City Mgm't (via LBFD Chief) Seeks Council Approval To Impose New "First Responder Fee": $250 Per Call (In Add'n To Current Ambulance Fees If Transported), Schedules Enacting Vote At July 21 Council Meeting
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(July 14, 2015. 4:05 a.m.) -- Long Beach city management (via LBFD chief Mike DuRee) has agendized an item for the July 21 City Council meeting to seek approval to impose a new "first responder fee": $250 charged each patient who is medically evaluated and treated by LBFD staff on a fire responder unit, in addition to current ambulance fees charged if the patient is transported.
"[T]here is a significant cost associated with providing fire engine responses to medical incidents, which comprise approximately 85% of all responses," writes Chief DuRee in an agendizing memo. "A fire engine is staffed with four personnel -- three Emergency Medical Technicians and one Paramedic. The fire engine is typically the first apparatus to respond to an incident and there is currently no mechanism by which the Department can recover the costs of services provided by fire engine personnel. Similarly, when ambulances respond to a medical emergency and the patient is not transported, there are no fees charged to offset these costs."
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Chief DuRee's memo doesn't indicate for what purpose(s) management proposes to use the $1.8 million dollars in estimated fee revenue to be collected from the public (minus $200,000 for billing and collections, leaving $1.6 million for City Hall to spend on currently unspecified items.) Management's request for July 21 Council approval of the new fee comes just days before Mayor Garcia is scheduled to publicly release his recommendations for a FY16 budget proposed by city management.
Since July 2014, LBFD (in a test authorized by an L.A. County agency) has been sending only one paramedic on an ambulance, with the second paramedic arriving on a fire truck. Chief DuRee created the system, which he dubbed Rapid Medic Deployment (RMD), in response to Council budget actions (recommended by then-Mayor Foster, and continuing under Mayor Garcia) that apply what management called "proportionate share budget reductions." The reductions left Chief DuRee with the task of finding departmental cost savings somewhere or potentially reducing fire engine staffing from four to three firefighters, a measure he's said publicly that he opposes.
In response, Chief DuRee devised the RMD paramedic staffing model, which the LB Firefighters Association has consistently opposed, arguing that it sends fire engines speeding across town to carry a firefighter-paramedic to medical calls, creates unintended consequences and removes firefighting resources from availability to fight fires. For his part, Chief DuRee has cited statistics indicating that fire engines carrying the firefighter-paramedic on average arrive on-scene first and faster than under the previous traditional paramedic system.
As a result of previous budget reductions, the Council has already removed three fire engines (the only apparatus capable of spraying water to douse a fire) from three eastside fire stations: Stn. 18 (Palo Verde/Wardlow); Stn. 8 (Belmont Shore, 5365 E. 2nd St.) and Stn. 17 (2241 Argonne Ave.) In January 2014, a residence burned across the street from Station 17 until a fire engine arrived from further away to put out the flames.
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On April 17, 2015, LBREPORT.com was first (again) to report LBFD Chief DuRee's stated intention to propose a "first responder fee" in testimony to the Council's Public Safety Committee. Public Safety Committee chair Councilwoman Suzie Price and vice-chair Councilman Al Austin (member Mungo absent) had invited testimony from LBPD and LBFD management on measures their Departments recommend to deal with budget reductions that city management said (March 3, 2015 study session) would be required if a City Council majority were to continue "proportionate share" budget cuts (which have had significant impacts on LBPD and LBFD service levels for taxpayers.)
Neither chair Price nor Vice Chair Austin questioned continuation of "proportionate share" budget reductions; the Committee item was agendized to discuss "alternate funding sources" for public safety and city efforts to "come up with innovative ways to address public safety needs."
At that meeting, Chief DuRee stated that he planned to propose to the full Council in the coming weeks consideration of a "first responder fee"...and neither Price nor Austin expressed any disapproval of this.
