By Robert Harding
The Citizen
AUBURN, N.Y. — Kezia Sullivan, director of operations for Auburn City Ambulance, told the City Council Thursday the agency is projected to generate $3.8 million in revenue during the 2025 fiscal year, which ends in June. Its budget for the year was $3.3 million.
So far, the city-run service has $2.5 million in revenue and expenditures totaling $2.3 million in the current fiscal year. Sullivan said the agency is bringing in about $315,000 a month.
Auburn City Ambulance launched in 2021 after the City Council approved the agency’s formation earlier that year. Before the city-run service was established, TLC Emergency Medical Services provided ambulance service in Auburn.
The creation of a public ambulance service faced scrutiny, but city leaders have defended that decision. After Sullivan shared the financial figures at the council meeting, Auburn City Manager Jeff Dygert — who was the driving force behind establishing the city-run service — acknowledged the past commentary and reiterated the need for the agency.
“We did take some steps within the city to address what we felt were issues,” Dygert said. “Those were issues that were identified with data and supported with data. And I am happy to say that I think if we looked at the current data, the data would show we are doing a very good job of providing a high level of service.”
The agency has 51 employees, most of whom are advanced emergency medical technicians or paramedics, and six ambulances. Every year since its creation, call volume has increased. In 2022, there were 7,075 calls for service. Last year, the number rose to 8,604.
Most of the calls (70%) are within the city and 11% are from Auburn Community Hospital for patient transfers. About one-fifth (19%) of the calls are outside the city limits. Sullivan explained that in some towns, the ambulance service is handling 50 to 90% of the transports.
Three-quarters of the calls are billable, but there are certain incidents that are not billable. Those include accidents without injuries, calls for deceased individuals, medical alarm activations and providing emergency standby service for fire and police departments.
Sullivan’s 2025-26 budget request totals $3.8 million, up from $3.3 million. Most of the budget is salary and wages for the full- and part-time employees.
Auburn City Ambulance is budgeting $305,000 for overtime, up from $225,000 in the current fiscal year. Sullivan told the council that change is due to overtime costs going over the budgeted amount in past years. In 2024-25, overtime has exceeded the budgeted amount — those costs total $225,840 — with a quarter of the fiscal year to go.
The agency does not have large purchases in its budget, but Sullivan said they want to buy an additional cardiac monitor. That will raise the equipment share of the budget by more than $63,000.
The ambulance service’s budget is part of the larger city budget that will be finalized in June. The City Council is hearing presentations from department heads this month and will work over the next two months to close an $8.6 million budget gap.
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