WESTMINSTER : City Gets 4 Bids for Ambulance Service

The city is moving closer to having its own ambulance service.

Four ambulance companies have submitted bids this week to provide the manpower and backup vehicles for the proposed ambulance service that will be run by the Fire Department.

Among the competing firms are Superior and Medix, which currently provide ambulance transportation for the city, according to Fire Chief John T. DeMonaco Jr.

DeMonaco said a five-man team consisting of representatives from the fire and police departments and Central Net, a regional fire services dispatching center, will review the bids and make a recommendation by Friday.

“This will pay for itself,” DeMonaco said. “It simply means taking a private service and putting it under a public agency.”

City officials said that a city-run ambulance transport program, patterned after the one in Huntington Beach, will benefit residents as well as provide income of up to $200,000 a year for the city.

In addition, it will provide more trained personnel to respond to emergency medical situations and boost the city’s preparedness program, they said.

Last month, the City Council approved spending $243,000 to buy two new ambulances, repair and put new equipment on the three ambulances the city currently owns, and purchase paramedic equipment.

The money will also be used to buy communications and safety equipment, and provide uniforms and training for ambulance personnel, DeMonaco said.

Seal’s Ambulance Service in Costa Mesa has submitted its bid to provide backup ambulances while Employment Services Inc. in San Diego proposed to provide the personnel.

Under the ambulance service plan, DeMonaco said, city-owned ambulances and personnel from the selected company will work out of the city’s fire stations. The company that wins the contract will provide the city with 12 ambulance operators, he said.

“They will provide us with a pool and we will select the employees,” he said. It will not pose problems to have private ambulance operators working under Fire Department officials because “they will know the rules up front,” he said.

Ambulances and operators will be assigned to Station 1 at 7351 Westminster Blvd. and Station 2 at 15061 Moran St., DeMonaco said. Three ambulances will be in reserve for emergencies and major disasters, including one at Station 3 at 6061 Hefley St., he said.

Residents will use ambulances regardless of who provides it, he said.

“The choice is whether to go to a private company or to the city you live in,” DeMonaco said. “Your city can use that money.”