Florida County Considering Privatizing BLS, Transports

April 04--Marion County Fire Rescue is considering possibly privatizing some of its services to focus on more critical advanced life support tasks.

Fire Chief Stuart McElhaney sent a letter to Marion County Commissioners on March 27 explaining a potential budget strategy that would privatize nonemergency, basic life support ambulance transport and stand-by services. Private companies would handle inter-facility transports as well as stand-by services for events such as football games and rodeos. They may also handle vehicle maintenance.

"These stand-by services are particularly stressful to both our budget and staffing plan; even more so during our current staffing shortage," McElhaney wrote.

MCFR is short about 60 staff members. It was fully staffed during the recession, when many surrounding counties had cut employees who found jobs here. As those counties have rebounded, they have been able to lure employees with higher salaries than they get in Marion County.

McElhaney said that privatizing these services would mean "a potential loss of revenue. ... It would also have the net effect of freeing up one complete ALS ambulance crew on a 24/7 basis to respond to higher priority calls, thereby improving response times system-wide to those calls."

Ryan O'Reilly, a firefighter medic for Marion County Fire Rescue and secretary and public relations director for the county's Professional Firefighters Union, said, "Our association has obvious concerns," about the privatization pitch. "Inter-facility transports are a major source of revenue (for the department). We get thousands and thousands of calls a year. The taxpayers will have to fund more for a department that is already in deficit spending."

"What we're hoping is that the County Commission is going to genuinely study the financial impact before making a decision," O'Reilly continued. "The fire rescue is already in a crisis, and any knee-jerk decision can have detrimental consequences to an already struggling budget."

Commission Chairman Stan McClain reiterated the commission's support for improving the situation for fire rescue in a letter Wednesday that was posted on the Marion County website.

McClain said the commission would support the agency's 5-year strategic plan, which is still being developed to address issues regarding staffing and salaries. The letter also said the board has hired a consultant to conduct a fire assessment study and, based on those results, the board would have a better sense for how to fund fire rescue as it works on the 2015-2016 budget.

McClain also wrote, "We have also directed county administration to hold the line on the millage rate and are exploring options to re-prioritize existing spending and direct it to the ambulance service for the upcoming fiscal year."

McElhaney's letter addresses some of those concerns, since privatization could open up potential resources for ambulance services.

The commission will be examining these issues during workshops this summer and public hearings in September before reaching a final decision, according to McClain's letter.

Contact Kristine Crane at 867-4117 or kristine.crane@starbanner.com.

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