Measure addresses S.L. ambulance dispute

A rewrite of a bill that addresses Gold Cross Ambulance's dispute over how Salt Lake City selected its new ambulance service gained committee approval Monday.

Sen. Dan Eastman's first substitute version of SB183 defines the term "governing body" to mean a city or county council and would require that the governing body review the bids and proposals submitted by contractors for major services.

"It does make a difference . . . that it's out in the open and there's some discussion about why a particular (request for proposal) was chosen over the other," said Eastman, a Republican from Bountiful.

Eastman's first draft would have changed the way cities vet contract providers. The substitute is "what you end up with when you have two groups that can't agree on anything substantive," he said. "Why should the state Legislature dictate to the cities or to towns or to Gold Cross, for that matter, how they operate their selection process?"

The Senate Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Committee's vote moved the bill to the Senate's consent calendar Monday, meaning that the Senate can vote "yes" or "no" on the bill without debate.

The change is one that Gold Cross thought was already in the law that passed last year's session and required that a "governing body" of a city or county approve the call for proposals for ambulance services before the city or county started reviewing those proposals.

But when Gold Cross lost the Salt Lake ambulance contract to Arizona-based Southwest Ambulance, which is scheduled to begin a four-year contract in early April, Gold Cross complained that the City Council should have been involved in the process and given the final approval.

Instead, a committee of nine men, most with current or past experience in fire or paramedic services, ranked the proposals from Gold Cross and Southwest Ambulance on experience, training procedures, response times, equipment and cost to patients. Gold Cross scored 61 percent, and Southwest scored 66 percent. The rates are set by state law, so the costs were the same for both providers.

"It was clear what we meant" by governing body, said Mike Moffitt, senior vice president for Gold Cross. "It must have been ambiguous to somebody else. Any time a city or municipality endeavors to look at their emergency services . . . it's something that the community needs to know about and possibly have some input into. This was something that should have the approval of the full council before it goes forward."