By Lynn Safranek and Maggie O’Brien
The Omaha World-Herald
OMAHA, Neb. — As the public gets a chance to weigh in today on a proposal to repeal the Omaha law guaranteeing four firefighters per truck, a councilwoman continues to press the idea of replacing captains on ambulances.
City Councilwoman Jean Stothert said replacing captains with lesser-paid but still experienced paramedics would not jeopardize public safety.
That’s despite the advice her husband, the Fire Department’s volunteer medical director, gave department officials in June.
Dr. Joe Stothert said at an emergency medical services committee meeting that he was concerned that suddenly having less-experienced paramedics fill in for captains would create safety and chain-of-command problems, according to minutes from the meeting obtained by The World-Herald.
The committee’s recommendation letter asked the department to provide extensive training to firefighters stepping back into roles as paramedics.
“We feel that the policy diminishes the quality of patient care delivered to the people of Omaha and compromises patient and firefighter safety in many ways,” the recommendation says.
Both Fire Department staffing proposals surfaced as the City Council searched for ways to cover budget shortfalls for the current year and 2010. It’s not clear what kind of savings either proposal would yield.
Jean Stothert said she didn’t know how much could be saved by replacing captains on ambulances, and the current contract with the fire union still would require four firefighters per truck even if the minimum-staffing ordinance is repealed.
For the second time in a month, the council today will hold a public hearing on whether the city should repeal that minimum-staffing ordinance.
Firefighters are expected to argue that the law is an insurance policy on their safety, while others will argue the department needs to take its share of budget cuts.
A nonprofit group is pressuring the council to repeal the law. The group, called Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector, was formed by local businessmen Mike Simmons, George Venteicher, Rick Bettger and David Nabity to monitor government spending.
Council members reached Monday generally declined to indicate whether sentiment has shifted since the council voted 4-3 on July 28 against repealing the 2000 ordinance.
Councilman Franklin Thompson, who proposed the second vote, said: “The answer I’m getting from council members is, ‘I’ll think about it.’ I’m not getting a hard no, and I’m not getting a hard yes.”
Jean Stothert, who favored repeal during the last vote but declined to say how she would vote this time, proposed in a Friday letter to Mayor Jim Suttle that he direct the department to replace captains on ambulances with lesser-paid paramedics within a week.
She said Monday that she and her husband’s divergent views reflect their different roles — hers as a policy-maker and his as a medical director. She said she agrees a medic unit should have at least one veteran staffer, but she said it doesn’t have to be a higher-paid captain.
In the past, whenever an ambulance answered a call for help, one of the paramedics on board was a captain, with at least six years of experience, and the other was a firefighter paramedic, who may have as little as two years of experience.
In June, the Fire Department began allowing firefighter paramedics to sub for captain paramedics on leave.
At an emergency medical services committee meeting, Dr. Stothert expressed that “over time and with training this transition could work but that it could not just be done tomorrow and without planning,” according to minutes from the meeting.
Omaha Fire Chief Mike McDonnell declined to be interviewed.
“Negotiations are currently taking place between the fire union and the city,” he said in a statement. “And the appropriate place for this discussion is at the negotiating table, not in the media.”
Copyright 2009 The Omaha World-Herald Company