McCormick Performance Continues to Disappoint
Newly released metrics provided by the City indicate that McCormick’s performance of the emergency services contract continues to fall below expectations.
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. McCormick, however, has struggled to live up that promise since initiating performance last December.
The data provided by the City included 2029 completed “911” emergency calls in the months of February, March, and April 2015. Of those 2029 calls, McCormick had a response time above the 8 minute requirement on 200 of them for an on-time response rate of 90.1%. Of those 200 late responses, 59 of them took 10 minutes or longer with several going beyond the 15 minute mark. The data set includes 196 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 91% – still below the 92% requirement.
McCormick has also failed to implement a promised CAD to CAD interface link with Torrance’s computer aided dispatch system despite a contractual requirement to do so within the first 90 days of the contract.
Gerber, the now shuttered previous emergency transport provider, was slammed by public officials for failing to implement the same interface. Councilman Weideman specifically noted 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.”
No data was provided by the City on how often McCormick was called to the scene “code 2” (no lights and sirens) versus “code 3” (lights and sirens). Gerber officials have claimed it was standard practice for them to be called “code 2” almost exclusively and questions have persisted whether McCormick has been allowed to respond “code 3” (lights and sirens) more often in order to aid their response times.
McCormick’s initial contract period was only for one year and will expire this December. Due to that, the City will shortly have to determine if they want to exercise the option to continue with McCormick for another year or pursue a different alternative.
And thanks to Mccormick and the city of Torrance I am now unemployed. Great move putting people’s lives in danger. Gerber had a relationship with the citizens. Mccormick is a big company squeezing the community.
Gerber was a terrible company. They didn’t care about the employees. On the last day of the company, they didn’t even tell anyone that they were closing its doors. When you showed up to your last shift, they simply handed you your last check and said we are now no longer a company. Not once did I ever have a conversation with Mr. Gerber. On my first day with the company, during orientation, he came into the room to talk to the HR lady and simply walked out. I only found out it was him by them telling us that he was the owner. He didn’t even introduce himself or thank us for working for him, let own congratulate us on our new job. So don’t talk all this BS about McCormick when you don’t even know what kind of company it is. It has a reputation of being the best company in Southern California. Gerber was known for being a poor company. Gerber lost its contract because it’s a poorly run company. Bob Gerber never came around, he never did anything for the employees. The Ops and HR managers, were terrible at their job. They would never help you with anything. They only shot you down if you stood up to say anything. It may have been a great company but Bob wanted out. He didn’t care about the company, he was trying to sell and since no one wanted the company he was down. He’s such a rich man, but gave nothing back to his employees. Don’t even get me started on the equipment at Gerber. Some ambulances had 170k miles. The ones at McCormick are brand new, 20k or less miles. Bob May have done things for the city at one time, but by the end of Gerbers time, he was checked out. That is why they did not get their contract renewed. GERBER DIDNT EVEN GET CONSIDERED IN THE LAST ROUND. THEY WERE DISQUALIFIED FOR NOT PROVIDING PAPERS ON MONEY. Most likely they were ripping TFD off. Since Gerbers closing, most of us, the employees, have moved onto better jobs. We are all much happier and doing very well without Gerber. I’m sure the Torrance fire department will agree. Maybe city council has a bias because Gerber used to take them on fishing and hunting trips. But if you ask the fire department, they im sure are much happier. Don’t worry, we have all moved on and are very happy. Bob Gerber will be fine, he’s made millions, don’t worry about him. He kept it all for himself. Let’s all stop having a pity party for the guy who has his own boat, plane, and lives in RPV.
I agree bob didnt care about his employees ask his longest tenured employee in the billing department.