SWEETWATER COUNTY — Funding for ambulance services in Sweetwater County continues to be a pressing issue following the failed general purpose tax initiative that would have dedicated funds toward public safety.
Elected officials during the intergovernmental meeting Wednesday emphasized the importance of the issue and the need to continue working collaboratively to find a solution. The intergovernmental meeting includes elected officials from each of the entities throughout the county, including members of the Sweetwater County Commission, and Rock Springs and Green River City Councils.
With the general purpose tax being shut down by voters, funding for ambulance service once again falls in the hands of the county. Due to this, a lengthy discussion took place during the intergovernmental meeting on whether they should continue with the intergovernmental ambulance committee.
Commission Chairman Randy “Doc” Wendling asked if the other elected officials would support “taking the ambulance off of intergovernmental”. As a response, he received a lot of opposition.
“This is a serious issue that we need to maintain communication and resolve,” Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo said.
Rock Springs Councilman Tim Robinson was vocal in his support for keeping the intergovernmental ambulance committee going.
The ambulance is going to continue to be at the top of everyone’s mind.
~ Rock Springs Councilman Tim Robinson
Robinson added that he believed even with the committee, the communication between the County Commission and the rest of the elected officials has been lacking.
Back in December 2020, the commissioners voted to terminate their contracts for ambulance funding starting March 2020 and asked the cities to help out with funding. Robinson said this move was “essentially a threat,” and that it put them “behind the eight ball from the beginning”.
Then in March 2021, the Commission decided to renew the contracts through June. Robinson said that the decision was made without informing the intergovernmental ambulance committee, which was formed in January 2021.
“It was done without the knowledge of the ambulance committee that this group of people put together with the expressed purpose of trying to find a short term and a long term ambulance solution,” Robinson said.
Robinson said that the ambulance committee should have some input and that they and constituents should be made aware of developments and decisions in regards to ambulance services.
“It seems like the Board of County Commissioners wants to run the ambulance service the way they want to run it and they don’t want the input of those who may think differently than they do or have different plans,” Robinson said.
Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld agreed with those who opposed removing the committee, saying that they need to continue work on funding options. She added that there needs to be more transparency among each other and with constituents so the community knows what work is being done toward the issue.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations, I don’t want to say in private, but it’s been in executive sessions about contracts, about things that can’t be public but we haven’t shared with the public as much as I believe that we could,” Schoenfeld said. “I think that needs to change moving forward and this is a great venue to do that and allow for open discussions around really honestly what’s going on with ambulance, what we can do, and making sure that the community knows the efforts that are being put in.”
Discussions of Collaboration, Transparency
Chairman Wendling said that he heard everyone’s opinions and concerns, and that he agreed. However, he presented the issue of who gets the final word in decisions when the county is funding ambulance services in full. He said that he believes funding requests will continue to be presented to the Commission.
“It comes out of the general fund right off the top which impacts the general fund budget, impacts the operations of the county, it also impacts the outside agencies and the services that many of us already receive,” Wendling said.
He said in joint ventures with other governing bodies, there is a shared cost and therefore shared decision making. He asked how decisions can be “honored by all” if the entities aren’t sharing the cost.
“With the county paying 100 percent of this and continually getting strapped with requests of increase… if we’re writing the tab, are you going to be upset that your recommendations aren’t followed?” Wendling asked.
Rock Springs Councilman Rob Zotti responded by saying that he doesn’t expect to make decisions in the contracts, but that when the councils’ participation was requested, they should have been informed on any decisions made in the meantime.
“I don’t expect to make a decision in the contract, we’re not contributing to the subsidy right now, but we had been asked to participate and had been asked to come to a longterm solution, and we’re left in the dark with everything. It just felt like we had no say in anything or that we had any input or any right to know what was going on, and I think that’s a good reason why the tax failed as well,” Zotti said.
Next Steps
Moving forward, the elected officials decided to continue with the intergovernmental ambulance committee, as well as with the ambulance service board, which is a separate committee. Green River and Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County have not recently been part of the ambulance service board.
Rock Springs Fire Chief Jim Wamsley, a member of the board, said that transparency and collaboration are important in achieving success with their work toward funding ambulance services.
“The biggest tool that we have at our disposal to help solve this problem collectively is collaboration and transparency. When the County Commission chose to terminate the contract with Sweetwater Medics in December, no one was given notice,” Wamsley said.
After the contracts were initially terminated, Wamsley said the Commission told the board they could dissolve themselves. They were then asked by the Commission to reconstitute the board.
“We reconstituted the board but we have not seen the feedback and the collaboration and the opportunity to have open and honest discussions like we had requested,” Wamsley said.
He said along with transparency and collaboration, expanding the board to include representation from Castle Rock Ambulance Service and Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County would help in finding solutions.
Mayor Kaumo, Green River Mayor Pete Rust, and Rock Springs Councilman Keaton West all pointed out that they have been having the same conversations since the creation of the intergovernmental ambulance committee, and that they need to actually start fixing the problem.
I’m a little bit annoyed that we have this discussion continually. Let’s fix this problem and move on.
~ Mayor Tim Kaumo
After an hour of discussion, West asked, ““Where are we going? It’s been an hour, it’s been 14 months.”
Chairman Wendling said in the next two weeks, the intergovernmental ambulance committee should find which entities are currently not being represented on the committee that should be, set goals, and come up with timeframes for those goals.
