McCormick in Breach of Torrance’s Emergency Services Contract
Updated data provided by the City reveals that McCormick is operating in breach of the emergency services contract they secured with Torrance after a controversial decision by the City Council to award them the contract last November. That decision led to locally owned Gerber Ambulance, the previous emergency transport provider for the City, recently closing it doors after nearly three decades serving the residents of Torrance.
McCormick was the only evaluated bidder for the contract that committed to meeting Torrance’s requirement of an 8 minute 92% of the time emergency response. City staff cited that commitment by McCormick as a key differentiating factor in scoring McCormick higher than the other offerors. After several months of evaluated performance it appears, unfortunately, that McCormick is not living up to that commitment.
The data provided by the City included 775 completed “911” emergency calls received in the month of January 2015. Of those 775 calls, McCormick had a response time above the 8 minute requirement on 103 of them for an on-time response rate of 86.7%. Of those 103 late responses, 13 of them took over 15 minutes. One call in particular took McCormick an astonishing 54 minutes to respond. The data set includes 60 calls where response time data was not provided. If you assume McCormick was on-time for all of those calls, the on-time percentage only rises to 87.7% – significantly below the 92% requirement. Data was also requested for the month of February, but it was not provided by the City.
As a reference point, Torrance Fire Department (TFD) submitted a notice of default letter against Gerber ambulance for failing to meet the response time requirement. In that letter, TFD cited Gerber’s average response time of 88.9% over nearly a two year period as cause for their default.
Gerber was also blasted by public officials for failing to implement a CAD to CAD interface link with Torrance’s computer aided dispatch system. Councilman Weideman cited that issue as a key reason for ruling in favor of McCormick and was quoted as saying, “If the customer says ‘You have to integrate with our systems as part of the contract,’ you have to do it.” McCormick is also now in breach of that same requirement as City officials confirmed they have yet to complete the interface even though they were contractually required to do so within the first 90 days of the contract.
Gerber was able to achieve a 88.9% response rate even though it was standard practice for them to be called “code 2” (no lights and sirens) to the scene almost exclusively. Rumors have persisted in the community that TFD has allowed McCormick to respond “code 3” (lights and sirens) more often in order to aid their response times. Torrance stopped short of providing information that would clarify the issue, despite a public records request specifically requesting the data, by responding that they do not keep statistics on whether the ambulance is called Code 2 or Code 3.
McCormick’s continued non-compliance to the contract leaves the City in an extremely awkward position. Many councilmembers cited Gerber’s non-compliance with the contract as justification for making the award to McCormick. Councilman Rizzo even suggested to one blogger that Gerber’s non-compliance opened the City up to huge liabilities. Given those concerns previously aired toward Gerber, what should the Council do now that McCormick is in breach of the contract for the very same reasons and has response times that are worse than Gerber’s?
Bad business put Gerber under. They had one major client.
It stands to reason that if you lose that client, your business will suffer irreparable damage.
So to continue to put the blame on the city for Gerber going under is disingenuous.
Had they done a better job of managing their whole business, they may have been able to recover.
Anonymous, aka the mayor’s son always has to protect daddy’s decisions in the media and on blogs.
Hey! I didn’t post that!
But its true. They lost all their other clients before they lost Torrance. But I’m sure they didn’t deserve to lose those contracts either. It is all evil Mayor Furey’s fault.
Get over it!!!! No matter how bad you try to pain them, McCormick has been doing 10 times the job Gerber ever did and they have been more involved in our community in just a short time than Gerber ever was… and no sign of the Gerbers since. Because they were never local and they never cared about our city.
It was just another contract to them until it was too late. Had they services us better, this entire issue would never have come up. Instead they relied on their personal relationships with the previous mayor and council to retain their contract, rather than actually fulfill any of the obligations that were required.
I’m glad you clarified by saying blogs. This is not the media. It’s Clint Paulson’s skewed blog, Ambassador. Thank you for giving us your ambassadorial opinion. It all worked out better than winning the mayor’s race. Now you get to be an AMBASSADOR!
I just researched all the data that you posted here. Your numbers are all skewed again. I honestly think you have a problem with numbers and basic math. You just throw numbers out but don’t present any proof for what you are claiming. You are all over the place and none of your numbers check out. Readers should do their own research rather than depending on you. You are either lying on purpose or incapable of analyzing data.
You are quite adept at claiming over and over again that the information I post is inaccurate, but not quite so proficient at providing information that would correct the record. I am not perfect and when it comes to math I sometimes make mistakes. That’s why I link to the actual data so those that care to can do the math for themselves and easily ascertain which one of us is credible and which one is actually just trying to distract the reader and detract from the truth.
Why should I be responsible for explaining your lies. Another Fox News attack. You take facts and jumble them all up and sprinkle in some lies, and somehow it’s my responsibility to prove you wrong. Fox News does this all the time, and then they blast on other networks for not proving them wrong. You are wrong, Clint. Leave the Fox News crap out of our city, especially since you are uninvolved in or community. Gues you are too busy being a house husband.
Well, anonymous I do have to give you credit. What your comments lack in anything resembling substance or fact, they sure do make up for in entertainment value.
Outrageous politics. This is the price paid for campaign politics and shenanigans surrounding TFD and Furey’s election. Gerber, their employees and the residents of Torrance continue to reap the consequences. What an embarrassment.
This is exactly what TFD wanted. Their ultimate goal is to take over doing their own transports with the new rigs they purchased. I’m betting McCormick will be the last contracted provider. As a tax paying, homeowner of Torrance I am outraged at these “shenanigans.” The cost of the new rigs and personnel with all their benefits this will end up costing the citizens of Torrance is incredulous. Basic Paramedic rigs and contracted transport is cheaper for the city. Hell, we could contract Paramedic services and be just as well served for far less.
So you think McCormick fought for the contract knowing full well they were going to lose the contract once TFD decided to do their job? So why waste the time and money and effort? Seems to me to be more Fox News anti-Union scare tactics. I’ve read everything there is to know about our ambulance program, and I have never seen anything from TFD about taking over. They have to ambulance units which is nowhere near how many they would be required to have. This is all a sky is falling rumor spread by Frank Scotto and the liar of all liars, Ambassador Tom Brewer. If you see yellow teeth a moving, then you know ole Tom be lyin!
Well, you clearly haven’t read everything because the McCormick proposal cover letter clearly states the desire to support TFD in their transition to taking over transport services.
I should also mention that I have continued to allow you to post on my blog lest I be accused of stifling free speech and censoring those that may have a different viewpoint than mine. That said, I must say for the record that I find your continued mean-spirited personal attacks against those you perceive as enemies as uncalled for and extremely distasteful. My hope is that discerning readers will know from what camp these unwarranted personal attacks are lodged and that they will be as equally displeased as I am.