By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
oregonlive.com
MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Ore. — A Multnomah County commissioner’s long-anticipated proposal to address the county’s dangerously slow ambulance response times will finally receive a public hearing this week — five months after she first tried to bring it before her commission colleagues.
Commissioner Sharon Meieran sought in February to have the commission debate and vote on her plan to allow the county’s ambulance provider, American Medical Response, to temporarily adjust its staffing model. The change was supported by Portland and Gresham leaders and fire department officials.
Meieran’s effort, however, was thwarted by Multnomah County Chair Vega Pederson, who has strongly opposed reducing the county’s longstanding requirement of having two paramedics per ambulance to a hybrid of one paramedic and one EMT, even in some ambulances.
Instead, Vega Pederson has said she’s adhering to advice from medical experts who say that care standards would decline if the county’s ambulance staffing model changed. Earlier this year, the county entered into mediation with AMR, which has said it can’t hire enough paramedics, and began to levy significant fines against the company.
As chair, Vega Pederson has the power to unilaterally decide what proposals come before the county commission – and which do not. The little-known authority is unparalleled among other large local government heads in Oregon and also possibly illegal.
After months of delaying a hearing and vote on the resolution pushed by Meieran, an emergency room physician, Vega Pederson will allow both Thursday.
It’s unclear why Vega Pederson finally relented. Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, a spokesperson for the chair, said the resolution “has been on the Board’s planning calendar for some time.”
“Commissioner Meieran indicated she wanted to go ahead with this matter,” Sullivan-Springhetti said. “So we’re following through on that commitment.”
Meieran, an outspoken Vega Pederson critic, said she was surprised to learn that her plan was finally going before the commission.
“The way of the chair’s office around agendas is a complete mystery to me,” she said. “They should be set in accordance with the level of importance and priority to the community, but the chair’s office doesn’t seem to share the same perspective. At least we’ll finally be having a public conversation.”
It’s unclear whether Meieran’s proposal has the three votes needed to pass.
County officials have indicated that they are working to reach a separate resolution with AMR through the mediation process by the end of this month. Sullivan-Springhetti said that the county’s health department is scheduled to brief the board on its progress with AMR on Aug. 1.
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