I haven't been following this controversy as closely as I should, but today's newspapers have considerable coverage of the Fayetteville Ambulance Committee meeting yesterday. Some people are upset that the aldermen are not enthusiastic about entrusting ambulance service in the city to some "interlocal" authority under a no-bid exclusive contract.
The group seeking a new arrangement includes John Gibson, who coincidentally serves as chairman of the Central Emergency Medical Services board, and wants CEMS to get an exclusive no-bid contract. Fayetteville aldermen seem to be balking at giving authority for setting rates and terms of service to the "interlocal" board being pushed by the county, and they suggest talking bids instead of the no-bid monopoly deal Gibson wants.
Gibson says Fayetteville wants something that doesn't cost them any money, but Fayetteville currently pays $4 per capita to Central EMS for ambulance service in the city. He also says he wouldn't want to trust his health to someone who got a low-bid contract (even if it were CEMS) but thinks he would be comfortable being carted to the hospital by the ambulance service he controls if it got an exclusive no-bid contract.
I am having trouble sorting this out from newspaper accounts, because Gibson's arguments don't seem to make much sense for anyone except the organization that he chairs. In such situations, I believe it was Cicero who always asked, "Who benefits?"
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