Torrance City Council – A Town Hall Style Conversation About Local Politics

Last November the Council awarded McCormick Ambulance the City’s emergency transport services contract. That decision ignited a firestorm within the community, the embers of which continue to burn, as it sparked accusations of “pay to play” politics  and led to Torrance based Gerber Ambulance closing its doors after 20 years serving the community.

To hear McCormick’s side of the story, I recently had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with Joe Chidley, the CEO of McCormick. When we were setting up the meeting, Joe noted “tongue and cheek” that he was available 24/7. Of course Joe doesn’t literally live at the office, but what I realized almost immediately is that he lives and breathes McCormick. His grandmother started the business and its been a huge part of his life. It’s almost as if the business is an extension of the man. He takes great pride in his company and is eager to show it off.

That pride seemed infectious. A palatable sense of purpose, and being part of a team, rather than just doing a job pervaded the atmosphere amongst the employees. Given that pride, it is not surprising that Joe believes McCormick is the best in the business. After seeing him and his employees in action, it is hard to argue with him.

McCormick’s equipment is state of the art. Evidence of this is the impressive communications center located across the hall from his office. There, trained and ready dispatchers await incoming calls as a large screen displays a map of McCormick’s territory that spreads from Malibu to Palos Verdes.  Each ambulance’s exact location is pinpointed by green dots that turn red as they receive a call. You can track their progress to the scene real time as they respond to the emergency calls.

Joe will often hit the streets himself and as a trained paramedic is no stranger to an emergency scene. He struck me as a man that has seen pretty much everything and could handle himself in any situation. For that reason, I felt calm as I sat next to him while he drove with lights blazing and expertly maneuvered through traffic to the scene of several 911 calls.

He told me that being out on the front lines like that is part of a “not only expect but inspect” leadership model which enables him to keep abreast of every aspect of his company’s operations.  I am sure that’s true, but I also suspect that even after 30 plus years in the business that he’s still hooked to that adrenaline rush that comes with trauma. Indeed, I sensed a twinge of disappointment when the traffic collision and other incidents we responded to turned out to be relatively minor affairs.  “A whole lot of nothing” as Joe put it.

Past Election

McCormick made headlines in the past election for its campaign contributions made in support of Mayor Furey. When I asked why they did it Joe bristled at any notion of foul play. He explained that all they wanted was a fair shake in Torrance. When the contract was awarded in 2011, they were the highest evaluated bidder out of 5 companies.  Gerber was evaluated 4^th yet despite that low ranking was still awarded the contract.

Joe attributed that to “cronyism” and felt that as long as former Mayor Scotto held power in Torrance that his company would never get a fair deal.  He saw that as a travesty because in his mind it cost the residents of Torrance the benefit of receiving the higher quality of service he believes McCormick could provide.

He viewed Sutherland and Brewer, the other recent candidates for Mayor, as pawns for Mayor Scotto and for that reason backed Furey who he felt would give McCormick the best chance to be treated fairly. He refutes any “pay to play” allegations and said he never asked Mayor Furey to do anything as pay back for his support.

Joe even confided to me his personal belief that he wished there was less money in politics and that the government instituted stricter regulations on how much money politicians and their supporting PAC’s could receive. Yet, despite his personal misgivings, they gave the money because in his view the reality of the situation is that is how the game is played.

In retrospect, he questioned whether his support made much of a difference in the election. He attributed Furey’s win more to a split among the Republican vote between Brewer and Sutherland than the monetary support McCormick provided.

Current Performance

Joe has made ensuring Torrance Fire Department (TFD) is satisfied a top priority and believes TFD is very pleased with their overall performance.  As a larger company, Joe believes McCormick offers certain advantages over what smaller enterprises like Gerber could provide.  For example, should an incident occur requiring a response from more units than are typically assigned to the City they are able to tap units posted in neighboring cities to provide additional support.

When I asked about response times, Joe acknowledged McCormick had come up a little short on this requirement.  He did stress, however, that though they had missed in some months that they were compliant in others such as February and March and that his expectation is that they will meet the requirement in the future as they committed to do.

I asked if they were aided in their response times by being called “code 3” (lights and sirens) versus “code 2” (no lights and sirens). He said that TFD, as was their custom with Gerber, continues to initiate all calls at a Code 2 response.  He noted this as something he hoped the City would consider changing as doing so would not only ensure they met response times, but more importantly, it would lead to better patient care in some circumstances where they might be first to the scene due to their proximity to the call.

He also acknowledged McCormick has yet to establish the CAD to CAD interface as required per the contract.  That, however, is not for a lack of trying. He showed me lengthy correspondence between McCormick and TFD’s software provider Spillman trying to establish the interface. Those conversations are ongoing and it is something Joe hopes to have wrapped up soon.

Looking to the Future

I also inquired about next year’s election.  Joe said they did not have plans to contribute at the same level, but might as they remain committed to strongly opposing any candidate they feel would not treat them fairly.

In addition to responding to emergency calls, McCormick has also quietly been very active in the community. As just a few examples, they have contributed significant amounts of money to organizations like the Torrance Education Foundation, Relay for Life, and the Cultural Arts Center. In addition, they are currently in the process of installing Automated External Defibrillators (AED’s) in various locations throughout the City at no charge.

McCormick hopes to continue what they believe is a strong partnership with TFD and the City for many years to come. Joe shot down persistent rumors in the community that TFD will soon be taking over the transport services as he does not believe that will happen anytime soon. McCormick’s future in Torrance is uncertain, however, as the City has not notified them whether they intend to exercise the option to extend their current contract for another year or solicit new bids.

I personally was sad to see Gerber lose the contract and close its doors, but I am pleased to report that an afternoon with Joe went a long way to convincing me that Torrance is in good hands with McCormick. I am willing to give them a fair shake and I hope the rest of Torrance is as well.

In a divided 5 to 2 vote, with Councilmembers Ashcraft and Griffiths dissenting, Torrance agreed to reconsider an award for the North Torrance Well Field Project. The $2 Million contract was initially awarded to the lowest bidder, GRFCO Inc, at the 09 June 2015 council meeting by a unanimous vote of the Council.  At the next meeting held 16 June 2015, Mayor Furey asked for the item to be reconsidered due to a voluminous communication received from the Center for Contract Compliance (CCC).

The CCC’s website indicates that it was founded by the Southern California District Council of Laborers and its affiliated local unions and that it advocates compliance with prevailing wage laws to establish a level playing field for contractors competing for public works contracts, guarantee workers are properly compensated, and facilitate quality construction for public agencies.

This not the first time the CCC has gone after GRFCO. Their website touts two previous bid protests against GRFCO in 2013 in the cities of Placentia and Pomona. No other successful bid protests by the CCC are listed on the website.

GRFCO representative Jim Jackson argued at one Council meeting that every city they do business with receives the same packet with false claims from their “adversary” the “labor union which is disguised at the CCC.” He stated GRFCO had provided the City with documentation refuting the CCC’s assertions as well as provided 3 pages of references and 58 letters of recommendation.

The information provided by GRFCO was initially sufficient to placate the concerns from City staff as they informed the Council in previous meetings that they were aware of all the complaints provided by the CCC, but that they had done their due diligence, contacted GRFCO’s references, and still recommended GRFCO for the award.

That position is consistent with several other cities that have confronted the same issue.  Pasadena, for example, recently recommended GRFCO for an award in May after reviewing the same documentation. City staff in that instance noted that they had contacted other entities where GRFCO had recently completed work such as Newport Beach, Santa Fe Springs, the Central Basin Water District, and LA County Sanitation District and had received positive reviews.  They also noted that GRFCO is in good standing with the California Contractors State Licensing Board.

Upon reviewing the matter further, however, Torrance staff has done an about face and reversed their initial conclusions.  They now claim they are persuaded by information provided by the CCC and that GRFCO should have been deemed non-responsive to the original bid instead of being awarded the contract. Their current recommendation is to start the process anew and have the project re-bid.

Should that occur, the City may get sued by GRFCO. Mayor Furey acknowledged that amidst the documentation from GRFCO was a letter from their attorney threatening legal action. Furey also revealed that GRFCO had made numerous requests to meet with City officials, but noted that he was not enamored by the threat of legal action and that the recommendation from the City Attorney is that “whenever anybody brings up a lawsuit that we’re not going to communicate with those people at all.”

If the project is re-bid, it will also mean it will not be completed until next summer instead of this summer as originally planned. This is because the project cannot be completed while school is in session due to its proximity to Yukon Elementary and North High School. The project would provide drainage systems for upcoming wells and is part of a series of planned projects by the City that would help alleviate the impacts of the drought.

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.