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Commissioner Milley defends RFP vote, cites move to full-time EMS amid privatization concerns
Summary
At a Collingswood borough meeting, Commissioner Milley said he voted to issue an RFP to "see what comes in," even though he opposes wholesale privatization, and pointed to past problems with volunteer EMS and poor third-party performance as reasons the borough hired full-time staff.
A questioner asked Commissioner Milley why he had voted to issue a request for proposals (RFP) after saying he opposed wholesale privatization. "What's the rationale there?" the questioner asked.
Commissioner Milley said the governing body decided in the summer to put the service out to bid. "Let's go out on an RFP and see what comes in," he said, describing the vote as a way to test the marketplace. He said one proposal arrived in October and there was little subsequent discussion before the vote.
Milley said the marketplace response showed private vendors would "take all the money and they'll put some people in and we don't have that control," characterizing that outcome as a concern about contracting out services.
He framed his vote as cautious: issuing an RFP would reveal options without committing the borough to privatization. "I was like, okay, fine. Let's go out and see what comes in," Milley said.
Milley also invoked the borough's experience moving from volunteer to full-time emergency medical services. He said Chief Joyce reminded him the department grew from about 11 full-time positions to 17 over a number of years "to bring EMS in full-time, 24/7," and that volunteers had become harder to rely on because response times worsened and training burdens and communicable-disease concerns increased.
"Third parties ... that was awful," Milley said of private contractors the borough previously used, arguing that those firms focused on expanding into more towns rather than maintaining reliable local coverage. He noted the borough hired at least one full-time person, Jeffrey ("Jeff"), as part of the staffing increase to ensure round-the-clock EMS coverage.
The transcript does not record the original RFP vote tally or the names of any motion movers or seconders. Milley described the RFP as an exploratory step and flagged loss of local control and contractor performance as reasons for caution about privatization.
The meeting did not include a full discussion of any specific contract terms in the excerpt provided; next procedural steps were not specified in the recorded segment.
