CC Minutes - 12/07/09 Joint Elected Officials

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report. He also wished to thank the staff for all of the agencies for the work that had gone into the organization of the present meeting. He asked the fire chiefs to speak to the first item on the agenda. Eugene Fire Chief Groves stated that the issue had been discussed widely among the elected officials. He wanted to review the report and recommendations that had come out of the work of the Ambulance Transport System Joint Elected Officials Task Force. He noted that the fifth recommendation in the Agenda Item Summary had included outdated language and asked that they refer to the language in the report, on page 2. He asked the members of the task force to speak to the recommendations. He said the task force had included Eugene Councilors Andrea Ortiz and Mike Clark, Springfield Councilors Dave Ralston and Hillary Wylie, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District President Larry von Moos, and County Commissioner Rob Handy. Councilor Ortiz thanked the chiefs and staff for the time they had put into the report. She said the issue concerned her because the ambulance service had been able to pay for itself at one time and could not now because of declining revenue. She understood that Medicare reimbursements were declining. Chief Groves confirmed this. He said the reimbursements had been declining and would decline by another 10 percent in urban areas and 20 percent in rural areas in January. He underscored that Medicare was already compensating ambulances at a rate that was between $200 and $400 per call, which was not even at the break-even point. He indicated that the departments were looking for short, medium, and long-term solutions to the problem. Councilor Ralston considered this to be a difficult issue, given that there were certain services the public believed they were entitled to and had paid for already and this was one of them. He averred that ambulance service was a core city service. He felt that the first three recommendations should “certainly” be looked at. These were recommendations that all three jurisdictions be prepared to provide some support for the service from general fund money, that the Cities of Eugene and Springfield authorize initial steps toward a merger of the two fire departments, and that more sustainable funding options be explored. Regarding the third recommendation, he observed that the funding options included a fire service district or a levy. He noted that Springfield already struggled with two levies, one for fire and one for police. He underscored his support for a merger of the two fire departments. Councilor Wylie stated that the task force had held a number of bi-monthly meetings and had considered all aspects of the issue in as much detail as possible. She said they had reviewed the complex material and tried to come up with ideas to solve the shortfall. She stressed that the task force had worked the recommenda- tions carefully with the information available to them in mind. She reiterated that if Medicare and Medicaid paid just what it cost for ambulance transportation, the jurisdictions would not be experiencing a shortfall. It seemed to her that the jurisdictions needed to be as frugal as possible and this would mean that the fire departments should merge and that they should work on the development of a proposal for a fire district “down the road.” Mr. King said Lane Rural was a special district dedicated to providing fire and rescue services. He noted that they did not distinguish between fire rescue and ambulance service, which was why the district did not hesitate to commit general funds to the service. He stated that because of being a special district, the general fund revenue could only increase by three-percent in a year, but expenses were rising at a rate that was closer to 15-percent which made it challenging to continue to rely on general fund support to maintain their service. He related that they had looked into consolidation with other fire districts locally and this could be of potential help, but it would take a similar amount of time to do this as it would to form a new district. He MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 2 & Eugene