By David Garrick
The North County Times
ESCONDIDO, Calif. — A recent reduction in the city’s ambulance coverage is being harshly criticized by the city’s firefighters union, but fire Chief Mike Lowry said he is “cautiously optimistic” that problems caused by the cuts will be infrequent.
The change helped the city shave $445,000 from a roughly $7 million deficit projected for the fiscal year that began July 1. Most of the savings was achieved by laying off 10 emergency medical technicians, which required the city to take one of its five ambulances out of service.
Ambulances from outside the city were summoned 10 times in the three weeks since the change was made on July 1, a number that firefighters union President Mike Diaz called unacceptably high.
“This is clearly not going to work,” said Diaz. “Ambulances from as far away as Vista have had to come to our city.”
But Lowry said four of the 10 calls for outside ambulances occurred on July 2, when the city was faced with an unusually high 33 requests for ambulance transport. If July 2 is removed from the equation, the city was forced to request an outside ambulance only six times in nearly three weeks, he said.
“At this time, it doesn’t seem that it’s going to be excessive,” said Lowry. “It’s only going to be a problem when the calls come in bursts.”
Rick Vogt, a battalion chief for the San Marcos Fire Department, agreed with Lowry that the number of calls had not been excessive since the change.
“There’s been no dramatic increase from our perspective,” Vogt said.
However, Vogt and Lowry also conceded that it’s too early to tell how the cuts will play out long-term.
“We’re monitoring it on a daily basis,” Lowry said, explaining that any problems will be brought to the attention of the City Council. “I want to make sure we deal with it before it becomes a big problem.”
Lowry said the city should be prepared to restore the city’s coverage to five ambulances during the day, which is 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and four ambulances at night, if things don’t work out. On July 1, coverage was reduced to four daytime ambulances and three ambulances at night.
The ambulance cuts could have been even deeper. Lowry initially proposed dropping to three ambulances around the clock, which would have saved $615,000. But he decided in early June to go with the less-drastic approach, which saved the city $445,000.
Another benefit to that approach was the ability to maintain some firefighter presence at the fire station on Del Dios Road. Lowry’s initial proposal would have left that station empty, but the less-drastic approach preserved that station’s ambulance company.
However, that station remains the only one of the city’s seven stations to lack an engine company because city officials say they cannot afford to hire the nine firefighters necessary for that.
But Diaz, the union president, said the City Council lacks the political will to provide adequate ambulance coverage and to add that engine company.
“The funds are there to provide proper service levels,” said Diaz, referring to $19 million in city reserves that had been earmarked as a subsidy for a luxury downtown hotel proposed by a La Jolla developer. “Does the council have the political will to put the money where it belongs, or are they going to give it to a special interest group down in San Diego?”
Council members have frequently called the engine company for the Del Dios station a high priority, but they have also explained that the city’s budget crisis makes it impossible to hire nine new firefighters.
The hotel project no longer has support from a majority of the council. But council members have said they would prefer to save the $19 million until they see a stabilization of city revenues, which have fallen from $88 million to about $77 million in two years.
Copyright 2009 North County Times