County committee reviews new ambulance contract after township warns of large rate jump

A proposed ambulance service contract that would replace a decade-old memorandum of understanding drew public criticism and follow-up questions from the Executive Finance Standing Committee, after a township representative said the new contract would sharply raise his township’s annual bill.

Gordon Palmer, who said he has represented Richland Township on the Joint Ambulance Committee since 2015, told the committee the contract being circulated to municipalities would charge Richland Township for 192.75 calls per year at $225 per call — a change he said would raise the township’s share from about $9,690 a year under the existing memorandum of understanding to roughly $43,369.

The new contract “will be replacing a memorandum of understanding that the JAC has operated under for the last 10 years,” Palmer said. He added: “We were paying $9,690 for the last 3 or 4 years. That's going to be raised under this new contract to $43,369 a year.” Palmer also said a main reason for the increase is that ambulance calls to Pine Valley Manor would be billed to Richland Township. “We get no property tax. We get nothing from Pine Valley,” he said. “That's unacceptable to Richland Township also.”

Why it matters: committee members and staff said the contract is intended to replace an informal memorandum of understanding with a written service contract and that the county must provide municipalities with the data used to calculate each municipality’s bill so they can verify call counts.

County staff reported the contract was drafted after a model service-contract template was revised to include protections the county counsel and staff believed were missing. “We are hoping to send it out to all the municipalities tomorrow with their information as far as their call numbers and what the total amount will be,” the county’s administrator told the committee during the meeting.

Discussion and follow-up: committee members said the Pine Valley billing issue traces to decades-old informal practices. One supervisor described a past “gentleman's handshake” in which the city accepted calls, but no written billing arrangement was found. Committee members asked staff to verify call counts and billing history before municipalities make decisions about signing the new contract. The committee agreed the Joint Ambulance Committee (JAC) will meet again in October to consider more complex cost‑sharing alternatives, and staff said they would re-check the call data and provide accurate counts to municipalities.

No formal approval: the committee took no formal vote to adopt the contract during the meeting. Staff said the draft contract would be circulated to municipalities and that any change — for example, exempting Pine Valley calls from a particular township’s bill or having the county temporarily absorb those costs — would require further committee and full-board consideration.

Numbers and disputed figures provided in the meeting: under the prior memorandum of understanding, Richland Township was described as being billed for about 57 calls per year at $170 per call (about $9,690 annually). The draft contract circulated to municipalities reportedly allocates about 192.75 calls per year to Richland Township at $225 per call (roughly $43,369). Palmer and others disputed those counts; one staff member said that if Pine Valley calls (about 68 calls per year) were removed, the township’s bill would drop to about 124 calls (about $27,900). Committee members asked staff to verify the call lists and billing calculations before the contract is finalized.

Next steps: staff will send the draft contract and municipality-specific call data to the municipalities, double-check the historical call logs and billing, and place the contract on the Executive Finance agenda for further discussion and any recommended changes before the full county board considers adoption.