Napa County Responds to Ambulance Contract Protests

The following statement was released to the media by Public information Officer Elizabeth Emmett shortly before 2 p.m. Aug. 10.

In a procedural follow-up to the Aug. 3 hearing on the Ambulance Franchise RFP protests, Napa County today submitted a post-hearing report, asking the Hearing Officer to deny protests from two of the bidder firms.

If the third-party Hearing Officer accepts Napa County’s recommendation and denies both protests, the staff recommendation to award the contract to American Medical Response (AMR) will go to the Board of Supervisors in a special meeting set for Friday, Aug. 19.

The post-protest report, submitted by the , maintains that and Medic Ambulance, two companies that submitted responses to the County’s Request for Proposals (RFP) and received lower scores than AMR, failed to present substantial evidence for any of the grounds of the protest.

Both of the protesting companies alleged the RFP process or results were invalid for a several reasons; the County’s post-hearing report offers point-by-point rebuttals to each of the objections. The entire post-hearing report can be found on the County’s website at www.countyofnapa.org/ambulancefranchise.

Highlights of the post-protest report include:

Piner objected to the selection of the Hearing Officer on the grounds that he is a retired county counsel from Stanislaus County and therefore would be biased in favor of the County.

The report addressed this objection by stating that all four of the ambulance companies that submitted bids were involved in every step of the ultimate random selection of the Hearing Officer, and Piner had raised no objection to the procedure or the candidates before the Intent to Recommend AMR was released.

Medic objected to the selection of one of the independent reviewers because he was previously employed by AMR.

The County addressed this objection by stating that while the reviewer worked for AMR from 2004 until 2008, he left the company as a result of management differences and holds no financial interest in AMR or AMR West. Furthermore, even if the scoring result from this particular reviewer was removed from the financial calculations for all bidders, it would not change the outcome of the review process.

Medic objected to AMR’s proposed cooperative arrangement with the City of Napa because it would violate anti-kickback measures.

The report addresses this objection by stating Medic misread the proposal, and AMR’s suggestion to contract with the City for the purchase of fleet maintenance services does not generate an illegal arrangement.

On July 6, the Health and Human Services Director HHSA Randy Snowden issued a Notice of Intent to Recommend to the Board of Supervisors that American Medical Response be declared the successful bidder for the five-year exclusive emergency ambulance franchise in Napa County.

On July 20, Piner and Medic filed protests regarding the RFP process.

When Snowden was unable to resolve the protests informally, they were forwarded to the independent third-party Hearing Officer for review.

The County and the ambulance companies have agreed that the Hearing Officer’s decision, which is expected by Aug. 16, will be binding.

The Board of Supervisors and staff of Napa County are dedicated to preserving and sustaining Napa County for present and future generations as a community with generous open space, a thriving agricultural industry and a quality human and natural environment. Visit us on the Web at www.countyofnapa.org.