Are McCormick Ambulance and the Compton Fire Department in cahoots? The city of Compton doesn’t want to pay to save their resident’s lives. After failing to respond to a key LA County RFP to provide “Basic Life Support” (BLS) services, the city of Compton will forgo hiring regular employees to save money by contracting with McCormick Ambulance. As the lone provider for many cities, McCormick is becoming a monopoly of ambulatory services. This author has visions of Pat Furey’s recent state fines dancing in her head. Is history repeating itself?
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Torrance mayor Pat Furey, recently came under fire after it was found the company contributed $25,000 to his re-election campaign in 2014, that weren’t reported. McCormick and the Torrance firefighters, funded an independent expenditure that conspired to get Furey another term. Furey just so happened to cast the deciding vote that awarded a contract to McCormick.
Related: State fines Pat Furey’s Torrance mayoral campaign $35,000 for hiding illegal campaign contributions
Hopefully McCormick is keeping meticulous records to pay the city the correct tax at year’s end.
2 Urban Girls has obtained a copy of the memo from interim fire chief, Bryan Batiste, stating “the city is not legally obligated to provide BLS services” only Advanced Life Support and fire related activities. Wasn’t this one of the items the sales tax increase is supposed to cover?
Mayor Aja Brown is up for re-election in April, along with council members Isaac Galvan and Tana McCoy. How much will their campaign coffers increase for another favorable vote for McCormick?
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Very interesting… I have heard that Ms. Cathy Chidester who is the head of LA County DHS has vested interest in McCormick. Either she or some of her family owns a share in the company. DHS put undue discriminatory pressure on the City of Compton as they saw it as a resource for financial gain. It is widely known that DHS has targeted Compton Fire Dept. And continually doing so without provocation. Other predominantly white Fire Dept.s have not had to face the same scrutiny, all the while practicing the same model of service. It is also widely know than whether or not Compton submitted the RFP the award was still going to be granted to McCormick because of the financial stakes. Case in point, DHS is now targeting Compton’s paramedic program just the same as the BLS program. I would direct urban girls to look in to discrminatory actions of DHS, McCormick first, as that might lead to a broader picture of what’s really at stake here. Interim Chief Batiste nor Compton Fire and most importantly the RESIDENTS of Compton are not viewed as competent or worthy as their white counterparts in other cities. The city council should look in these matters as well. Strings are being pulled at much higher level than the Fire Chief, City Council, City Manager. All the while the residents will suffer, not because of an incompetent Fire Managment, or Incompetent City Council, but because of they City of Compton was never given a fair chance to begin with. These are the facts… look and you too will see!
Are McCormick Ambulance and the Compton Fire Department in cahoots? Are you kidding me? And by the way, there was a mistake in the memo. It should have read – From: McCormick Ambulance, instead of Bryan Batiste, Interim Fire Chief. This proposed action is so disrespectful to Compton’s residents. All one has to do is suggest Compton residents will get a job through these self-dealing proposals and that makes everything alright.
Why can’t the city of Compton send an RFP to all of the ambulance services and see what others will offer? Even if there were a deficit, as 2urbangirls pointed out that was supposedly one of the reasons we had voted to have the increase in sales tax. Or did we forget already? These are the services we entrust to the Compton Fire Department and not subcontractors. Damn! Let us have at least a crumb.
I am curious to know how this proposed partnership came about. Did McCormick Ambulance contact Compton Fire Department? Was the city council informed that its fire department did not respond to the county’s RFP? Look at the dates of the corresponding memos. It now appears that in order for Compton’s residents to be serviced this proposal has to go forth. This all sounds so sleazy.
If BLS services were such a strain on the fire department’s budget where are the memos complaining about the level of staffing? Everyone else seems to be writing memos. Why wasn’t this shared with the community?
What is it that Compton’s elected officials aren’t getting? Read the story of State Senator Isadore Hall’s defeat. It wasn’t unexpected. You can’t tell the community one thing and do the opposite. Does this council have such a low opinion of the citizens that it simply shoves things down its throat?
This council continues to fail Compton’s citizens at every level and every possible way. I am asking 2urbangirls to help the community understand the economic impact these proposals, past tax increases, and other measures will have on our community. Under this proposed partnership what entity will bill the citizens of Compton for BLS services?
The fire department has always informed the council the reason for the large over time is due to understaffing like most vital dept. In our city. We as citizens must suffer for what.