Council adopts ordinance to charge facilities for nonemergency lift assists; education and appeals process included

The City Council adopted Ordinance 25‑43, creating a fee for certain nonemergency responses and lift assists at residential care facilities; the council suspended the rules and approved the ordinance the same evening, with a 6–0 roll call vote.

Chief Rob Gaylor told the council the department will continue to respond to true emergencies and clarified that the ordinance targets facility practices rather than residents. “If an elderly person's on the ground and they call 911 or the facility doesn't wanna pick them up and they call 91, we will make that run every single time,” he said, adding that the fee mechanism is aimed at facilities that use emergency response as a de facto staffing substitute.

Scope and rationale: Gaylor presented 2024 figures showing the department responded to roughly 3,200 EMS calls, with 783 to residential care facilities (about 24.4% of EMS calls). He said falls accounted for about 21.7% of those facility calls and lift assists about 2.6%; about one‑third of facility calls were classified as “sick person” and some were the result of physician recommendations or lab results. Gaylor said the department’s average out‑of‑service time on calls in 2025 is about 42 minutes; longer transports can tie units out of service for up to 90 minutes.

Education and appeals: Gaylor said the ordinance includes an educational phase before invoicing and an appeals process handled through city legal. He emphasized the department will continue to respond when the situation is an emergency and said that the fee is intended to be assessed against the facility, not the resident. “Charges to the facility. We're not gonna charge mister and missus Smith at all,” he said.

Council discussion and support: Councilor Patrick Tam, Councilor Kurt Wanninger and Councilor Victor McCarty spoke in favor of adopting the ordinance after an educational period; Councilor McCarty moved to suspend the rules and the council approved the ordinance on the same evening. Councilors and the mayor raised concerns that facilities might pass fees to residents and emphasized the importance of education so facilities change behavior rather than shifting costs to families.

Implementation timing: The city attorney noted the ordinance contains a waiting period and the ordinance would not take effect until Oct. 1, which the mayor and chief said will allow time for outreach and education to residential care providers. Gaylor said front‑line crews will not collect fees; crews will fill out call reports and the department will invoice facilities for repeat nonemergency uses of emergency response.

What the council did: Motion to approve Ordinance 25‑43 carried 6–0; the council suspended the rules to allow immediate adoption, but staff said the ordinance’s effective date is set in the text to allow outreach and education before invoicing begins.