The City Council is going to publish a corrected version of the proposed city ambulance ordinance. According to city administrator Dennis Olson, the Secretary of State’s office said that is the proper procedure if an ordinance gets printed incorrectly.
The corrected portions are part of a story that can be viewed on this Web site, www.brandoninfo.com.
So tonight at the public forum, which starts at 7 p.m. at Brandon Valley Middle School, let’s avoid rehashing the corrected points, ok? We shouldn’t waste the forum’s time with person after person getting up and saying to the council, “You said such-and-such,” and the council answering, “Yeah, but we fixed that.”
Here are a couple questions I have:
1. If Brandon passes this ordinance, who plans to apply for a license, if any? The two services that keep getting mentioned are Rural Metro and MedStar. Have either of them said for sure if they will or will not apply? Has anyone else?
2. If MedStar comes to my house but I say no thanks, my family will drive me to the hospital, will MedStar still charge me just for showing up?
Here are a couple things I learned after checking the City Council’s minutes, which were published at the time.
When the Council repealed the old city ambulance ordinance on Sept. 20, 2004, councilman Dan Mostek was the only council member to vote against repealing. (He said that at last week’s public forum.) Mostek was also the only person to vote against adopting Ordinance #381, the one we’ll vote on April 10.
On Nov. 1, 2004, Jay Masur of MedStar appeared before the City Council to ask for a license to operate an ambulance for Brandon. Here is an excerpt from the minutes of that meeting:
“Jay Masur appeared before the Council requesting that the Council write a new ambulance licensing ordinance so he can operate within the limits of the City of Brandon. After a lengthy and heated discussion, Alderman Polzin moved Alderman Rubin seconded to direct the City Administrator and City Attorney to work with Jay to draft a new ordinance and present it to the Council by the December 6, 2004 regular meeting. Motion carried.”