Meeting Preview: Public Safety to Discuss Ambulance, Fire Contracts

Wednesday night's meeting of the Public Safety Committee will include a discussion of changes to ambulance agreements as well as to the fire department agreement with the city.

While the contract for ambulance services has had a measure for such services, the fire department has not.

Alderman Kert Harenda is hoping the addition of these measures will help to monitor and improve services more proactively.

"Without a level of measurement in the contract, we can't measure the quality of services we're receiving," Harenda said.

The standard of measure would be response times, and as there has not been any previous standards, the change would initially establish a baseline for comparison.

Harenda pointed out the purpose of the measurement was to allow the city to be more proactive.

"We want to be able to help (the department)," Harenda said.  "If we see that there may be areas of the city that times are longer, we can identify them as problem areas and proactively come up with a solution before it becomes a problem."

In addition, changes need to be recommended soon, as contract revisions must be received no later than 60 days prior to a contract year, which is December 31.  Harenda pointed out that once a recommendation is made, they would be reviewed by the departments, which won't meet until September, and action taken now will allow time for negotiation.

The Public Safety Committee meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Alderman's room of City Hall.