Gold Cross loses suit against West Valley

A judge has ruled in favor of West Valley City in a lawsuit over whether the city was in the right when it decided to scrap its ambulance contract with Gold Cross and hire its own fire department instead.

West Valley was sued in November by Gold Cross, which accused the city of illegally selecting a bid that was not the "lowest responsive and responsible bidder."

The city put out a request for bids for emergency 911 ambulance service after a new law in 2004 allowed cities to do so. It received two bids: one from Gold Cross, which had been providing the service for West Valley for decades, and another from the fire department.

In June, City Manager Wayne Pyle told the Deseret Morning News that the city began to be dissatisfied with Gold Cross a few years ago. After years of negotiation failed to "really come to fruition," the city acted on its new option of putting out bids.

"Basically, the issues boiled down to quality of care and cost and access," Pyle said at the time.

The fire department's bid projected that it could generate a profit for the city because all revenues generated by ambulance service fees — usually collected from health insurance companies — would go into the city's budget. Gold Cross' bid said it could operate at no cost to the city, but as a private company, Gold Cross would keep all the revenue it generated, as it has been doing.

But Gold Cross, in its suit, said the fire department's bid was not the "lowest responsive and responsible bidder," which is required by state law.

Gold Cross' bid said it could offer service at no cost to the city and without future subsidy from the city. The fire department's bid included a table showing projected profits but "did not provide any other information regarding costs or assurances that the city would not be required to subsidize the service," according to the lawsuit.

The city plans to continue using Gold Cross for its non-emergency hospital-to-hospital ambulance service.

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