El Dorado County Grand Jury • 2020-2021

EL Dorado County Grand Jury 2020-2021*

Published: June 30, 2021 6 pages

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⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Findings and Recommendations 6 findings

Ambulance service in CSA 7 is contracted by the County to the JPA who, in turn, contracts with five fire districts to operate the ambulances.

No recommendations for this finding

The current contracts that the JPA has entered into with the fire districts operating ambulances are fixed rate contracts except for the CPCSD agreement, which is for reimbursement of direct costs. Some of the fire districts that receive reimbursements on a fixed rate have had a surplus, as their direct costs have been lower than their contracted fees. West Slope Emergency Services, Joint Powers Authority and Ambulance Service 6/30/2021 El Dorado County 2020-2021 Grand Jury

Related Recommendations (1)

The County should consider changing the contract with the JPA from fixed price to direct cost reimbursement for the next contract period.

The CSA 7 fund has a $9,530,499 fund balance as of June 30, 2020. This fund has grown by $3,003,469 since June 30, 2016.

Related Recommendations (1)

The County and JPA should explore ways to use the CSA 7 fund surplus to increase ambulance and medical services. Maintaining or improving ALS fire engine service should be a priority.

The BOD of the JPA has eleven members. Numerous interviewees indicated that they believed this large Board makes the Board unwieldy.

Related Recommendations (1)

The JPA should explore ways to reconstitute the Board of Directors to make the Board more effective.

The ambulance service is highly professional. Ambulances staffed with firefighters provide enhanced flexibility in the services provided.

No recommendations for this finding

Medical calls make up over 50% of fire district dispatches. ALS fire engines provide additional medical service to the public. The limited funding of some districts within the JPA may reduce the number of ALS engines in CSA 7 in the near future.

Related Recommendations (1)

The County and JPA should explore ways to use the CSA 7 fund surplus to increase ambulance and medical services. Maintaining or improving ALS fire engine service should be a priority.

Conclusions 1

CL1

Emergency medical response in CSA 7 is a system of which the County can be proud. The firefighters who provide these services are true professionals. The nine FDs in CSA 7 work well together as one entity to serve the public. However, the disparity in FDs (see Grand Jury fire protection reports from 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020) can cause a varying level of initial response. The current ambulance service is producing an annual financial surplus. The County and JPA can make a good service even better.

No Responses Found 1

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Elected County Office

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.