As a result, the paramedic staffing change -- sought by city management as a budget matter and devised by Fire Chief Mike DuRee who says it's an improvement on the merits, and is opposed by the LB Firefighters Ass'n which says it will worsen patient care -- is now scheduled for implementation on July 10.

A substitute motion by Councilman Gary DeLong (seconded by Councilman Suja Lowenthal) to receive and file (take no action on) the Austin-Schipske-Neal item failed 4-4 (Yes: Lowenthal, DeLong, Andrews Johnson; No: O'Donnell, Schipske, Austin, Neal; Absent: Garcia). A vote was then taken to approve the Austin-Neal-Schipske item, which failed passage 4-4 (Yes: O'Donnell, Schipske, Austin, Neal; No: Lowenthal, DeLong, Andrews, Johnson; Absent: Garcia.)

Had Vice Mayor Garcia (Mayor-elect as of June 3) attended the regularly scheduled Council meeting, he would have had to cast a publicly recorded vote for or against the item. At start of the Council meeting, Mayor Foster announced that Garcia would be absent but gave no public explanation...and no Councilmembers inquired about this.

A large contingent of Long Beach Firefighters was present in the Council Chamber for the proceedings.

No member of the public spoke in favor of the change. Two members of the public -- a husband and wife, who said LB paramedics had saved the husband's life during a heart attack, and a mother who said paramedics had repeatedly saved the life of her child requiring special needs -- urged the Council not to support the change.

City management presented a report (requested as part of the Austin-Schipske-Neal agenda item) on the current status of the FY14 budget. Management's report (delivered by City Manager West and Dir. of Financial Management John Gross) acknowledged that the Fire Department was expected to complete FY14 (ends Sept. 30, 2014) within its budget, even though the budget presumed cost-savings expected from implementing the new paramedic system which hadn't been implemented as planned yet. City management's report attributed the positive FY14 LBFD budget finish to one-time money that wasn't expected to re-occur in FY15.

City management indicated that if the Council were to delay implementing the paramedic change through FY15, it would require $1.4 million that, it said, would have to come from the Fire Department's budget and amounts to roughly the cost of operating a fire engine staffed for a year. [Three LB fire stations currently lack staffed fire engines due to previous Council-majority approved budget reductions.]

Fire Chief Mike DuRee displayed a map (webcast screen save right) comparing jurisdictions statewide that use a paramedic staffing system delivering one paramedic plus a lesser trained emergency medical technician (in blue) versus Los Angeles County, Orange County and some northern CA areas (in red) that require two paramedics on every arriving medical vehicle. [Ed. note: The Long Beach paramedic change additionally includes a paramedic-trained firefighter aboard every arriving fire engine at medical emergencies, promising two paramedics present at the scene.]

Chief DuRee said that as a result of Long Beach implementing its paramedic test -- that he called a pilot project that would last for two years [LBREPORT.com's understanding was the test would last one year, we're checking with the County agency to clarify this] -- Los Angeles City Hall is considering a similar paramedic staffing change.

Chief DuRee developed the management-favored paramedic system ("Rapid Medic Deployment" or RMD) in response to budget cuts approved by the current Council majority. The management-favored system would save money by no longer providing two paramedics arriving on a single responding unit, instead promising two paramedics arriving on separate vehicles with (for the first time) one firefighter trained in paramedic services guaranteed on every fire engine. The RMD system would increase the number of paramedic ambulances with advanced life support capabilities from 8 to 11 but reduce ambulances from 13 to 11 and reduce ambulance staffing from two paramedics to one paramedic + one ambulance operator Emergency Medical Technician.

LBFD Fire Chief Mike DuRee says the new system will be an improvement on its merits. The Long Beach Firefighters Ass'n says it will degrade patient care and create operational difficulties.

Although the paramedic staffing change for taxpayers was proposed by management and Mayor Foster nearly two years ago, the City Council never took an up-or-down vote specifically on whether or not to implement the paramedic change. Instead, after holding Council study sessions and budget discussions with LBFD, management included the change in its proposed budgets...which Council majorities enacted as budget matters.

In July-August 2012, city management and Mayor Bob Foster included the proposed paramedic change in their proposed FY13 budget. In his budget recommendations at the time, Mayor Foster wrote: "The Fire Department has proposed a new way to deliver core services more efficiently at lower costs -- and achieve faster medical response times. I wish I could tell you it is a radically new idea; it is not. This service model is in place in Ventura, San Diego, San Bernardino and Santa Barbara counties -- and has been for years. And since 84% of all the calls for service in Long Beach are for medical response, this one change is emblematic of delivering improved service levels at a lower cost."

The Council approved the proposed budget -- with the paramedic change savings included -- in Sept. 2012 on 6-2 vote (Austin and Neal dissenting, Andrews absent). However after an agendized March 12, 2013 update on the paramedic plan, the City Council voted 7-0 (motion by Austin and Neal, with Lowenthal and Andrews absent) to direct city management to bring the issue back to the Council before implementing the parademic change.

Management summarized its position in a May 22, 2014 memo to the Council (previously published by LBREPORT.com and included below.)

[May 22, 2014 West memo text]