Tension builds in Medford over ambulance contract

The city has entered into a three-year contract with Cataldo Ambulance Service, which has left several City Council members, as well as members of the city’s previous ambulance provider, Armstrong, wondering why?

In a released statement last month, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said the new partnership would strengthen “our emergency response system while also allowing us to better address mental health and substance use crises with compassion, care, and the right resources.” 

But City Councilor George Scarpelli asked Jan. 6 to have the Committee of the Whole conduct a comprehensive review of the ambulance/EMS contract, including negotiations and transition plans. 

“What is happening to a service this community has had for over 25 years, that we’ve had no issues, no concerns, no problems,” asked Scarpelli, who admits that for him, the issue is very personal. 

Armstrong Ambulance service was responsible for getting Scarpelli’s mother to and from her dialysis treatments and he said they did so with utmost care and professionalism.

“Armstrong is the company that everybody should aspire to,” he said, adding he believes the switch would be dangerous.

Councilor Justin Tseng applauded Scarpelli for raising the issue and said he too would like to ask why the city made the change and what the process was behind it.

Likewise Councilor Zac Bears also said for him, the fundamental question is why is the new contract with Cataldo make the city any safer than the previous contract with Armstrong. 

“I just want to see the analysis,” he said.

In support

But Police Chief Jack Buckley he didn’t mind having a conversation regarding those questions, but felt the evening was “still turning into a bit of a circus.”

Buckley said the reason for the switch was that there had been issues with Armstrong. He said Armstrong did not want to uphold the prior contract and put terms before both himself and Fire Chief Todd Evans that would cost the city money.

He also said that over the last few years there had been performance problems and while Armstrong Ambulance did work through them, “the problem is they continue.”

Buckley said some of issues are what he called very problematic response times that go into the 40 minute range.

Buckley also said it’s simply responsible government for city officials to review the ambulance service process. 

“I don’t know that this has to be dragged out through the public to satisfy everybody’s curiosity,” he said. “I think at some point, you have to trust your public safety personnel, your leaders of public safety, that they’re making decisions on behalf of this city that are responsible and safe.”

Buckley said there will be an increase in the number of ambulances committed to the city, more training, some specialty services and more behavioral support than in the past. 

“These are things that are smart decision making for leaders of this community to make, and we made them,” he said. 

The opposition

Not everyone agreed it was a smart decision, however.

Nancy Campbell, representing Teamster Local 25, read a letter of support for Armstrong from President Thomas Mari, who couldn’t attend the meeting. Mari wrote that the city has failed to identify any failure on Armstrong’s part in clinical care response performance or operational capability that would justify removal as the city’s EMS provider. 

Armstrong CEO Rich Raymond said the process for working toward a new contract, which had been going on since April, was fairly open and included a countless number of Zoom meetings.

By early November, Raymond thought they had a contract, but when he reached out to the mayor in early December saying he’d like to finalize things before the end of the year, that’s when Lungo-Koehn told him they were going in another direction, he said.

Raymond said he didn’t understand why the change when his company has an impeccable record and has been not only serving the city for upwards of 30 years, but is based in the city.

“Our footprint is Medford … We know the city better than anyone. We know the intricacies. We know the response patterns. We know where the time of day when we’re going to see clusters of calls, we move assets or ambulances in to cover all of those,” he said. “And I speak ill of no other company. I just know that we do it better, and we have the men and women here to do it better.” 

One Medford resident said for him it boiled down to public transparency.

“And honestly, at the end of the day, I think it’s about standing up for our agencies who have served this community for 25 years,” he said adding, “you know, nobody is presenting anything that is factual, hard based data.”

Simon Alcindor said his main concern is that the city has a “history of sketchy behavior” when it comes to issues such as contracts and he sees no reason why the public cannot get answers at least in terms of what the process was for making the change. 

Nick Giurleo didn’t take issue with the switch in ambulance service, but he did have an issue with something Nina Nazarian, Lungo-Koehn’s chief of staff, said. 

“She mentioned that carrying on this conversation would create ‘concern and fear,’” he said.

He called it a shameful and terrible thing to say and said the public has every right to know what went on with the negotiations, not just with Cataldo Ambulance Service, but with any city contract.

Navarian said she thought it was important to point out that situations, like reviewing contracts and seeking alternatives, happen in communities all the time. She said the chiefs and dispatch director have done nothing but try to provide the best service and solutions for the city and this conversation isn’t going to help the community if it’s protracted. 

That said, the conversation will continue at the City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday, Jan. 13 in Council Chambers, City Hall.