By Cindy Ramirez
El Paso Times
EL PASO, Texas — The county’s controversial contract with a private ambulance company will be discussed at today’s Commissioners Court meeting, when officials will consider assigning oversight of the agreement to the director of Family and Community Services.
Life Ambulance Service, which provides emergency services to outlying areas in the county, has been contested because the company has not had to bid for the contract for more than 30 years.
Recently, competing ambulance companies have asked the county to consider bidding out the contract.
According to today’s agenda, County Judge Veronica Escobar’s office has been reviewing county contracts and to which employees they have been assigned.
Staff are charged with monitoring the terms and conditions of all county contracts. Life Ambulance doesn’t have an assigned manager.
The company has 25 ambulances that dispatch from five sites throughout the county, including Canutillo, Socorro, Fabens, Horizon and East Montana.
Life Ambulance was first awarded the county’s contract in 1985, and has since received a number of automatic renewals. Under Texas law, a county contract for ambulance services may be exempted from the competitive bidding process by order of Commissioners Court as a matter affecting public health or safety.
The county’s current contract with Life Ambulance expires in September 2013, but has a one-year renewal option.
Under the contract, the county pays Life Ambulance nearly $38,000 a month for its services.
The ambulance company also bills customers and their insurance companies and, when applicable, Medicaid.
The company provides quarterly reports to the county, including statistics on its number of calls and average response times, but not its revenues.
Also today, commissioners will discuss amending the construction contract for the jail annex expansion.
The amendment will specify the project’s guaranteed maximum price, construction schedule and design scope specifications.
The $44 million jail annex expansion was approved as a two-phase design/build contract, with the first phase costing about $2.6 million.
The annex at 12501 E. Montana in far East El Paso County opened in 1997.
The expansion would fit an extra 430 inmates into the jail annex, which has a capacity of 1,450 and is 95 percent full at any given time. The Downtown Detention Facility, which can house up to 1,000 inmates, is at about 96 percent capacity.
The jails hold people who have been accused of crimes but haven’t been convicted, as well as those who commit misdemeanor offenses.
Cindy Ramirez may be reached at cramirez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6151.
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