San Marcos council directs staff to hire EMS chief as city prepares to assume services; union seeks protections

San Marcos City Council on April 7 heard a detailed staff briefing and public testimony about converting local emergency medical services to a stand-alone, city-operated department and gave staff direction to proceed with hiring an EMS chief and to explore voluntary consultation arrangements with employee representatives.

City Manager Steph Reyes told the council staff had conducted a multi-year evaluation and recommended a measured approach that builds on a 4.85¢ tax increase already approved for planning. "Our goal has been to balance reliability, service levels, and fiscal responsibility," Reyes said, asking council for direction on moving forward with recruitment for an EMS chief.

Union and field staff urged caution and protections. "We are still here today without answers to some of the core questions regarding pay, benefits, qualifications, and working conditions," Zach Phillips, president of the Hays County EMS Association, told the council, urging the body to delay a final decision until financial details and worker protections are clarified. Phillips later added, "Projections are not. You don't buy a house and then ask how much after you sign the paperwork." The city committed to including a union representative on the chief hiring stakeholder panel.

Several paramedics and former city staff who spoke during the public-comment period urged the change on service and staffing grounds. "Transitioning to a third city service would provide critical stability for our workforce," paramedic Caden Nichols said, citing national turnover rates he said commonly exceed 20 to 30 percent.

Staff detailed immediate operational and funding drivers. Assistant City Manager Lonzo Anderson said partner agencies are leaving the regional model — including ESD 9 — and that the system has already been reduced from 10 ambulances toward a lower fleet size. He told council that with ESD 9 exiting the partnership (their last payment is July 1, and they exit August 1), San Marcos would move from funding about 42% of the joint EMS entity to shouldering roughly 99% of the cost, with Guadalupe County providing about 1%.

Staff also summarized a legal review of Texas Government Code chapters relevant to labor protections. The review found that Chapter 174 (collective bargaining) authorizes bargaining only for fire and police personnel and that the city does not meet population thresholds under Chapter 143 subchapter K for certain civil-service protections. "Those limitations mean statutory collective-bargaining rights wouldn't automatically extend to EMS personnel if they become city employees," Anderson said; staff said they were examining voluntary consultation mechanisms as an alternative.

Human Resources Director Lindsey Cox described a two-phase hiring plan that would prioritize an internal window for current San Marcos Hays County EMS clinicians, then open external recruitment. Cox said staff planned a three-week posting for the EMS chief if council directed staff to proceed and outlined a process of virtual screenings and multi-panel interviews.

City and EMS leaders said medical oversight and clinical standards would remain intact under a city model. EMS Chief Joe Rosales said physicians who serve as medical director and associate medical director would continue credentialing and clinical oversight, and that credentialing — a separate requirement from state licensure — would remain consistent.

Council members pressed staff on revenue assumptions, benchmarking and contingency planning. Several council members said the pro forma financial charts and revenue projections (prepared in part by Matrix Consulting Group) were difficult to reconcile with the city's historical billing and local revenue patterns. Terry Lewis of Matrix said the firm's projections incorporated call-volume growth and the local payer mix — which he said favors San Marcos — but council members asked for clearer apples-to-apples comparisons and more time to review the models.

On timing and licensing, staff said the Texas Department of State Health Services can take up to six months to issue a license number, a necessary step before Medicare, Medicaid and other payer relationships can be finalized. Staff proposed an October 1 target to begin running city ambulances if all approvals, hiring and licensing proceed on schedule.

After extended discussion and public comment, the council voted by voice/roll-call on two direction questions: to continue planning to establish EMS as a city department and to have staff investigate voluntary consultation options with employee representatives. The body gave direction to proceed with recruitment for a chief and to include a union representative as a stakeholder in that hiring process; several members, including Councilmember Garza, stated conditional or partial support pending more detailed financial and labor protections. The council then moved into executive session under state law to address personnel and real-property items and reconvened and adjourned later in the evening.

The council's next substance step is implementation of the chief recruitment process and receiving a more thorough, side-by-side financial and benefits comparison for current EMS personnel versus proposed city employment; staff said they will provide those materials as they complete orientation materials for affected employees.