YOUNGSTOWN — Less than two months after rejecting a contract with a Boston company to do a feasibility study on the cost effectiveness of a city-run ambulance service with fire department personnel, city council will consider a more expensive deal Monday with the same company.

Legislation sponsored by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown asks council to authorize the board of control, of which he heads, to enter into a $65,000 contract with Public Consulting Group LLC of Boston to do that same feasibility study as well as review city fire station locations and where to put a possible safety-services campus.

City council on June 5 rejected paying $50,000 to Public Consulting for an ambulance feasibility study. Some members were critical of the plan and of fire Chief Barry Finley finding the group after doing a Google search.

At its June 22 meeting, council’s safety committee voted to authorize the board of control to seek proposals from companies for the $50,000 ambulance study. Members said they also wanted the fire station locations and safety-services campus included.

Asked about Public Consulting being specifically named in the legislation rather than searching for companies, Law Director Jeff Limbian said: “Despite their suggestion that a Google search wasn’t good enough, it was realized we couldn’t just go out for bid and get this information. It’s very limited in who has the expertise.”

Limbian said, “It was definitely approved by council without further objection.”

But Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward and safety committee chairwoman, said: “We didn’t ask for that particular company. I don’t know how it got in there. That wasn’t us. We didn’t ask for that company to be included” in the legislation.

The proposal recommended June 22 by the safety committee didn’t include a specific company, but Finley made several references to retaining Public Consulting at the meeting.

Councilwoman Basia Adamczak, D-7th Ward and a safety committee member, said: “I’ll need to find out from the law department why it was done that way. Is it such a niche that only one company can do it?”

She added: “I’m happy they added the fire stations to the study.”

Finley said at the June 22 meeting that it is not financially feasible for the city to operate its own ambulance service, but he would abide by the study’s results.

BACKGROUND

City council voted Dec. 16 to pay $3.968 million over three years to Emergency Medical Transport for ambulance service using ARP money with a two-year renewal option. It was the first time the city provided a subsidy for ambulance service.

That deal occurred 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 its contract when it expired Dec. 31.

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 June 22 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.