Show us the money?
July 20th, 2007 by 
colson
We learned this week that supporters of a new ambulance ordinance for Brandon didn’t file reports of how much they spent on the April election.
A change in state law means that from now on that won’t be required.
Seems like people should know how much is spent on elections, regardless of your position on the issue.
What do you think?
Posted in Uncategorized | 
July 20th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Apparently some follow the rules and some don’t. Regardless of the “size” of the issue, laws should be enforced, otherwise what’s the point.
I read that Masur spent 600 and the other side claimed $1100. That can’t be right, Masur had a TON of signs and multiple mailings.
And speaking of “show us the money” I distinctly remember the city council promising this wouldn’t cost a penny to the city. I’ve read they’ve already ponied up $2000. True?
And WHY don’t we have an ambulance service yet????? Why hasn’t Medstar turned in an application? It doesn’t make sense that he spearheaded this ordinance change and now hasn’t applied. Is there some criteria he hasn’t been able to meet, like he couldn’t with the county? Doesn’t anybody care that Rural Metro is covering our butts out of professional courtesy and we’ve done nothing but use them throughout this whole process?
Shame on our city council for dragging this out, it seems we are worse off than we were before this whole thing started. Obviously the plan hasn’t been as easy as they thought it would be, this should have all been in place BEFORE we had the election. What a waste.
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
I do care that Rural Metro has been covering our city, and yes, it is out of pure professional courtesy. After our city voted for this insane ordiance, they had every right to say “ok, here you go then…good luck with Jay and his yuppies.” Rural Metro could have left our city high and dry, but they DO care about us and have ALWAYS cared! Along with all of that, they continue to provide top-notch, quality of care. Why, then I ask, have we all decided that they have to go? This is truely a very sad story that will only continue to decline after Rural Metro leaves. Thank you for the bottom of my heart to Rural Metro and all of your professional paramedics which DO continue to provide wonderful care to the citizens of Brandon. You are not forgotten by everyone here.
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:25 am
I posted a comment on the website article about the finance reports.
This one:
http://brandoninfo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070718/NEWS/70717029/1001
I’m pretty disappointed at how things are going. But at the same time, I’m not some pandering fool about Rural Metro. Nationally, they have a TERRIBLE reputation. Locally, maybe they’re good. But as a corporation, you’d be a fool to say that they run their business with cities in mind.
Rural Metro does ambulance service in places, but also for-profit fire services. This is the same Rural Metro that dispatched firetrucks to a house, then WATCHED THE HOUSE BURN DOWN because the people who lived there weren’t paying a “subscription fee”.
http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/funny-money-strange-money-news/28434-firefighters-sit-watch-house-burn-charge-family-10-000-coming.html
So really, the Rural Metro fire truck was there to make sure that paying customers weren’t affected by the burning house.
You’re telling me this is a good company? This is also the same company that got a nearly $100,000 fine for not following its contract in other places.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/jul/11/ruralmetro-takes-action-to-correct-problem-that/
I have no grief with R/M in Sioux Falls. But this junk about R/M being some benevolent uncle always quick with a warm blanket and a hug is, frankly, BS.
It’s a for profit company, and so long as the profits are good, they’ll be around. There’s a reason that neither Sioux Valley or McKennan still use Rural Metro for ground transports for their flight teams. Poor service.
But to pervert the issue, once again, about this rural metro issue is foolish. What’s done is done. It’s sour grapes, Rural Metro people. You lost. Get over it.
What needs to happen is some people need to be poked and prodded a bit to start answering questions about why people are stalling about someone new in place.
If we needed better response times so urgently in april, we need them even more in august. I’m a little sore about the lack of info, the lack of answers, and the lack of transparency in this deal. I supported this issue, but my patience is pretty thin now. If someone, Med-Star, is going to apply, what is the hold up? It’s a joke. And I regret supporting the matter now.
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:03 am
What about our Mayor or Council…didn’t they have to abide by this? Why would we not want to have this law in place? I think the citizens have a right to know what is being spent on issues and campaigns.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
There are many good reasons as to why all campaigns should have to disclose who they recieve donations from and how much they spend. I want to know which businesses gave how much money to a senator or representative, which elected officials gave to which ballot issue, or which union gave to what candidate. The consequences of these contributions, if undisclosed, could lead to conflict of interest, buying of votes, or special access. The people have the right to know.
July 23rd, 2007 at 4:40 pm
You deleted my comment. Jerk.
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Roger, I don’t remember seeing (or deleting) a post from you, but I think you might be referring to the long post above from “Anonymous” that came in at 12:25 am e.
That comment didn’t go live online immediately but instead went into an “awaiting moderation” queue. That happens sometimes. I don’t know why. In this case, the reason might be that the comment contained several Web links.
In any case, I approved the comment as soon as I saw it and checked the links to make sure they were legitimate. I would have done that during business hours today, but I had a vacation day and didn’t see the comment until I checked the blog from home this evening.
So I hope that clears things up for you. If you made a different comment that got deleted, let me know and I’ll try to figure it out for you.
Thanks for posting.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:19 pm
anonymous,
Whoa there, that’s some pretty thick mud you’re slinging there. You really want to talk about reputation?? Let’s talk about MedStars reputation. Do you realize that Jay Masur has never had any 911 experience? Do you realize the reputation he has within the medical community? Do you realize what his employee turnover rate is and what the reasons are? Do you realize he’s never been able to get a county licence or local medical director? Many people know the reasons for that. Do you know the details of why he no longer services Aberdeen?
Your first link about the house burning…they said the firefighters watched it burn, not RM because of a incorporation rule. The first rule of EMS (if you’ve ever been licensed as one) is that EMS NEVER enters a scene until it’s safe. That is law enforcement/firefighters job. If EMS is hurt, who will care for the patients. You will lose your job and license if you put yourself and partner in jeopardy.
Fines… every company including our hospitals get fines one time or another, nobody is perfect 100% of the time.Here’s one of many links you can find… http://www.medlaw.com/healthlaw/EMTALA/other/oig-list-of-emtala-fines-.shtml
You better hope that your ambulance service is for profit and making money. I wouldn’t want one that’s losing money working on me, it’s dangerous and corner cutting and the customer pays the price. So do the employees. Without good employees it’s worthless. No profit, out of business. You are WRONG about Avera and Sanford not using RM (ask an employee) They created their own services so they could MAKE MONEY on it, not PAY MONEY to RM. Yes, our hospitals MAKE money, what a shock. Why shouldn’t an ambulance service? Someone has to buy the million dollar equipment it takes to run one.
It’s not sour grapes, as I have no tie to Rural Metro. It’s a matter of doing your research and getting the correct information from the professionals. It’s also a matter of the city council promising this won’t cost a penny to us, they already said they’ll pay $2000, hmmmm a non truth??
It’s a matter of dumping a service that has had a great track record in Brandon and then asking them to service us for an indefinate amount of time without a contract. They’ve treated us way better than we’ve treated them. NO I don’t work for them. But I’ve done my homework.
some of our city council members seem to be interested in pushing items that will benefit them, why is that?
Agreed, you should be sore, and we better start demanding answers, they surely aren’t going to offer them up on their own.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I would propose this, Why has not the Brandon Challenger pushed the issue with our city council, city administration or even med star?????? The answer may be simple if only the question is asked. I do think it should be asked of our mayor and council, or will they skirt the issue.
As for the the main question about funding, it would be very interesting to know who donated to the last mayor and council race. I do know that our mayor had a reception at the bowling alley prior to the election for donations by some “well Knowns” in town.
July 24th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
It seems like we get back to the same issue, what is the agenda or interest of our council and do we trust them. You have Mr Ruebin employe/contract with med star for rescue services at is various racing operations but yet he continues to speak and push various motions for an ambulance ordinance in addition to his wife. You have Brett keep doing research based on small ambulance operations such as Medstar and he even backed them on cooperative mailing. Our council is to be impartial with the residents being the most important considerations not the membes self guided interests — congratulations Mr Buck for recognizing conflict of interest and removing yourself from the vote on recent issue.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Mr Buck ought to do that more often, seems he only does it when he knows the issue will pass.
July 29th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
So….it’s been 9 days, did they get turned in?
July 30th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
So will they be fined? How much? and who?