Gold Cross EMS has given the city a draft contract to continue providing ambulance service in Augusta, but some commissioners want to make sure city officials have a major say in the final draft.
The current contract, or memorandum of understanding (MOU), between the city and Gold Cross expires in 2022, and Gold Cross stands ready to renegotiate. So, the city’s public safety committee voted Tuesday to ask the full board next week to appoint a committee of city officials to work on creating a MOU to their liking.
Commissioner Brandon Garrett moved to task City Administrator Odie Donald and General Counsel Wayne Brown to work with Gold Cross on a MOU, but Commissioner Bobby Williams made a substitute motion to appoint a committee to “look at what’s good for Augusta.”
Williams said having a committee was important because commissioners’ opinions about ambulance service are divided.
Williams proposed a committee of Donald, Brown, commissioners Ben Hasan, Sammie Sias, Brandon Garrett and John Clarke.
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Brown intervened to say the committee needed to be approved by the full commission.
“A committee cannot appoint a committee to represent the commission,” Brown said.
Commissioner Sean Frantom said meetings of the proposed committee would be subject to the state’s open meetings law and therefore open to the public.
“I believe we need to let the administrator and attorney handle it,” Frantom said.
Commissioner Ben Hasan said he’d asked for a committee because Gold Cross has sent them a MOU, and the commission should have the same thing.
“I’m asking for a committee so we can set some benchmarks,” he said.
The committee voted unanimously to send the proposal to the full commission.
Afterward, Clarke praised Williams and his substitute motion.
“It will bring both sides together, and that way no one can say they did not have their opinion heard,” Clark said.
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Garrett, meanwhile, said he sticks by his original motion to task the administrator and attorney to work with Gold Cross and then make a recommendation.
“I still think that’s what needs to happen,” he said. “I really don’t think a committee should be negotiating contracts.”
During the meeting, Garrett had asked whether the contract for ambulance service was a procurement or a single-source procurement. Procurement Director Geri Sams said she didn’t think it should be a sole-source procurement because other ambulance service companies could bid on it.
Garrett, however, contended that Gold Cross owns the ambulance service zone issued by the state, so no other ambulance companies can operate in Richmond County.
Sams, however, said Gold Cross has not stated they wouldn’t let other companies operate in the zone.
The Augusta Fire Department was operating two to three ambulances last year, but firefighters were so unhappy about being assigned to them and working back-to-back shifts because of manpower shortages, commissioners voted to end the service.
Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
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