City staff details Moses Lake without ambulance service

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake staff detailed to the city council what the fire department would look like if the city's ambulance service were disbanded.

No action was taken this week. A decision is expected at a future city council meeting.

The council was considering canceling the ambulance service to compensate for a budget shortfall of about $1.8 million.

About a month ago, the council tasked City Manager Joseph Gavinski, Finance Director Robert Taylor, Human Resources Director Richard Bisnett, Fire Chief Tom Taylor and other members of the fire department with studying the ambulance service.

Gavinski started the presentation by giving a brief history of the fire department itself, noting that in 2001 the city received its license to start providing Advanced Life Support (ALS) transport and ambulance services.

To study what the fire department would look like without the ambulance, Gavinski went back to 2000, before the city ran an integrated fire and ambulance service.

He said that in 2000 the city operated with 14 uniformed personnel and 19 volunteers, whereas the city currently has 32 uniformed personnel and one volunteer.

From Gavinski's standpoint, if the city were to go back to what it had in 2000, operating only the fire department, it would have to increase its shift size from four to five, re-institute the volunteer program and rely upon mutual aid.

"The key is the volunteer program. That would be essential in order to have any successful program without the paramedic/firefighters being employed by the City of Moses Lake," said Gavinski.

He said if the city were to go that route, there would be about $250,000 in savings, but the city would still have to hire three additional firefighter/EMTs, in order to have five people on per shift.

After reviewing similar jurisdictions in eastern Washington, Sunnyside and Pullman, Gavinski noted those cities are in similar situations. Not having an ambulance service actually makes their city money, he said.

Councilmember Jon Lane asked Gavinski if the city's fire insurance rating would go down if the ambulance service were disbanded.

"I would say that once you are re-rated without those additional employees you probably would lose a rating, or maybe two, no doubt about it," Gavinski said."What that means, I don't know."

Lane also asked city staff what the possibility of an EMS levy would be. Gavinski said that EMS levies are common and used regularly to support EMS services in a number of cities.

The levvy would amount to 50 cents per $1,000 of a property's assessed value. The levy can either run for six years, which requires an election, or 10 years, which Gavinski says are fairly rare.

The city would have to adopt a resolution, obtain the sample ballot language and present it to the Grant County auditor 46 days before the election. The levy would require a certification/validation of 40 percent of people who voted in the last general election and then would have to pass with a 60 percent majority in the election.

Gavinski said the levy could stand to raise about $900,000, which is about half of the city's expected budget shortfall. That means the city could lower its ambulance service utility fee to about $8.70, from $11.10, if there were no contributions from the general fund.

Another foreseeable problem is the timing of when the money is collected. That means if an election were held sometime in 2015, the city would not begin collecting from the levy until 2016. Gavinski did state he could be wrong in his understanding of the EMS levy.

Lane also suggested the elimination of the city's day car, which according to firefighter Travis Pulliam, is an EMT only service that runs Monday through Friday.

Gavinski said the elimination of the day car could save the city a little over $100,000. He said the elimination could save some of the contribution from the general fund to the ambulance fund.

Councilmember Jason Avila went a step further.

"What if we look at re-visiting the utility tax to an even $15 and eliminated the day car?" asked Avila. "I think that would be the way to go."

Gavinski said Avila's proposition could work by giving the city enough money to cover the $500,000 contribution from the general fund, which would really become $400,000 if the day car were eliminated.