Issue date: April 01, 1998
By JULIE RAWE
The Menlo Park Fire Protection District, which pushed hard to persuade the county to allow firefighters to provide ambulance service, has threatened to withdraw its participation in the plan it supported unless it receives more money.
The district's board of directors on March 27 sent a letter to the Joint Powers Authority (JPA), which is coordinating the roles of the county's 17 fire districts under the newly approved ambulance contract, stating that Menlo Park will not support the provision that calls for the district to staff two ambulances for only $52,000.
The district has been complaining for months that under the current allocation of funds, Menlo Park would be unfairly subsidizing fire districts in Half Moon Bay and Pacifica, which would receive $400,000 and $290,000, respectively, for running similar ambulance operations.
The letter was sent out days before a JPA subcommittee is scheduled to meet to resolve the disputed funding allocation, and weeks before the contract is scheduled to come before the Board of Supervisors for a final vote.
Menlo Park fire district board member Del Krause, who stepped into the contract negotiations after former Fire Chief Rick Tye resigned last fall, said the district needs to dispel the myth that it will supply the manpower to staff an ambulance for free. He added that he wants the district to receive at least $300,000, or three-fourths of the cost to staff an ambulance.
Woodside Fire District is also vying for more funding, having been allocated $64,000 to staff an ambulance.
"If it's not going to be fair and equitable, we're not going to go forward with this," said Mr. Krause.
According to John Martin, city manager for Daly City and member of the JPA negotiation team, Mr. Tye suggested $52,000 as a ballpark estimate for how much Menlo Park should be compensated.
Bill Esselstein, attorney for the fire district, said there may be "legal consequences" if the district backs out now because Mr. Krause signed a contract Dec. 18 agreeing to staff the ambulances for $52,000.
But the district board told the JPA in its recent letter that at the Dec. 18 meeting, "we were told that the unfair allocation of funds would be resolved and that we were only voting for a concept at that time."
The board also directed Mr. Esselstein to send a second letter stating the contract was deemed invalid because it had not been approved by the board.
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