The political in-fighting over a permanent ambulance service for Augusta/Richmond County continued with an emergency meeting being scuttled due to lack of a quorum.
Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson called the meeting, via Zoom, on Feb. 10, but the bloc of commissioners that oppose giving Gold Cross EMS anything other than a month-to-month contract failed to show up.
According Augusta Clerk of Commission Lena Bonner, Commissioners Sean Frantom, Al Mason, Wayne Guilfoyle, Brandon Garrett and Catherine McKnight were the only elected officials who joined the mayor for the meeting, which was called to discuss a plan to keep Gold Cross EMS as the service provider and allow the city of Augusta to apply for and gain control of the zone.
The deadline for Augusta to secure the zone was Feb. 10 and according to communications received through the city Administrator’s Office, the deadline has now passed.
Mayor Johnson’s office issued a statement regarding the loss of the zone, due to the deadline not being met:
“The zone application deadline was Friday, February 10 at 4PM. Regrettably, Augusta-Richmond County did not submit an application. Applying for the zone would have given the City of Augusta an opportunity to contract with a provider of its choosing and to hold that provider accountable. The City of Augusta’s emergency response zone provider is now at the discretion of the Georgia Department of Public Health,” the statement read.
Commissioners Bobby Williams, Jordan Johnson, Tony Lewis, Stacy Pulliam and Francine Scott never logged into the Feb. 10 Zoom meeting, thereby preventing a quorum, which now means the state will have to intervene to provide emergency services to Augusta.
District 3 Commissioner Catherine McKnight is fuming over what she calls a political stunt and accuses the absent commissioners with putting their own political gain over the lives of their constituents.
“This has been going on over and over and while they accuse others of making this issue political, they are the ones who won’t even come to the table and discuss it. This needs to be a top priority. This is what we were elected to do,” McKnight said.
At an earlier meeting on Feb. 9, the commission rejected the company that was suggested by the Procurement Department to be awarded the bid, AmeriPro. Several commissioners complained about the secretive process used by the Procurement Department.
Commissioners were only given information about the suggested bid winner and were denied access to review the other bids submitted and were told that the names of the members of the committee that decided the winning bid were to be kept secret as well.
AmeriPro, the Procurement Department’s bid winner, proposed to provide ambulance service at a price that was far above the $1.9 million requested by Gold Cross EMS. AmeriPro also only owns 38 ambulances in the state of Georgia as opposed to Gold Cross’ fleet of 60 virtually brand new vehicles.
While the names of the selection committee were withheld from the commission by Procurement Department Director Geri Sams, several commissioners noticed the “elephant in the room” during the Feb. 9 meeting.
Former commissioner Ben Hasan was spotted in the gallery furiously texting on his cell phone as commissioners voted on the bid package and also when Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Garrett attempted to confirm a vote on permanently keeping Gold Cross EMS as the emergency services provider.
Hasan along with disgraced former commissioner Sammy Sias and current District 5 Commissioner Bobby Williams have been the loudest voices against retaining Gold Cross EMS and have favored bringing ambulance service “in-house” under the Fire Department.
An open records request uncovered the fact that while Hasan is no longer in office, he has retained his government email account.
“What is he doing? Is he controlling things behind the scenes? (Hasan) is out of office, why is he showing up for this one meeting when he hasn’t shown up for any other meetings this year?” McKnight said.
Mayor Johnson says that he is severely disappointed that members of the commission would act in such a way that takes away the “home rule” element when it comes to a vital service for the community.
“We had an opportunity, and it was wasted. I am disappointed that future commissions and mayors will likely have no say in this. Our fate is now going to be decided by the state department of public health,” Johnson said.
