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YOUNGSTOWN -- If city council authorizes the board of control to hire a company for a study on the feasibility of a Youngstown-run ambulance service, its report also would include a review of city fire station locations and where to put a possible safety-services campus.
Those provisions discussed at Thursday's council safety committee to approve the study -- a proposal that has failed to advance since its February introduction.
There is no guarantee that the proposal for an ambulance study will pass at council's next meeting, scheduled for July 31, but Thursday's safety committee meeting was the most progress made on the subject in more than four months.
A proposal in February to spend up to $50,000 to hire Public Consulting Group of Boston for the study was rejected June 7 by city council after its members were critical of the plan and of fire Chief Barry Finley who found the consulting group after doing a Google search.
A second proposal with virtually the same language except it permitted the board of control to hire a company without specifically naming Public Consulting Group was introduced April 19 and moved to the safety committee.
Despite Public Consulting being removed from the legislation, Finley made several references to retaining that company.
Councilman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward and committee chairwoman, said Thursday the legislation would be considered by the full legislative body only if it included language to include a review of fire station locations and where to put the possible safety-service campus.
That likely would add to the $50,000 cost.
CHIEF HAS DOUBTS
Finley said Thursday he would abide by what the feasibility study determines but acknowleged he doesn't believe a city-run ambulance service can work.
"Do I think it's feasible? My opinion is no," he said.
Finley said it is no longer financially feasible for the city to operate its own ambulance service and criticized the firefighters' union for not wanting "to be the ones" to work EMS despite its claims to the contrary.
"The firefighters want what they want," Finley said. "They don't care if the city has the means or not."
Finley added: "Our fires are decreasing. They know they have to do something. The problem I have now is that all of a sudden Chief Finley is here. Now all of a sudden EMS is important."
Finley has had numerous issues -- including several lawsuits, grievances and a no-confidence vote -- with the union since shortly after he was named chief in February 2018.
Finley said while the firefighters want to run EMS, if it were offered to them they would "backpedal."
The International Association of Fire Fighters, the city firefighters union, issued a study in September 2018, which was commissioned at the end of 2017 before Finley's chief appointment, stating a city-run ambulance service was feasible. The union is having another report done.
UNION RESPONSE
Reached after the council safety committee meeting, Jon Racco, fire union president, said the IAFF report is the only plan ever done on the subject "so how can they say we're not interested? We want to do this work. This union is committed to doing this work, and it's the city that continues to put roadblocks in the way and it's left the union asking, 'Why is the city doing this?'"
While the number of structure fires has declined in recent years, the number of EMS and rescue calls in the city has increased greatly, according to an annual report from the union.
Racco said the city has an "EMS crisis that needs to be addressed. The firefighters are committed to this. It needs to be done properly."
Finley said the IAFF report wasn't a "study," and was just an "idea as to who in Youngstown can implement EMS."
The union report is more than 150 pages long.
In a Thursday letter to the council safety committee, city Law Director Jeff Limbian wrote: "While the report provided by the fire department union has useful information and discusses many of the questions asked by city officials, it must not be viewed as a fair, independent, objective analysis."
AMBULANCE CONTRACT
City council voted Dec. 16 to pay $3.968 million over a three-year period to Emergency Medical Transport for ambulance service using American Rescue Fund money with a two-year renewal option. This happened 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 and EMT said the money is needed to pay for wages and to cover the money lost on runs paid by Medicaid.
Finley said Thursday that about 59 percent of city residents are on Medicaid and the federal government would reimburse the city about $110 for an ambulance bill that could be $2,000.
Council members previously had asked for a plan for a city-run ambulance service, but were told by administrative officials that it's cost prohibitive for Youngstown to operate its own system. That prompted the idea of a feasibility study.
Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward and vice chairman of the safety committee, said Finley should do the study.
Finley said Mayor Jamael Tito Brown had wanted him to do the study, but he wants an outside entity to do it to avoid the appearance of bias.
FIRE FUTURE
As for reviewing the locations of the seven fire stations in the city, Finley said a study could suggest relocating some that have undergone expensive improvements to more centralized locations.
He also said he doesn't see the city keeping all seven stations open at some point in the future.
City administration officials are looking at building a safety services building on Wick Avenue for a new police station and main firehouse on the North Side.
The board of control in February approved two $24,000 contracts with Strollo Architects of Youngstown to do predesign, site planning and budget projections to build a safety services building at what was known as the Wick Six site, a group of new car dealerships that left the North Side location in the 1980s and early 1990s as the area deteriorated.
The city purchased much of the property in 2015 and has spent at least $750,000, most of it from grants, to clean up the area for development.
Some council members oppose the location, which is near the Liberty Township border, saying it isn't centrally located.
Davis wants to put the building at the idled Chill-Can plant on the East Side that has been the subject of lengthy litigation. The city is seeking to reclaim that property.
OTHER BUSINESS
Also at Thursday's meeting, the committee heard from Michael Durkin, the city's code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent, who discussed the possibility of council approving legislation in the future to restrict dogs from being left outside between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., limiting dog tethering locations and restricting the number of cats permitted in households.
"You can have five to seven cats, and it be reasonable," he said. "We want to have a reasonable limit."
Hughes pointed out that very few communities have limit restrictions on cats. Durkin said he wants to "gingerly walk through that" before making an official proposal.
Meanwhile, Davis, a retired police officer, criticized the police department for not enforcing effectively those driving far above the speed limit.
Hughes, a retired police chief, added that he didn't know why the department doesn't have speed control as part of an officer's responsibilities.
At one point, police Chief Carl Davis told Anita Davis that he was trying to explain what the department is doing, but the councilwoman "cut me off" while talking.
The chief said the councilwoman complained last year about the homicide rate, and it's been significantly reduced this year, and now she's talking about speeding.
Anita Davis said the chief needs to focus on speeding and council would work to get him the needed equipment and training for enforcement.
dskolnick@vindy.com