Talks with Gold Cross coming

When Augusta officials and ambulance provider Gold Cross finally sit down this week, it will be with different views of the company's contract demands and after an emotional confrontation last week.

Gold Cross is the city's designated emergency ambulance provider, an issue the city and the company have fought over for years, and the company does not have a current contract for services or a subsidy from the city to provide that service. After the city failed in its attempt to reopen the designation process last year, the Augusta Commission voted in October to begin contract negotiations again and appointed a subcommittee and Mayor Hardie Davis to work out details.

All sides agree that the city sent a contract to Gold Cross in late January and that the company sent back red-lined changes in mid-February with what it would like to see instead. What happened next and why is where the parties differ.

Gold Cross Chief Operating Officer Steven Vincent said the terms it sent back were a starting point for talks.

"That's what a negotiation is," he said. "Absolutely nothing on there was a demand."

Davis sees it differently.

"When they sent that in February, it is my understanding that not only did we respond but we said, 'Wait a minute, guys, this isn’t what we agreed to,'" he said. "That’s probably why we haven’t had a conversation since February, because we said, 'Hey, this isn’t what we agreed to. We sent you what we had all agreed to.'"

Davis released a two-page summary of what was agreed to and what Gold Cross asked for, as well as a timeline on the negotiations. It shows the parties have agreed to the number of ambulances from Gold Cross and the Augusta Fire Department that will be on duty all the time, a total of 11. It also shows Gold Cross will have its own person in the city's 911 Emergency Services Center.

The sides are close on an annual subsidy, with the city offering $400,000 for the first year and $600,000 to $650,000 per year after that. Gold Cross is requesting $450,000 for 2019 and $650,000 a year for five years, with two one-year renewal options.

Augusta wants at least an Advanced EMT and would prefer a paramedic on each ambulance. Vincent said the company would do that but wants the flexibility to temporarily staff an ambulance with two basic EMTs, which state law allows, if someone is out sick rather than pulling that ambulance out of service.

Gold Cross would give up the emergency designation, which is what the city has sought for years, although Davis characterized it as the company would not object if the city sought the zone. Mayor Pro Tem Sean Frantom, who passed along an overture from Gold Cross after the city would not respond to emails, said Augusta would get the designation it wanted all along, along with greater control over the level of service provided.

"The people that work day to day together, they want to get a deal done," he said. "The elected officials are the ones that just need to make that happen. I think we will get a deal done."

Vincent said the company thought it was close to signing before but remains confident things can be worked out.

"We're just happy to meet with them and go over this," he said.

Davis said an emotional fracas he had with Frantom and the company last week "should have never happened" and was the result of the company wanting to confront the city publicly about the contract when that should have been handled a different way.

"We’ve had folks on our staff working together, trying to make this thing happen," he said. "We’ve got a meeting that is scheduled for (this) week and we’ll see what happens next."

Augusta Commissioner Marion Williams put the status of the city's contract talks with Gold Cross EMS on Tuesday's public safety committee agenda. The city has been without a contract with its emergency ambulance provider since January 2017 after the city proposed cutting a $1.1 million subsidy to less than $400,000. Gold Cross rejected that amount in hopes of negotiating something else with the city, which never happened.

Contract status