanta council set up a subcommittee that met earlier this week just to review Rural/Metro’s claims.
The committee is slated to make a recommendation to the full council on May 9. DeKalb’s purchasing department may have a recommendation for its contract at about the same time.
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