With assistance from the Integrated Media Association (IMA), a nonprofit organization focused on Internet policy, practices and service for public broadcasting, KPBS contacted StreamGuys, Inc. The station, which had provided its listeners with wall-to-wall terrestrial and Internet radio coverage throughout the emergency, scrambled to increase its streaming capacity to accommodate concerned listeners in San Diego and beyond. Rejection of the alliance model will allow fire departments to instead focus on fighting fires.ARCATA, CALIFORNIA, Febru– KPBS-FM, an NPR member station serving the San Diego region, was knocked off the air on Octowhen the Southern California wildfires destroyed power lines that fed its transmitter on Mount St. Rather than expand fire department responsibilities to all ambulance and EMS services in a manner that will diminish the quality of both, state and local officials should drop proposed fire department assumption of said services. Delaying pension reform is one thing, but alliance model critics contend it does that while also diminishing EMS services.Ģ021 has brought a particularly active fire season on the west coast. The alliance model is seen by many as a revenue raising scheme that can forestall necessary pension reform. Public pension systems in other states are facing similar imbalances. According to the California League of Cities, by 2024 cities and towns across the Golden State will see the majority, as much as 63% of public payroll, go toward paying retiree pension costs. Taxpayers in California and elsewhere could soon be paying more for government sector retirees than current public employees. “Keeping private sector innovation in EMS will continue to be crucial, but if the alliance model takes hold, the competitive pressures that drive EMS innovation could largely halt, and service could decline as private EMS providers and expertise leave localities where they feel that they cannot receive a fair bidding process.” “Like all areas of public services, EMS has benefitted from innovation, which for the most part, has originated from the private sector,” Stuart adds. In addition to increasing taxpayer costs and forestalling needed pension reforms, critics of the alliance model contend that it will impede innovation.
California state officials are on their way to codifying the alliance model through Assembly Bill 389, which is headed for a vote following summer recess. Alameda, Butte, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara counties are considering its implementation. “The alliance model looks to sidestep those crucial elements through avoidance of competition and less stringent oversight.”Ĭontra Costa County, California has instituted the alliance model. “Regardless of how a locale performs or contracts out for EMS, oversight and competitive bidding processes are crucial to getting the best services, in terms of cost and reliability,” writes Austill Stuart, the director of privatization and government reform at the Reason Foundation. The proposed fire department takeover of EMS services, a scheme which has been proposed in other communities along the west coast and would be codified statewide by legislation pending in the California Legislature, is a policy referred to as the “alliance model.” This model, critics point out, is designed to stifle the competition that brings down costs and improves service, all in an effort to avoid needed pension reform. The proposed fire department takeover of ambulance services, though it would diminish the quality of care received by Tacoma residents, will open up a new stream of revenue that government officials can use to pay for exorbitant pension costs and forestall needed pension reform. Money is the reason why the city manager and others want to jeopardize Tacoma’s emergency medical and firefighting capabilities.