YOUNGSTOWN – City council has put the brakes on an administration proposal to spend up to $50,000 on a study to determine the feasibility of a Youngstown-run ambulance service.

Council’s safety committee discussed the proposal at a Thursday meeting, but decided to hold on to it for further discussion at its May 25 meeting. That’s because fire Chief Barry Finley and Law Director Jeff Limbian did not attend Thursday’s meeting to answer questions.

The two, along with other department heads, were out of city hall Thursday at a staff retreat, Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward and chairwoman of the safety committee, said.

“It would be good for the fire chief to be here to ask questions,” Davis said.

The legislation to allow the board of control to hire a firm for the study and pay up to $50,000 was moved April 19 by city council to its safety committee for discussion.

Council chose at its Feb. 15 meeting to make the same decision for legislation that was identical except it would have permitted the board of control to hire Public Consulting Group of Boston for the study. Thursday was the first time the safety committee has met since that Feb. 15 council meeting.

Some council members were concerned that Public Consulting Group was recommended after Finley did a Google search and that the $50,000 expense was too high.

The safety committee agreed Thursday to recommend at the next council meeting on May 17 to defeat the Public Consulting Group legislation.

With the safety committee next meeting May 25 the other proposal won’t be considered by council until June 7 at the earliest.

Limbian said earlier this month that the administration created new legislation without naming a specific company “to placate council’s remaining concerns and to get the best possible proposal.”

Some council members have mentioned a 2018 study by the International Association of Fire Fighters, the union of the city’s firefighters, that determined it was feasible to have the fire department handle ambulance services in Youngstown.

Jon Racco, president of the Youngstown firefighters union, said at Thursday’s committee meeting that the international union could do another study as the costs in the 2018 study are outdated. A potential new study and the 2018 report were paid out of firefighters’ union dues and at no cost to the city, Racco said.

“Some things need to be updated because of rising costs due to the pandemic,” he said.

A new report would examine the cost of a city-run ambulance service, Racco said.

Councilwoman Basia Adamczak, D-7th Ward, said she would want a study that looks not only at the feasibility of firefighters handling emergency medical services but creating a separate city-run entity to handle that.

City council voted Dec. 16 to pay $3.968 million over three years to Emergency Medical Transport for ambulance service using American Rescue Plan money with a two-year renewal option after contract negotiations with American Medical Response, the city’s former longtime ambulance provider, broke down.

AMR wanted $1.8 million to $2.6 million annually to continue to provide services to Youngstown or it would have ended it contract when it expired Dec. 31.

That was the first time the city provided a subsidy for ambulance services.

AMR said it needed the money to pay for wage increases and because it lost money on runs paid by Medicaid.

Council members have asked for a plan for a city-run ambulance service, but have been told by administrative officials that it’s cost prohibitive for Youngstown to operate its own system. That prompted the idea of a feasibility study.

POLICE ISSUES

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the committee heard a request from the police department to purchase 10 vehicles with eight of them to be used by patrol officers, one for Chief Carl Davis and one for the neighborhood response unit.

No decision was made by the committee.

Police Lt. Brian Welsh said Thursday that surveillance cameras have been up for three to four weeks in some high-crime areas.

There are three locations on South Avenue: at the intersections of Boston and Lucius avenues and Dickson Street, and the other at the intersection of Belmont and Francisca avenues, Welsh said.

Police plan about eight more sites in the city, Welsh said.

The city received a grant to pay for the cameras, he said.

dskolnick@vindy.com