Santa Rosa may move ahead with emergency fee

<p>The idea was controversial enough to draw TV news crews from CNN and Fox News to Santa Rosa in March.</p><p>And now it’s back. On Tuesday, the Santa Rosa City Council will consider giving home and business owners a choice: either voluntarily pay a small insurance-like monthly fee or pay hundreds of dollars should they need a paramedic-staffed fire truck to respond to their property.</p><p>The proposal, expected to generate about $1.7 million a year, was envisioned as a way to help close a $23 million budget deficit the city expected to face at the beginning of the 2009-10 fiscal year which begins July 1.</p><p>But after months of cost-cutting measures, the city’s financial experts say the 2009-10 budget expected to be adopted Thursday is in balance.</p><p>Still, Mayor Susan Gorin said she supports moving ahead with the fee.</p><p>“We need the added protection. There are so many things that could go wrong and send us into deficit mode again,” she said.</p><p>That includes the actions of the state Legislature, which is eyeing ways to tap local governments to help offset its own massive budget shortfall.</p><p>“We have a balanced budget for the moment but we’re looking at the potential impacts from the state and our continuing decline in sales and property tax revenues,” Gorin said.</p><p>Deputy Fire Chief Mark McCormick said the fee idea is a simple one. Fire crews are called to respond to medical emergency calls about 12,000 times a year, a service the city provides for free.</p><p>“That includes everything from cardiac arrests, difficulty breathing, people unsure if they need to go to the hospital, rescues, anything medically related,” McCormick said.</p><p>Under the proposal, the city would charge $350 — $200 for low-income residents — for its response to each medical call — except to those home and business owners who sign up to pay the monthly fee.</p><p>The fee would range from $4 a month for homeowners to $4 a month for each five employees of a business, up to a maximum $60. Low-income residents would be charged $2 a month.</p><p>If approved Tuesday, McCormick said the fee-based program will be put into operation Sept. 1.</p><p>For those who don’t sign up, and end up facing a $350 emergency service bill, McCormick said the department will reduce the bill to $200 if the home or business owner signs up for the monthly fee.</p><p>Despite a balanced budget, McCormick defends the need for the fee. Fifteen cities, mostly in Southern California, have had the system for years despite protests from taxpayers who argue they already pay property taxes to support their local fire departments.</p><p>“It’s obviously controversial. It’s not something we’d wish to ask for,” he said.</p><p>But McCormick said the proposed city budget will require a rotating closure of one of the 10 fire stations. “That’s a significant public safety impact,” he said.</p><p>Raising additional revenue might help reverse that decision or provide money elsewhere the city could use to maintain dozens of parks slated for reductions in maintenance, he said.</p><p>Santa Rosa’s paramedic personnel typically arrive at emergency medical calls ahead of a private ambulance company, Sonoma Life Support, under a countywide franchise that requires the city crew to be at the scene within seven minutes, the ambulance within 12, McCormick said.</p><p>The system was designed to save money by having the more numerous and scattered fire stations handle initial emergency calls, a procedure that requires fewer private ambulances, he said.</p><p>“It’s a cost-savings measure. Otherwise people would face high ambulance bills,” McCormick said.</p><p>City crews provide both basic and advanced life support, assess the patient’s condition, provide some treatment and stabilize them and get them ready for transport once the ambulance arrives.</p><p>The city fee, however, would not cover the cost of the ambulance service.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Mike McCoy at 521-5276 or mike.mccoy@pressdemocrat.com.</p>