Copyright 2005 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
All Rights Reserved
By TYRONE WALKER
The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
A company that won, then lost, a bid recommendation to provide paramedic training to Mount Pleasant firefighters has appealed the decision. The protest is the second the two companies seeking the contract have filed in the last few months.
The most recent appeal, by Lowcountry Regional EMS, came after the town’s Bids and Purchases Committee recommended that Emergency Training Concepts get the contract to train a dozen firefighters to become paramedics.
The committee recommended Nov. 1 to award the contract to Emergency Training Concepts of Mount Pleasant, which bid $32,000. The committee had rebid the contract after the firefighter-training company launched the initial protest in September.
Town leaders initially had recommended the contract be awarded to the higher of the two bidders, Lowcountry Regional EMS.
The fire department wants to launch its own paramedic program to put advanced medical caregivers in each of the town’s six fire stations. The program calls for 36 paramedics, which will cost taxpayers nearly $1.7 million over the next five years, according to town officials.
In August, the fire department recommended the town sign a contract with Lowcountry Regional EMS, even though the bid originally was $2,400 more than Emergency Training Concepts’ initial bid of $33,600.
Fire department officials said Lowcountry Regional EMS has more experience training paramedics and better class schedules. The committee subsequently recommended a $36,000 contract to Lowcountry Regional EMS.
However, Emergency Training Concepts appealed.
In the Bids and Purchases Committee meeting Sept. 22, Beaufort Bost, Emergency Training Concepts chief executive officer, said the initial contract award to his competitor was unfair.
At the meeting, he told committee members that he had been confident of winning the contract even though fire department officials made no guarantees or promises and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control had not approved his company’s advanced-training course. In addition, he said his company made several key decisions before the town had approved funding for
the program or before DHEC approved his company’s training course, which occurred in July.
On April 30, Bost took out a $66,000 loan to rent a building in North Charleston and to buy supplies and equipment to teach the paramedic course, according to committee meeting minutes.
In August, Emergency Training Concepts and Lowcountry Regional EMS both submitted bids for the yearlong paramedic course.
Bost told the committee that he was disappointed when he learned Sept. 8 that the committee rejected his company’s lower bid.
Fire Chief Steve Mims maintained that the fire department didn’t pick Emergency Training Concepts’ bid mainly because the company scheduled Saturday classes, which could be tied to higher overtime costs for firefighters, according to the Sept. 22 meeting minutes.
However, Bost said his company has worked with the fire department in the past and was more than willing to accommodate any schedule, according to minutes.
On Sept. 27, the committee threw out the submissions and rebid the paramedic-training contract.
Councilman Bobby Utsey, committee chairman, said starting over was the right thing to do under the circumstances.
Utsey said the committee was not moved by the fact that the company already had spent money to put itself in a position to provide the course.
Instead, Utsey said, the committee felt the fire department may have inadvertently misled the company to believe that it would get the contract.
“What concerned us was the dialogue that went on between (the company and) our fire department staff,” he said.
The committee will meet again Tuesday to hear the appeal by Lowcountry Regional EMS. Any recommendation for the contract would have to be approved by Town Council.