Bid process disappointing

As an employee of American Medical Response in Spokane, I am concerned about the turn of events in the EMS bid process we participated in. AMR’s bid was submitted with the expectation that we would participate in a competitive process that was fully vetted by an independent panel. But no one else bid. And now we may have to pay.

What’s really going on is that fire union representatives with no experience designing or managing a high-performance EMS system are stirring the pot because they want to take over. The union. Not the chief and not the department.

Additionally, a company that failed to qualify because it did not have the required experience to deliver high performance EMS services in Spokane is now complaining after having every opportunity to submit comments and modification requests during the bid process.

My fellow AMR employees and I are invested in this community and proud to help save lives here. We have mortgages here, our children attend local schools, and we volunteer in the community. We’re the best qualified for the job, we’re already doing the job, and the city should finish negotiating a contract with AMR so we can continue to serve Spokane.

Lori Koch

Spokane