Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

If y'all will stand for the invocation and pledge the flag, please head please. Dear heavenly father, Lord, we just ask you to be with us tonight with this meeting. Lord, we just know there's a lot of questions and answers need to be answered. And Lord, we just ask that you'll guide us to make the proper decision which best each and every citizen here within the boundaries of Columbia County. And Lord, we just ask that you look over our first responders. We had a great 250th anniversary opening today. Uh I commend each and every person that was involved in that. And uh what a great job. What a great place to live here in the United States of America in 2026. But Lord, we just ask again, please look after our first responders and our fellow servicemen that are scattered all about this earth to do what we do here tonight to protect our right to be able to carry on business as we are here. Amen. Amen. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty. Apologize to each and every one of you area here, but school board is having a meeting tonight and unable to uh get that taken care of. and uh due to uh some scheduling conflicts uh attorneys and others couldn't be present at a different time and but we felt necessary that this was important to have it here in the evening to try to not inflicted anybody's work schedule. So, how we're going to do this, uh, everybody's got the agenda, but I'll read out on the agenda, line item by line, and then, uh, as we go through these, uh, after the board takes action, before the board takes action, I'll be reaching out to, uh, because we

do not have the cards here, but each one will have a uh, opportunity to speak on their opinion on this on these situations. With that being said, if it gets redundant, uh, you know, just please bear with me. I, you know, we, uh, I think I can, we can read through and understand we person's feelings. So, with that being said, the first item on the agenda is determination that emergency exists and the items on agenda pertain to emergency per rule 4.105. What that says in a nutshell is that we've got to make the determination here in an open board meeting that the emergency situation does exist and we are in a situation to be able to take action on that. But for more clarification, Joel, would you like to touch that up a little bit?

Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, the board rules under rule 4.105 authorize the calling of emergency meetings. However, before business can proceed, board of county commissioners must by majority vote concur with the person calling the meeting, which was you, Mr. Chair, that this is in fact an emergency. And then they must confirm, it's sort of like the agenda approval step on our normal agendas, that the agenda presented does in fact pertain to that emergency. So, I also want to remind the board this is an emergency meeting. The agenda is confined. We can only deal with issues that are raised on the agenda. that the appropriate motion would be to determine uh that an emergency does exist and that the agenda is relevant to that emergency. So a motion got a second before we take a vote. Does anybody in the audience have a question relevant to that statement that I and Joel just made? I just want to make sure everybody understood. Okay. Okay. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Okay.

Okay. So agenda item number two, reinstate backup agreement for ambulance services between Columbia County, Florida and America Pro EMS of Florida LLC and uh clarification. Go ahead, Joel.

Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh the board might recall that back in October of 2025, Amerro, which was then the county's backup contractor for EMS services, their ser their ter excuse me, their backup contract was terminated. It was terminated in part because at that time the primary contractor's performance was trending in the right direction in the views of staff and and the board of county commissioners. That termination went into effect on January 26, 2025, meaning that as of that date, we no longer had a backup contractor. In light of the emerging uh emergency situation, uh we reached back out to Amerro and over the course of the last few days, we're able to uh pursuant to the exemptions provided under Florida law for procurement uh renegotiate uh to reinstate Amerro to the backup position. uh and we would like to do that before business uh proceeds this evening which is why it's where it is on the agenda. Uh the backup agreement has the same time parameters and requirements that were imposed on uh Columbia EMS and their contract. However, there is the additional provision that every ambulance provided pursuant to this agreement must be ALS. There will be no fewer than five 247 ALS units provided by Amerro. If this contract is activated, there will be one 12h hour per day, 7 day per week ALS unit. There [clears throat] will also be 247 uh paramedic supervision of all shifts. And again, those are the minimums. So what we did was we kind of hybridized the old model and the new model. The old model was you had to have a certain number of units running in the county, but we didn't really worry about your times. The newer model was as long as you met your times, we didn't care how many units you. Now we're kind of smashing them both together saying you have to make your times and you have to have minimum number of units. America is

receptive to this. They feel confident they can staff it. They feel confident they will meet the time objectives as they're called on to do so. And with that, uh, Mr. Chair, staff is recommending adoption. So All right. Okay. We got a motion and a second to reinstate backup agreement for ambulance services between Flaming County, Florida and the Marro EMS of Florida LLC. Is there anybody wish to speak in relevance to this?

Good. So if we're amending the contract, would it be possible to amend the contract also that if you're past a certain point in the south end of the [clears throat] county if they request to go to Gainesville that we need they can fulfill that because that's a big issue in the south end of the county. A lot of times they can be in Gainesville quicker they can be in Lake Cities.

Yes sir. So with matter of fact, it came up today while we were doing some of the final revisions with uh Amerro's operations officers and uh our assistant fire chief has been a great help uh on staff level. Basically the way the provision is written, there's a certain exemption that applies if units are unavailable. So they're allowed to come in and say, "Well, we missed that time, but there was a reason." Yeah.

Yeah. One of those reasons is if the there's not a medically appropriate or or a facility capable of serving that patient's needs. Through those determined if you are in fact closer to a facility in Gainesville, it is okay to take them to that facility in Gainesville. What we don't allow is patient requests. The reason we don't allow patient requests and and Lance walked through this with me. It's something that's right for abuse because it's very easy for the paramedic or the medic to say, "Well, I I need to go to Gainesville." We don't want to have units outside the county because it affects again that standard and that minimum number. They're allowed to have up to two making a a needsbased ALS transport out of the county at any given time. That'll trigger their exemption. If there's only one out, they don't get the exemption. So I we did talk about that Commissioner [clears throat] Ford. Uh and it is open. It's not a requestbased thing. It's if you are in fact closer to that facility, that is where they will take you. But again, these are all ALS levels. for all critical care responses, not just transport. So, I think we covered that, sir. I I did. I heard you loud and clear when you said it. I feel like we covered it. You for some reason we didn't. I will say we've had a lot of positive feedback from the uh uh director of operations for Marapro who we've been working with. I think Lance is already developing a good rapport. So, if we start experiencing issues or hiccups, we'll continue to pay attention to that. We think we could I say that's [clears throat] I've had several calls today and that's one of the that's one of the main questions everybody has. Yes.

So I had a quick question. How many our current provider how many am they have right now out? Depends on when you ask sir. I don't I don't know. Okay. We don't have anything in our current contract that requires you to have a minimum number.

So mayor I come in with five. They're going to have a minimum of five ALS 247 plus one ALS 12 by7. So 24 hours a day you'll have five coverage for 12 hours out of the day you'll have six on coverage. Now again these are the minimum number of units. They still have the time requirements. We've already had this conversation. If they're not making it work with those units, it's their obligation to bring an additional unit in no additional fees or anything like that.

The subsidy is the subsidy. Uh now if it gets real bad and they need to come back to the table and renegotiate that's that's going to be on them to initiate that and come to us for the contract that's before you calls for the five plus one uh and the 247ision and all the time requirements 90% with the time parameters for rural okay it's so I guess the surrounding counties they have and I'm not trying to people know the county surrounding counties they have I think a minimum of like eight at a time so we have five plus to one. That leaves us six for all of our constituents. I want to make sure that they're going to be able to do what's needed and we don't have we're not in the same boat again.

I agree. We we we've had those conversations on the staff level. We had those conversations with America. They understand our expectation. They did offer options but had guaranteed minimum numbers that were in excess of these and those numbers were very very high. They got exponentially higher. This is something that with the the time requirements that we have um we feel like it's going to work. Now we thought was going to work. We thought that would Yeah, we thought that what he's got. I want to make sure it's the right pick because it's something we can't we can't skip on this. No at all.

And you answer my question too, Joe, because that's what my concern was. I know what I read about the times that you answered the question as far as the bare minimums and and that's that's attractive but at the end of the day there could very likely be depending on the season whatever's happening it could be up to it's up to them to maintain their time so it could be 810 whatever that's their decision bare minimum there that's what we did in the past situation okay go ahead So, who makes the decision if somebody's down into the county where they get brought here or go to Gainesville? I mean, I know you said if they're closer to a hospital there, if a person is bad off, who makes that decision that that they're not be they shouldn't take the game.

It is a it is a medical decision that's going to rest with the paramedic on both. It is not a patient decision, right? Right? If a patient just says, "I'd rather go to Gainesville," that's not torn covered. It's going to be a medically driven decision. Now, all the the v the contractor is going to have its own medical director. The county has its own medical director. Our medical protocols developed by those medical professionals. We obviously don't make those medical calls, and we require the u uh ALS or excuse me, the paramedic on the ALS unit to make the call. the not just proximity but there could be services that are necessary for certain people that are injured that we know Lake City doesn't provide those paramedics will know based on this injury based on this we need to go to this particular hospital in gain those are all medical decisions that are made through those protocols developed by the director

but in the past there's been so much from this hospital straight to Gainville they do so many transfer from that hospital to Gainesville because That's the mother hospital down there. This is just a substation over here, so to speak. But that that's why I'm, you know, who's making that call. You know, people want to know that. Mr. Phillips, if I may add, one of the calls I got today, we all know her husband passed away. They were told that it was not a medical emergency, a life-threatening emergency. the patient died shortly after after getting to Lake City and nobody can say for sure but their thoughts is because they took him to Gainesville you might still be alive.

Yeah, that's what I think. So I I don't know, you know, just I know it's 30 minutes anyway you drive it from three river state and it's you can be at trauma center in Gainesville in 2025. Is is this something that a medical director I'm sure you know with contract they make that call?

The [clears throat] protocols get developed with the med in concert between the two medical directors. But then remember you've got medically trained personnel on each one of these units and the expectation is that they'll make those medical calls in the field. You won't be able to contract for every scenario and you're not going to get them all right. I think a lot of the guys in this audience are are in this field and they understand that this creates puts the onus on the medical professionals, right, to make those calls. Um, and I feel like staff feels confident that at least the framework is here. There's still a lot to do, guys. There's still a lot to do. If this contract gets activated, everybody's got to get ramped up. It's a complex operation. You're really at the 30,000 foot level just putting the pieces in place. Those pieces all have to work together. Again, based on our meetings from last, you know, from two years ago with these folks and based on our meetings as recently as this week, excuse me, last week, um, we have, we have a good level of confidence that this will work.

So, all the fine still in place like before. So, all of those components are in this contract. Yes, sir. And and I don't mind telling you, I think I've shared with each of you individually. I don't mind saying it here. the CEO of this company sat directly across the table from our contract administrator and I pointed at him. I said, "You understand this man right here is going to hold your feet higher for every one of these times and he told us without hesitation." Absolutely. I would expect nothing from less. So, we are absolutely anticipating and expecting that if this contract's activated once a ramp up that they're going to be hitting these numbers. That's what we've been assured. [clears throat] 60 days, whatever.

They do have 60 days, which makes sense. That's before we start really penalizing, right? Because they'll have hiccups and things. If you remember when Columbia MS went in, we actually gave more like because they started early, we gave them more than a quarter [clears throat] to get up. I know clothing does not make anybody, but are they are they going to have any kind of dress code for their employee? Well, my observation of the mayor pro is there their their dress is fairly standardized, but I don't I mean, we have a we have a we have an appearance and professionalism criteria in here. We absolutely do. Um, I've not gotten complaints about anything like that, but if we did, we have a way to to address that through the

I have got complaints about girls showing up with fingernails two and a half long trying to do needles and everything else. Well, and I'm using the we in terms of need. I've got [laughter] So, and I'll say this again. I mean, guys, this is this is very hightouch. A lot of the stuff y'all do doesn't touch people in the daily lives. This is one of the things you do that does touch people in their daily lives. So, when you receive complaints, I'd encourage you to please relay those through. Please works. If there's a road problem, just like anything else, relay those complaints through and we can try to address them as quickly as possible. So, they've got to get relayed up, right?

But one thing for sure on the enforcement aspect of it, because I know it didn't happen previously, but uh our our Leia is on and I'll call him I'll call it that, not put him on the spot because he's done an excellent job, but it's all in his call for penalties to be enacted. just this should not be I want that clearly understood that he doesn't need to run the county manager. It's in that contract right there

and you know because that's that's I think that's where we motivate the orders from the beginning assuming you know just going off of assumptions and opinions and uh it's clearly in there in black and white. If I could comprehend it with 12th grade education I'm sure you know most people you know stronger than me can but that that's why I interpret it. So, uh, it's a big burden on our, uh, uh, agent, if you want to call it, but but I think he's proven the fact that, you know, he can do the job. There's no doubt about that. So, I just want to make sure that that is in here that that individual makes that call and then if there's a debate later on, that's, you know, that's for later on. But, but before I go any further, young lady, we got four chairs over here. Y'all y'all look tired sitting up there and I know you can't hardly hear us, you know. So, you're more than welcome to come in if you'd like. Okay,

thank you. Okay, but uh Okay, so uh so that's reinstating the backup agreement. I've got a motion in the second. Yeah. Okay. Who you, sir? Please, if you would go to the podium and state your name for the clerk. My name's Chris Miller. um died on Foxy 6 Southwest. So, is this are they going to be a backup service to what we have now? Co and on the agenda it says backup service for the county.

That was reinstating them, right, Joel? Reinstating them as of right now. So, so when the labs contractor was hired, because they were a startup company, the board adopted a backup contract and based on that 2024 procurement and the rates that were quoted to us, we were able to do that and we were paying them a monthly amount of to be on standby. Right? The way the backup contract works is if for any reason the primary contractor is removed, they then kick in as the primary. So when you think of backup like, "Oh, I'm short now, you're going to back me up. I'm short now, you're going to back me up." There's a one-time kick in on the backup. If the primary gets removed for any reason, Americro becomes the primary permanent for the duration of the of the So when it says backup contract, really that contract will kick in on a backup basis, not just one ambulance or two ambulances, a whole contract.

So Columbia EMS will still be serving the county. They are as of right this minute. Yes, sir. And then you still have to talk about that. That's coming. It's part of the sequence of operations. We need a backup contract in place to move forward because we need to know that we've got parachute on our back before we jump out of the plane. And then Chris, when we get down to the next, if you have any more question, you'll have another opportunity to ask question. Thank you, sir. Chris, right? Yes.

Okay. My name is Greg Ther. Um, I've been in just about every EMS up here for the last 15 years. Mr. Parnell, you're absolutely right. 20 years ago when I moved up here, excuse [clears throat] me. There was five ambulances. We could not keep up. 20 years ago, Lifeguard, Sentry, now on the EMS. Last year we started a new ambulance, Scat Ambulance. We were going to back up 911. I'm not talking about about America. America is a great company. Work for them, too. They had the backup plan. Then we at Stat were getting the backup calls. Not Americans. Not 20 years later. It just doesn't happen. It's all [clears throat]

And y'all, real quick, anybody else like to come up? Yes, sir. So, my comment name,

they made a comment. Depending where you live, it might be closer to go to Gainesville or it might be closer to go to Link City. There also a comment made somebody went to Lake City and died and maybe if they had gone to Gainesville they would still be alive. I think if everybody went to Gainesville they would have a better chance of living than going to Lake City. I've had multiple people including family members go to Lake City not an ambulance but with problems. Lake City said you're fine. Take a aspirin and go home. By that evening, they were so bad off they went back to Lake City. And Lake City said, "Oh my, we got to operate right now. We can't even send you to Gainesville. You will likely die on the way to Gainesville." I think Lake City's hospital is pitiful. So, putting it on the ambulance driver to say go to Lake City or go to Gainesville, that's fine. You know, proximity is one thing, but I think sending him to Lake City is sending him to die anyway. So there's my and just for the clarification then it's not a question and answer but I think the gentleman prior to him alluded that America pro was our backup and and they used not and they did back up but they they've never been a 911 backup coming from our emergency source they're not they're like they were never activated that. When this contract activated, it's fully activated. [clears throat] The oneshot deal. They don't they're not on standby for the primary contract.

Okay. Uh Okay. Anybody else? Yes, sir. Uh thank you, uh Commissioner Bley for bringing up um about Rick. What's your name?

Oh, my name's Ricky Jernigan. Yeah, thank you. uh about uh right at about eight or nine months ago, incident happened at the uh Town Country Street Hotel and now that's right across from the uh medical center there right across and what what I didn't understand and maybe somebody can help me guess knows a little bit about this EMS system. We were there and I thought the special person to me was gonna die and it took EMS approximately uh 30 maybe I don't know 40 minutes to get to that town country and sweep and if I had if I was younger like like Mr. Murphy here I would have picked her up and took her over there but I I couldn't do that. Of course we had uh two doctors uh on site uh Dr. Patel and you had um Cornetta Williams which is a very very good nurse and I think he had a EMS there as well. Um but I think he worked at the uh county u prison out there. So I I just wonder the the timing of people you know getting sick or ill what takes them so long to get to to to get to you. Uh, and I I wish somebody, you know, can explain that to me. Uh, or maybe uh they're tied up. Uh, but I'm just wondering when when they are tied up, they can't get to you, the backup or whatever whatever y'all named it. Um, how come they're not there? And then when they get there, it's like, you know, they ask you all these questions. They got to do the uh the everything that they do. I guess they have a protocol. know my complaint is I just needed them to get there in a timely manner. Uh because every second count, we thought she was

having a stroke. We thought she was dying. We thought we was this. But every second count of a medical emergency situation. So if um whoever you you guys decide to go with, back up, front up, whoever. I just want to make sure that person or that services is is is geared up for everybody, not just me, but everybody in Columbia County that

I missed if you had your hand up. I missed Bobby Gar. I reside at 2382 Lower Springs Road, Lake City. I've lived in Columbia County for 55 years. In the 55 years of of me being on this earth, 36 of those years has been in emergency services. In the 36 years, I have worked for all but one of the private ambulance services that this county has has had to provide one system or service. In 36 years of my career, 18 were spent at Lake City Fire Department and 18 at the current department. Now, I want y'all to realize I'm not here to represent anything on my current department, and I will not even speak in a name. But in the current department I'm in, I'm at the role of the battalion chief. And at the role of the battalion chief, it's my responsibility to answer the phone and make the decision if the c the ambulances that are in my county are coming next door to Columbia County. And that phone rings a lot. I can't say that it rings every day, but we get multiple calls a week on requesting mutual aid from the county that I work to respond. Now, that's only one county. I imagine all the surrounding counties around us are getting that as well. That has not started since you hired this current provider. This started with your first provider. It continued with your second provider, now your third provider. Now, you're probably fixing to look at having a fourth provider. That's not going to change. The only thing that's going to change that is putting extra units on the road. The other thing that hasn't changed since you went from having your own EMS department to going to a private service is not being able to guarantee quality of service that you're getting. And I'm talking about quality of the service that paramedic and that EMT are going to provide on the street. The 911 system needs to be turned back over to the county. You will have control as five board members to say how that is

run. You will have a director that is in charge of that. Y'all will be able to make the decision how many units are going to go on the road. Y'all are will be able to make the decision on how the policies and procedures of that department and and what the quality of the control is going to do as well. Now, I understand when we got out of this years ago, I think it was 17 years ago, when the county decided to get out of the EMS system, they felt like it was being mismanaged. And it wasn't being mismanaged. What was being mismanaged is they wouldn't listen to the people that were running it. I I have a difference of opinion on why they got out of it at the time, but they weren't given the opportunity to run it correctly. It can be run correctly. Every service around us is ran by a county system. It is not run by a private service. And that's for a reason. And I can concur with the with the gentleman that was up here that said that we needed more than five units on the road. The service that I work for, we had seven on the road. Uh two years ago, we had a chief change. And during that chief change, he made some operational changes. They were not bad operational changes. We were lacking on the fire side. So he moved some of our guys without increasing a staff over to fire engines to staff them fire engines 247. And now four of those fire engines are ALS units. And then we would drop back to five units of of bed units. That's with a population half the size of Columbia County. And I can tell you as a battalion chief running those calls, I can't keep up on certain days that we still run down to where we'll only have one fire unit available to run EMS calls. That's not constant, but it does happen. The majority of the time we're able to respond to our calls and we're able to keep units in district and we're getting our our marks of under 10 minutes to a medical emergency. Now, just today I was talking to a young man that works for a department that serves your your community two and a half hours on a GI that they sat waiting on an ambulance to get there. And that's one

of these situations would have been better for who loaded their family member up and drive them to Gainesville where they needed to go. When the crew got there two and a half hours later to pick up that patient, they didn't have a choice. They had to run it to the closest appropriate facility which was the medical center because that patient was so far gone because they weren't able to give them blood sitting on the scene for two and a half hours. That patient sat there and and and bled out and then they passed away. Furthermore, I can say that my family has been affected by the board's decision to do away with the county. That's my dad uh fell off the roof of a camper and he got taken to the VA hospital by one of your private service providers. He was a trauma. He should have went to Gainesville, never went to the VA hospital. But that paramedic, no quality control, decided to take him to the uh um VA hospital where it wasn't an appropriate facility. Again, my dad went into cardiac arrest. I [clears throat] worked my dad in the back of that unit with the crew that was going on and that unit had they did not even have the proper equipment to run that. They had to put the monitor on the ground which was be reading all kind of heart artifact while we were trying to make the decision whether he needed to be shocked or he did not need to be shot. Furthermore, my mother falls at at uh at the uh Walmart down here. She's in the back of the store. She has a sinkable episode, meaning that she passed out. Private EMS service shows up. They don't even have a stretcher in a truck or a monitor in a truck. Now, that is your current provider.

Bobby, we we appreciate it. Of course, we could all we all got the stories and and I hate it for you. Okay, that's fine. I really That's why I let you go a little bit farther because I know your experience and and I I greatly appreciate you. Okay. Well, in closing, I would like to say I understand that this is the the cost that it's going to cost to get this back into the county system. It's not going to be an easy decision on this board, but it's one that we need to work at heading in that direction in the future. Thank you, Bobby. Anybody else? Yeah, one more time. I didn't use

We don't like to look at you for once tonight. I didn't use my three minutes, but anyway, the next thing was uh there was a a patient um was was having a medical episode called the EMS. The patient needed to go to uh the patient needed to go to the VA because they could not afford to go to the uh medical center. So what the patient done, he called a Uber driver to pick him up to take him to the VA. So if if a if a veteran that cannot afford to to be taken to the uh the medical center wants to go to the VA, why why why can't he or she be able to do that? Is there some kind of rule that gets a veteran that cannot cannot afford to get that kind of treatment? Is there some kind of rule out there? Well, within the contract, I'm sure there's a guidelines in there relevant to whatever the condition was. I would assume, but you know, it's it's one of them things that we everybody's got that situation. I'm sure uh you know, we can go on. I mean, I I don't know how to answer that, Joel, really to the point. I mean, it's that's that medical professionals opinion that we're got to go. Correct. Again, they're they're contextual medical medicine based decisions, but they're not policy decision. They're based on what that particular patient's condition. And again, based on our conversations, it's not a patient decision where to go. It's it's a medical decision.

Okay. Uh anybody else? Go ahead. So, are I'm I'm just thinking and let everybody know. Are we going to have some assistance with our EMS program now? Are we going to still run EMS as it is? Or is this company coming on now? Are they coming on in 60 days? The uh you'll be signing out here pretty quick. We we we ahead already.

We'll get ahead of it. I think a lot of the questions will be answered like within minutes.

So the motion in the second on the floor right now is to reinstate the backup agreement for services between county and prom. Any further questions by the board? All in favor say I. I. All. Okay. Now moving on to discussion item number three. Possible action concerning the status of agreement for ambulance service between Columbia County, Florida and Columbia County Emergency Services, EVA, Columbia EMS. Review subsection A review of report investigation February 8th, 2026 complaint against Columbia EMS. And then subsection B will be review on time performance of Columbia EMS and uh Mr. Hill will be addressing that if necessary to do so. So with that being said this time board is there any questions on what I just stated here as far as the discussion of possible uh the action concerning the status of the agreement for ambulance services. I would just ask that you probably clarify that us and then we'll get a

So, Mr. Chair, from the time you called this emergency meeting, which again was just yesterday until this afternoon, I've been in active negotiations with council for the ownership that owns uh Columbia Emergency Services, Inc. doing business as Columbia EMS, our current EMS contractor. Through those negotiations, uh, the contractor has agreed and has submitted a signed settlement agreement calling for the, uh, separation basically of the current EMS service from Columbia County with a 90-day transition window. Uh, we would immediately activate our backup contractor, let them get started. Columbia EMS would work in transition with that backup contractor to bring services online as quickly as possible. Uh there will be a 90-day residual term under the service agreement during which time Columbia EMS will continue to receive their monthly subsidy. That monthly subsidy is just over $35,000. $35,227 27 per month. Uh there's a provision that no additional sums could should or will be paid to the contractor pursuant to the agreement. Uh further there is a duty to cooperate uh between Columbia EMS and the backup contractor wherein the backup contractor uh basically holds control over any dispute. So if there's a disagreement about what to do, the backup contractor would control the dispute. Importantly for this board, y'all asked me the other the other day uh after we received public comment um is it likely that something happening here could result litigation? My response to you was the multi-million dollar contract. I would anticipate there would probably be some litigation. Um, we were able to secure a covenant not to sue. So, what it basically means is if we enter this settlement agreement, uh, any right to sue under the agreements that Columbia EMS might claim or any other relief they might claim through the contract would be forfeit. Um, the remainder of the agreement remains intact. Commissioner

Murphy, you and I talked about indemnification uh, and insurance requirements. Those all survive. See, this gentleman basically calls for a peaceful, orderly, and quick transition of of uh your ambulance services basically immediately. Uh and it is my recommendation based on my negotiations with uh Columbia EMS and the contract we were able to secure, excuse me, the modification we're able to secure that this be adopted. So moved. Second. Okay,

you got a motion, a second. Any discussion, questions from the board? Oh, after just real fast, I don't just real fast. So, after the the 90-day transition, I guess I'm still stuck on the five ambulances. After the 90-day transition, are they going to have still just a five or they going to just move up? They got to move up. I'm assuming because it's I don't think five is going to be enough is what I'm getting at. I think that we're going to need more ambulances here in Columbia County than five. And I know they can jump it up, but someone have to come back and renegotiate six months down the road. The contract calls for a $1.45 million annual subsidy to bring a minimum of five 247 ALS units online. Understand that recently we've not been running ALS at all. Right? We've been sending BLS units to ALS calls. That's been happening. So, this guarantees the ALS. Every unit be run will be ALS. American Pro has other types of units in the market. Okay? They don't just have these ambulances. These ambulances are dedicated to 911 response. We also have the time requirement that Columbia MS had. So, you're right. If they come in with five.5 units because they've got the 12 hours and they're not cutting it, Lance is going to tell them they're not cutting it, their alternatives are breach, right, and get kicked out or add units to make their times. They've got to make the times. The number of units is the minimum. It's not the number, it's the minimum. So, it's it's again trying to bridge that gap where we probably aired in the current contract because we didn't have a minimum. And so, the contract was free to say, "Oh, I think I'm doing okay this week. I'm going to drop down to three or I'm going to drop down to three and a half, whatever I'm going to do." That was sort of the snowball effect being the end, so to speak. So, we're trying to avoid that

from happening. Would we benefit from more ambulances? Absolutely. Absolutely. No, I don't and I don't think anybody in this entire room would say more ambulances would be better. More ambulances cost a lot of money.

Right now, the gentleman who addressed the the transition from county side ambulances over to side ambulances. That was a consequential decision because if you ever want to go back in, right, it's like if you sell your house and you take the money and don't reinvest it in another house, It costs a lot of money to buy a new house, right? You haven't reinvested. We are now in a position where we don't have assets. So to get back into the business, you're talking, you know, 18 25, we've heard people say 30 plus million dollars to get fully ramped up, fully invested, fully staffed, doing everything you need to do. And then about 600 to 700, some some estimates were saying it's close to $800,000 per unit per year to fully staff and run those units. Now you have reimbursement that you're able to go out and get. There's lots of things you can do once you're up and running. The problem is we have no institutional inertia. We're not there. There are things being discussed on the SAS side that we're going to you during budget this year to try to bridge this gap, right? To try to enhance the level of service. But in terms of going from what you have right now and transitioning into what you want to have or what you thought you were going to get under this contract, that's what tonight's about. Continuing to refine and improve the process is not just going to be about air pro. It's going to be about your fire department. It's going to be about your other personnel and trying to come up with those solutions. Commissioner Ford and I had a really good conversation today. Commissioner Parnell and I had really good conversation today. They're on the north and the south ends. They have very specific concerns. Right.

Amerro is not opposed to the idea of the county supplementing some of this. Right. So, yeah. Is it enough? Probably not. Is it more than you've got right now? Right. So, one thing me and Joel talked about today and I'm about this contract for three and a half years. Basically, it is. So, we got three years to come up with a better plan. Mhm. And I think we need to spend that time diligently and come up with a better plan than what we have right now.

County is growing every year. People more people coming to this county say well [clears throat] you know 20 years ago we had the same problem we got now. So we need to come up we need to do some research. We need to get some maybe get a professional opinion. I don't know. But we've got to come up in three years or three and a half years from now. I hope we've got a better plan than what we have now for I understand your concern and Fort White Fort and Deep Creek. They they're out of pocket, you know, way out of pocket. I got folks in the Deep Creek Northtown. I mean, it's got

people line at the Georgia line. It's like they got to come all Lake City. I mean, we got to we got to supply them with the same services as somebody that lives right next to the hospital. So I've got people at the Gil Chris County line and Luxe County line. And I I agree with Mr. Ford here as far as you know next three years we need to kind of I know it it's I'm like all I got them on the south end all the way to the east side. So yes, we do need to come up with a better idea. And I do think that everybody in this whole county will agree with us that we need to do something better and they don't mind forking up, you know, the money prove it taxes to take care of what we got to do to make it better.

Got to be better. And if we need to, I think we should revisit the the whole county aspect of it. I know it was a long time ago and all that, but I don't know that any of us were here when that took place. So, let's just revisit it and see what that looks like and uh spend the next, you know, couple years getting transition into that. So, it's a software blow instead of been three years. Now, we're asking for $50 million to get situated. If slowly roll that ball down the road, we can kind of get there along and along. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not ready to no taxes, but we'll cut something and make something new. To to just reassure the commissioners and those folks that are here, staff is already researching this issue. uh our sister counties, what they're doing. That's where we got,

right? We didn't come up with them out of the air. We we're doing staff level research. I do expect from budget time, remember this night now budget request,

I do anticipate there's going to be one or more requests in that budget to address this issue. We got to decide what's more important, EMS or something else. Usually EMS is pretty important. EMS that top of the list. We got to have that Joel, you made a point earlier that, you know, this is what you're bringing to us from Americup if you want to call it. The next option, this was this was second option, correct? So, your first option was something [clears throat] about But your third opt wasn't there a third in there? That's not not for detail, but how much did that jump up to?

Over two. Yeah. The very next over two and then went way up. And of course years ago when the proposals come in, it ran anywhere from 800 to 2.3, I think it was. So it's a, you know, the money is the driver and and and you know, it's a proper healthc care comes with a cost. You know, me and Jeff had numerous numerous conversations over the years and and it does and and but the commissioners are exactly right. This thing is growing so fast. It's it's the growing.

I I'll give you another analogy that we've talked about on the staff side. You know, you guys struggled for years and years and years. Much less consequential subject, but it's still one that gives you a lot of feedback is animal control. For years and years and years, y'all tried to let your contractor do it. We fought. We fought. We fought. and you took it in house and and it's been it's not sunshine and rainbow but it's been in terms of your uh constituency. So, you know, again, don't want to be dismissive of the folks in the in the room who raised these concerns. They're heard. They're understood. We're trying to improve things as much as we can. Don't let good, you know, don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. You know, we we can do some good by improving our position. I still again recommend this settlement because it's an efficient way to dispose of this issue and move forward. [clears throat] We need to do that so we can start the other is question

Joel if I may on item number three here I'm going to read it because I just know Mr. part. I'll ask the question, but I just want to make sure we don't get this before. It says, "Discussion of possible action concerning the status of agreement for ambulance services between Columbia County, Florida, and Columbia Emergency Services doing business as Colombia EMS." So, but the reason I say that is because the question that Mr. Parnell asked was answering relevant and I think you answered it right. I just didn't want to get into the story. That was a mers. You're talking about the five ambulance that ain't got nothing to do with this item that we're dealing with. Five. This is with the current

contractor. That that's that's what we're isolating here. And with that being said, I got a motion to second. But uh I I just got looking at this and it's kind of the way it's distorted. not distor but I think we owe it to the people to let's let's have conversation before we take a vote on AB and C where they understand you know can we take a vote here and then all of a sudden what what's the sense of reviewing an investigative report from February 8 to 26 I'm saying with that being said uh audience uh who who's going to handle the review real quick of the uh what got this far I I can give the overview of that. So, we received actually each of you received an email uh the weekend of February 8th uh detailing an incident that occurred at the Columbia radio. [clears throat]

Young 15y old girl got hold of her and she was in the center of the arena and the bottom line was there was a substantially delayed response coming from across the street. The unit that responded was a BLS unit, not an ALS unit. Uh, one of the individuals that was on the unit was not authorized to be on the unit was actually a mechanic worked for the ambulance service or excuse me, a contractor to the ambulance service. Uh, and they just weren't able to render appropriate aid, which was fairly outrageous to the people that were there. So, the complaints were fairly vocal. Uh when the ALS unit did finally when the ALS unit did finally arrive, a lot of the ALS care had already been rendered by our firefighters. Um Columb County Sheriff's Office had also rendered some aid. Uh so the patient was moved from the arena onto the helicopter. Um through that, I identified in my investigative report three incidents of major non-compliance. Um, if you have a fourth incident of major non-compliance within any single category in any 12-month period, it's a mandatory termination of the contract. Three incences of non-compliance within a 12-month uh period is a discretionary termination of contract. Gives you guys the option to do it. That is what precipitated the emergency meeting uh in concert with and I'm going to spare Lance from come up and talk about it. the uh fact that we've never in spite our best efforts trying to work with the contractor have never gotten those numbers up to the 90% threshold they needed to be at. Part of that was because they were startup vendor. Uh and part of that was every time we started to talk about hitting them with major non-compliance for time compliance, they would say, "Well, it was because of this issue with the contract, this issue with the contract." And Lance and I worked with them, staff worked with them, management worked with them. Um it wasn't for lack of effort trying. Um, I will say that after the backup contract made in October, unfortunately, we saw a regression in numbers. So, we'd seen a

steady climb in those numbers towards 90%, we saw a regression. There were there were explanations for that, too, that were presented to us by the contractor. But at the end of the day, when you're not seeing that kind performance and then you're getting complaints like this, Commissioner Murphy was satisfied that it constituted an emergency and that's why we're here tonight. Um, based on that, again, staff kind of kicked everything into overdrive to get with all alternative vendors and and bring you re viable options. I will say if we've not been able to successfully renegotiate the mayor pro backup contract, you would currently be looking at ordering an emergency procurement, which would probably result in a substantially higher. So, that's kind of the summary. I'm happy to entertain any questions. I believe you guys all got the report. I try to

I just basically wanted to be sure that in the end of 90 days the bear pro wasn't to try to slide in here with just five. A lot of people like to do live on the edge of bare minimums. I want to make sure they wouldn't say that's the minimum we're going to spread the five go ahead and get more. But but you keep Yeah, we're talking about this. But am I correct that they're not meeting numbers? They got to go. We've got more. In other words, our last our last last one last. Go ahead and tell them. We're gonna have a lot more have a lot more. Just go ahead.

So, what I want to tell you that what you said is I'm telling you sat at the foot of the table in the board of county commissioners conference room, Mr. Kirby, uh, Lance, Jeff Crawford, David Krauss, and three senior managers, three senior members of the management team, including the president CEO of the entire company were sitting in the room with us. Lance was sitt your head as I tell the story. I appointed the CEO. We had a nice conversation. They talked about all the stuff they're going to do. You understand that man right there is going to hold you these numbers and that you're not going to get the amount of slack that was cut in Columbia and that's because you're not a starter, right? You're telling me you can do this. He said, "We do understand that. We're ready to go."

But he'll put on what he has to put on. So he's not going to be able to say so he a he'll tell them right. That's right. The way the way the colors, we pay out the the subsidy monthly, right? So, we take your annual figure, we split it in 12, we pay that out monthly. Okay?

We deduct your penalties, right? So, if you're a minute late, it's like $7 every time. You know, it it adds up real fast. Also, you get non-compliance. So, if you don't hit your 90%, you get a minor non-compliance, which is a sum of money, and that escalates, right? Multiple non-compliances within a single category within a year. It's the four strikes. Three strikes gives you the option to terminate. A fourth strike, they're gone automatic. So, it's a tight contract in that regard. We just, you know, again, y'all are very clear with what you want Lance to do. Lance, and for what it's worth, Lance has wanted to do this for some time. [laughter] Lance is a a solid solid county employee. He's done a great job. We asked him to do a lot. He did everything we asked him to do. So, um, Commissioner, I hear your concern. We don't want to get to that 90 days and they drop down, right? The contract allows you to deal with it if that happens. I don't see any reason why they would do that because they're not getting all this money up front. They have to earn this through the year. And I just say a family member don't care how much we find that service.

Their family member didn't get adequate care. They don't care about that. They don't care about one bit.

And and Mr. Ford is 100% right because you know and I don't blame him as a taxpayer this is this is for us to do that's why I emphasize and I'm going to hold everybody in this room to the to the point here don't owe nobody a phone call you strike you strike that that fine that's because that's what mismanagement of this I'm just going to say like it is that's why we got that's a portion of why we got here today we should have been enforcing this thing exactly verb made him exactly how every black and white thing and I I'll take ownership for that because I'm I'm not blaming you know staff we all had a part of that and uh but that won't happen again my part and the uh but you know just for clarity you know before I ask come from the audience you know what this proposal is is that we will be paying them when I say them Columbia EMS approximately $3,000 I think it is a month uh for n for three months and then everybody parts their ways. Uh but that's I just want everybody in this room to be clear and understanding of that and then uh with that being said I'd open up the floor to any comments that I mean public would like to make. Sir and if y'all would do my best try to hold me to three minutes but but I appreciate y'all's concern be really do. Thank you.

So, there's a time limit that we're trying to hold them to. I don't know what it is. Like, did did anyone say is it, you know, 10 minutes from when you call 911? Share that with you real quick, but go ahead.

Okay. So, anyway, that that should be the same. So no matter if they have to put five ambulances or 25, it shouldn't matter because they need to figure it out instead of us saying, "Oh, we're just going to dock you because it's been 15 minutes and you know it's been that for the past month." Anyway, next thing is, and I don't know for sure, but if I had a company and you were going to yank my contract, I would want, you know, a chance to do better. And, you know, you'd say, "Well, we tried and we tried and we tried. We tried." But at the end, at the last ditch effort, you stand up there and say, "Give us one more shot." You know, we can do better. We can do something. I don't know if they're here or not. But if I was, I would be here. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, sir. You're like Tim Murphy. You like talk. I'll make this

I heard you quote a while ago 12 to 15 million dollars to get back in. I totally will agree with this number on the low end. U I have very good friend of mine that's in the ambulance selling business and uh that that's what he does for a living and just a conversation that I didn't even know this was coming up. You talked about one name, but he sold this to a county. $800,000 for a brand new top-of-the-line 14 foot, which is a large box. $800,000. $800,000 for that unit fully equipped with nine of them is $7.2 million. And if you figure the amount of employees that you need to put on to staff those nine units, you're at $12.2 million total. That's on the highest note that at $100,000 for benefits and and salaries. So, just think about that as we move forward down the road. You know, these these private services are not in here and doing this for this cheap amount of money if they're not earning some money somewhere else. They're not here to lose money in a 911 service. And this county can do it and probably make a profit be way in the black if you use sound uh business plan for the future. Anybody else? Sorry. [clears throat]

I'm new in this county. I moved here eight months, please.

I'm sorry. Dr. Kirk Smith moved here eight months ago. I've had dealings with its ambulance service now three times. I was an EMT started back in 1975. I've never run across such an unprofessional group of people in my life. The only example I can tell you is I had a lady having chest pain and got out of the ambulance said, "You want to go to the hospital?" She said, "No, not really." He got in that ambulance and left. He never checked her blood pressure. He didn't check. He didn't do anything. And I was very disappointed. I' had two more runins. Neither one of them. You need to do something. Whether it's a private service, I've worked for them or a county service. I've worked for them. But you need to do something. And if it's a county service, you need to get some good people in your management that understand how to do that. And I hope you guys can do that because I'm planning on keeping my family here for the next 20 years.

Thank you, sir.

Thanks, D. I was going to say anything, but your contract allows for a 30-day um a 30-day termination call. Did I hear a 90-day termination clause at that we're talking about doing now? If I did, that's what I understood. You don't have 90 days with the current provider that you have. I hope you don't. I hope my family doesn't need that service in 90 days within 90 days with the current provider. They're failing. They were failing on February 7th. They were failing pri prior to that. Today is February the 24th. They're still failing. What? I asked you on I asked you last Thursday night. What's it going to take? Y'all are at the Y'all made the right step. Let's go ahead and cut the cord. Let's get the new company in. We don't need to pay for 90 days for somebody to still fiddle fart around and do nothing and just collect taxpayer money. We haven't fined them like they need to be done. They had as of according to the tax um or clerk's office their January check that was given we still have not collected for fines from November, December or the month of January for calls not meeting meeting their time. We have got to do better. We cannot wait 90 days and continue paying the current contractor. Thank you.

Thank you, Stephen. And just for the record, uh this uh complaint that took place on February the 8th, that Saturday, I personally took that complaint and forwarded to Mr. Kirby, Mr. Krauss, and Joe Foreman that Saturday afternoon. And uh and again, for the record, uh there's people in this room, uh not to put anybody in their place, but I've said for the year and a half, send me a complaint and I'll make sure it gets to the right point. There's people in this room that chose not to do that. And uh so if I did not witness these situ doubts, not that I did not disbelieve anybody because I believed every word that was spoken and and the facts prove that they repel tell the truth. But we're in this thing as a community and collectively together. And uh that was the first complaint that Tim Murphy ever received and it in a matter of minutes it got to proper hands. And that's why we're here today. [clears throat] And uh because my grandkids, my wife, and all your families are very, very important to me. And this is a uh this is a uh serious situation. And like the gentleman says in the corner over there, he he's a new Columbia County, but you know, when you hear people like that that's been in this field for them many years, and I see my Mr. Tannon over there. He I grew up in Lake City watching him go to every single battle. [clears throat] I think he beat every ambulance ever. He was on site and uh carries a reputation to this day and I appreciate that. And I think he's the one that started you guys out, Jeff, and all that over the years. So, it's a it's a heck of a family and uh and I'll give you my word. Uh we are I am going to move forward and try to put a plan together to better what we got. I feel pretty comfortable uh with the uh the

contractor at hand. But uh with that being said, uh can I address Mr. I don't think Mr. Bailey hurt if you vote on the motion on the floor like Amerro is activated tomorrow morning like a Marapro will be activated and meet it. It's a 30-day transition really for Columbia EMS to wind down their EMS side operations, but we move forward with the new contractor immediately. That's why I asked follow if somebody gonna help these guys do their job and we don't if if they're if you know and that's why I asked that's part of why we're bringing in

pro is going to be activated tomorrow. We'll have five ambulances at least on the cost. Mr. Chairman, let's call the question. They're they're ready to activate. As soon as you guys vote, we're going to let them know and they'll start activating. They got to bring resources from other counties and things like that, but they're coming.

Okay. So, the motion on the floor is to uh agree to an agreement for ambulance services between Columbia County, Florida, and Columbia County EMS services with the details that Joel pointed out with a payment of 30 3,34 whatever it is for a period of 90 days and after that the EM services will immediately revert to Marro effective this meeting correct

yeah we're activating Marro now for the clerk's information the motion is to adopt modifications agreement for annual services providing for early termination and settlement okay uh got a motion question.

It's right here. I'm thinking about this money that we're going to continue giving this company here now. [clears throat] And here we're going to pay this other company their big money on top of his money. Is that what we're Is that what our plans are? Is that the That's the proposal. Keep us out of any litigation.

Okay. That's what I'm understanding. But I can understand the point. Stephen, are you still paying these guys if you going to have this other company here? Are you absolutely understand it's not just we're not paying them to keep running EMS. We're settling any potential future litigation. We're allowing them transition funds for the people that are still on their payroll to get transitioned out into other employment. It's a local company. They've hired all their people locally. They still have payroll. So, it's allowing them to wind down while America simultaneously wind lines up. We're not waiting for one plane to land before the other plane takes off. We're going to have both planes airborne as the as the first one lands. That's what we're doing here. I understand giving good leeway, but I mean that's what you do. What you want to do if you vote for it? Okay. All right. Any further discussion? Okay. Everybody clear on a motion on the floor. All in favor say I.

I. All oppose. I 32. Mr. Chair, who did the motion? Holland. Thank you. a second. Thank you. So, we've got a new service provider effective in the morning sometime. [clears throat] Looks like somebody got a late night on the Mr. Chair. I think that because the agenda is limited that would call for a journal.