- Our new fire trucks, if Saltzman has his way.
City council is debating a $72.4 million fire bond this afternoon, likely sending on to voters the idea of raising property taxes to pay for new fire equipment, fire station and emergency response center. The increase for the average Portland home would be $23.88 annually (“Roughly the cost of one latte per month,” quips Commissioner Randy Leonard’s chief of staff Ty Kovatch).
Though the bond is coming from Commissioner Randy Leonard, who’s the head of the Fire Bureau, Commissioner Dan Saltzman pitched a couple of interesting amendments yesterday that are worth digging into.
The first of the four amendments relates to the city audit released last week that revealed Portland Fire and Rescue is slow on its response times—due in a large part to the fact that fires only account for three percent of the calls to the fire department. The vast majority of the times a fire truck shows up somewhere, it’s for a medical emergency like a car crash or a heart attack. Saltzman’s pitching the plan of using some of the bond money to purchase four SUVs that would ferry firefighters to medical emergencies, reducing the strain on fire trucks. The city of Tualatin recently replaced its fire truck responses with the macho Toyota FJ Cruisers.
Another amendment is an obvious dig at Mayor Adams’ so-called “sewer money for bikes” debacle: Any cost savings from lower-than-expected construction costs would be passed along to taxpayers.
I thought Leonard’s office might be pissed that Saltzman is scooping him on these ideas, but Chief of Staff Kovatch shrugged off that claim. “Our stamp’s on the whole thing, if Dan wants to have his little stamp on improving it with the amendments, that’s fine,” says Kovatch, who says he thinks the amendments strengthen the bond altogether.
So what are the chances that Portland voters will agree to give themselves more taxes this November?
“I think that as a general matter, people recognize safety as a bedrock for a livable community, so they see it differently than parks or the zoo,” says Kovatch.
I’ll update more about the bond after council is finished discussing it this afternoon.
Update 5PM: The bond passed council. But not without some finger-wagging from Amanda Fritz. No one on the council raised serious criticism of the bond measure except for Commissioner Fritz, who often finds herself the lone vote against proposals.
Fritz’s argument against the bond is that reliable fire response is a basic service the city should provide from its general fund, not ask voters to pay extra for. I think she actually has a good point. While the general fund wasn’t stretched to cover things like fire station radios crapping out in SW Portland thanks to the hills, the council did manage to find room for $650,000 to keep the mounted patrol… though that took a voluntary $100,000 donation from individuals that council accepted yesterday.
It’s kind of stupid to replace anything with FJ cruisers, since this is their last model year, if I’m not mistaken.
Also, tell that Ty Kovatch I’m not made of lattes.
“Our stamp’s on the whole thing, if Dan wants to have his little stamp on improving it with the amendments, that’s fine,”
How fucking petty. He admits its improving the proposal, but still takes a dig. Government is supposed to work for its citizens, not the aggrandizement of politician’s (and their lackey’s) egos.
I hate that “it’s just one latte” argument. Guess what Ty? After every department, the county, the state, the community college, the library, the schools, the cops, the parks, Metro and every other agency in the world takes their pound of flesh, it adds up to a lot of fucking lattes every month.
Since the economy tanked, I don’t buy any coffee for myself any more, so why would I want to buy one for you?
Somebody please explain why the fire department shows up when the private ambulance company does to? I’m all for government services, but my god, one or the other please.
infoart, I believe it’s because all firefighters are trained in emergency medical procedures, and might also be the closest responders available. So they can maybe keep someone alive until an ambulance shows up with better medical gear, and a means of transport to a hospital.
for once, I agree with Blabby. fuck fuck no! I deal with EMS on pretty much a daily basis, and while the usual response time hovers around 10-15 min, when they do show up, it’s 3 firetrucks and 2 ambulances for a single person having a seizure.
Combine that with the routine 3 police cars to write a jay-walking ticket (not only seen, but on vid).
Do we need to improve fire and police response times, hell yeah. A good way to start is not having 6 officers and 10 FD respond to a simple non-emergency call. (the math is pretty basic, but I’d be happy to spell it out for slow learners in the crowd)
I agree with Blabby about damn near nothing, but we are united here. This is f*ing stoopid use of my money, and I am pissed.
“Somebody please explain why the fire department shows up when the private ambulance company does to?”
I may be completely wrong here but I remember fire trucks etc didn’t have to show up years ago (I’m talking like 15 years). It seems like this was a state or federal mandate. If you call 911 for things certain departments have to show up. I’m pretty sure it’s just medical stuff but if someone is having a heart attack the fire truck shows up with their paramedics and so does the private ambulance.
“Commissioner Fritz, who often finds herself the lone vote against proposals.”
Not surprising in the least. She’s sort of a weird hippie dingbat person that still operates like Portland is a small town instead of a fairly major city in the US. .
All I Wanted Was An Ambulance – Why Did Portland Fire & Rescue Respond?
http://www.portlandonline.com/fire/index.c…
You ask why a fire engine always responds with an ambulance.
It’s very simple! The brain dies with in 6 minutes from cardiac arrest or hypoxia.
Counties control the response time requirements and most require that a private ambulance provider be on scene within 6-10 minutes 90% of the time. Well that’s great if you aren’t the other 10% in need of medical assistance.
So it really comes down to reliability. The fire departments number one goal is public service where the ambulance companies are profits. The ambulance companies also meddle in non-emergent inter-hospital transports. This is key because these transports are guarantied profits where 911 calls are not. So it is not uncommon for these companies to roll the dice and take 911 ambulances out of service to make a buck.
Getting back to a fire engine versus and ambulance on scene. Fire Engines response reliability is much higher and they carry the same equipment and can stabilize a patient prior to the ambulance provider response.
If you really want to be upset do some research into your counties “level zero” statistics? The general public has no idea how often they have no ambulance service at all, and yes I’m talking about Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas!
Truly scary!