Cost Estimate for Ambulance Station Jumps to $870,000

The cost estimate of establishing an ambulance station in Moorpark has jumped to $870,000--$370,000 more than when the idea was introduced by two City Council members three weeks ago.

If approved by the council and the city’s voters, financing an ambulance station within city limits would cost homeowners an additional $80 a year in property taxes, up from the original estimate of $44 a year.

The escalating cost estimate intensifies the debate over the proposal to open an ambulance station in the city as a way to speed up emergency medical response. The proposal is to place a measure on the November ballot that would give the city the power to collect taxes for such a service.

Last month, City Council members Eloise A. Brown and Clint Harper proposed a city-run ambulance station after complaining that emergency medical crews dispatched from a station located outside city boundaries are too slow in reaching injured and sick patients in Moorpark.

The council members said they would like to trim average response times for ambulances to less than five minutes by establishing a station closer to the center of the city. At the time, they estimated the cost at $500,000.

Last Saturday, the council on a 3-1 vote gave preliminary approval to putting the issue on the November ballot. It also authorized an ambulance service budget of up to $870,000 to start the new facility.

“It’s almost doubled in a matter of three weeks,” said Councilman Paul W. Lawrason Jr., who cast the lone opposing vote. He noted that, if approved, the proposal would be the highest assessment for a special service in the city. “We should have looked in real detail as to the costs.”

Mayor Bernardo Perez joined Harper and Brown in voting for the ballot measure. Councilman Scott Montgomery was absent.

Harper said the higher cost estimate is based on an assumption that the city will establish a completely independent system with no help from the county’s Emergency Medical Services Agency, which manages ambulance services throughout the county.

Officials would essentially have to start from scratch, hiring paramedics and dispatchers and buying ambulances and medical equipment, Harper said.

If the county agency or the private ambulance operator agrees to provide a station in Moorpark, the cost of the new station may be much lower, he said.

Harper said he believes there is considerable public support for the measure.

“I don’t think $80 a year is a lot of money when we’re talking about a basic service that saves lives,” Harper said. “We’re quite convinced that we can come out with figures that will be considerably different than these numbers.”

But county officials say the city would pay more for establishing its own station than if it allowed the county to provide the service through the county’s contractor, Pruner Ambulance Co. of Thousand Oaks.

Barbara Brodfuehrer, administrator of the county Emergency Medical Services Agency, said that allowing Pruner to open a station in Moorpark would cost between $250,000 and $300,000.

Brodfuehrer said Moorpark’s estimated cost of providing essentially the same ambulance service “sounds a little high.”

The council is expected to hold a public hearing Aug. 1 to review the measure and vote on whether the idea should be placed on the November ballot.