House committee approves switching county ambulance contracts to RFQ process

Representative Bart Schultz, sponsor: Representative Bart Schultz, said the committee approved a bill to let counties use a qualifications-based request-for-proposals (RFQ) process for ambulance services instead of awarding contracts strictly to the lowest bidder. "All I'm proposing with this bill is we change ambulance services over to the same RFQ process as all these professional entities," Schultz said.

Schultz, who identified himself as a former quorum court member and an ambulance-business operator, told the House Insurance & Commerce Committee that counties currently award ambulance contracts to the lowest bidder and that his bill would instead rank proposals and negotiate with the top-ranked firm. "How it currently works is with all these other entities that I named, you rank the top 3. 1, 2, 3. And you go to number 1, and you negotiate a contract," he said, describing the existing RFQ negotiation sequence used for architects, engineers and other professional services.

Representative Baker asked for clarification about how the proposed change would interact with the current procurement process; Schultz replied that ambulance services would simply be added to the group of services that use the RFQ ranking-and-negotiation method. No outside witnesses spoke in opposition or in support during the portion of the record captured here.

Committee action: a motion (mover identified in the record as Representative Ladyman) to pass the bill carried by voice vote. After the clerk announced passage, a committee member said, "You passed your bill." Representative Schultz closed by thanking the committee and asking for a favorable vote when it reaches the full House.

Ending note: The committee advanced the measure to the next stage; text of the bill and any subsequent amendments were not included in the excerpt of the hearing record provided.