RAHM, UNION POINTING FINGERS OVER STALLED AMBULANCE EXPANSION
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration and the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 are blaming each other for a broken promise to add “at least” five ambulances by July 1, 2016.
“As part of the side letter with Local 2, the Fire Department and union agreed they would form a six- person committee to come to a consensus on the placement of the five new ambulances,” mayoral spokesperson Juli-enn Kaviar wrote in an email to the Chicago Sun- Times.
“The Fire Department sent a letter in January of 2015 to the union president and has not received the union’s appointments to the committee.”
Even without that committee, sources said the Chicago Fire Department forged ahead with an internal study to determine locations for the five new ambulances that has narrowed the list of possible sites to “fewer than 15.”
Tom Ryan, retiring president of the Chicago Fire fighters Union Local 2, said he has “always advocated for more ambulances,” but has “no record of receiving such a letter” from the city.
“As of now, and for the past several years, there have not been a sufficient number of single- role paramedics in the Chicago Fire Department,” Ryan wrote in an email to the Chicago Sun- Times.
“Adding additional ambulances without also adding a sufficient number of single-role paramedics to staff them makes no sense and is unsafe and impractical.”
Ald. Nick Sposato ( 38th), a former Chicago firefighter, agreed that the ambulance expansion he championed got “lost in the shuffle,” in part because of the shortage of paramedics.
“There is no how, no way if they put five more ambulances out there that they would be able to man ’ em because they don’t have enough paramedics,” Sposato said. “All of these paramedics are making a ton of money because they’re working a day, off a day, working a day, off a day. That’s a brutal schedule for paramedics because they pretty much take a beating out there. If they’re in busier ambulances, they’re doing 20 to 25 runs a day, four or five runs after midnight.”
Sposato noted that a class of 50 paramedics started their 10 weeks of training this week, and another class of 50 is scheduled to start in June. A third class may follow this fall.
Only then will the debate begin in earnest about adding the five ambulances and where those rigs should be located.
“Everybody’s gonna want ’ em. The West Side is gonna want ’ em. The South Side is gonna want ’ em. The Southwest, the Northwest, the North. Everybody’s gonna be fighting [ and saying], ‘ We need another ambulance. We want another ambulance,’ ” Sposato said.