Ambulance Firm Seeks Court Injunction to Stop Salt Lake City from Switching Providers
Gold Cross asked a 3rd District judge for a temporary injunction to stop the city and Southwest from moving forward.
Salt Lake City doesn't want Gold Cross to be its 911 ambulance provider anymore. Officials made that clear when they picked Mesa, Ariz.-based Southwest Ambulance to take over in April.
But Gold Cross won't take the hint.
On Wednesday, the company asked a 3rd District judge for a temporary injunction to stop the city and Southwest from moving forward.
In its lawsuit, Gold Cross says it will be irreparably harmed if Southwest starts 911 service because Gold Cross will lose a "substantial" number of employees, a "significant" amount of business, and a lot of revenue needed to pay for its employees and equipment throughout Salt Lake County.
According to city figures, the capital's business is worth $70 million over 12 years.
Ultimately, Gold Cross wants Judge Glenn Iwasaki to rule the city broke the law when it awarded Southwest the contract because the City Council didn't approve the "request for proposal," or RFP, when the Fire Department sought bidders last year.
The Fire Department counters it didn't need council approval because it had the mayor's OK. A bill now before the Legislature would clarify that councils must approve future RFPs.
The lawsuit "hasn't changed Salt Lake City's perspective that it has done the right things according to its own procurement rules, in addition to the law," said Scott Freitag, Fire Department spokesman and a member of the committee that unanimously ranked Southwest as its top pick.
Freitag has said Southwest was favored because it will be more integrated with the Fire Department and will provide ambulances dedicated to the city.
For its part, Southwest is moving forward, leasing space for its ambulances, hiring employees and buying equipment. "We're ready to go," said spokesman Josh Weiss.
While changing ambulance providers is an important public-safety decision, the public isn't privy to all the details of why Southwest beat out Gold Cross.
That's because Gold Cross doesn't want the city to release any information it submitted as it competed for the ambulance contract.
The city has given Southwest's RFP response to
Freitag wants Gold Cross's information to be released, saying the public deserves to know why the department picked one over the other. Plus, Gold Cross has charged that the RFP process wasn't open or fair -- yet it isn't willing to share its information, Freitag said.
"Gold Cross has publicly accused the city and Fire Department of making the selection in the dark. We want you, public and media, to see what it is we did."
Gold Cross argues its proposal should be protected until the court case is over because it contains competitive information. Gold Cross could be harmed if that information got out and then the judge ruled the city had to re-do the RFP.
"We have never asked to see the Southwest application for the same reasons we don't think Southwest should see our application," said Gold Cross attorney Alan Sullivan.
The city will hold a hearing to decide whether to release the information.
Gold Cross similarly took West Valley City to court when that city picked its fire department to provide ambulance service. Last year, the court sided with the city.
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