Who Wants to Bid against the Mayors Ambulance Company?
Even if financial fairness could be put aside, it seemed likely that some private companies might think it was not very smart to take on the mayor’s own ambulance company. Fort Wayne is a “strong mayor” form of government, meaning that the mayor is the chief executive, and the director of the EMS department works for the mayor. In a very real sense, the EMS department’s bid is the mayor’s bid and who wants to compete with the mayor? The ambulance authority can, by its very structure, answer part of that question. The winning bidder will be selected by the ambulance authority’s nine-member board, only one of whom serves at the pleasure of the mayor, and that individual shall be barred from participating in or voting on matters relating to the procurement. Half of the ambulance authority board was appointed by the Republican county commissioners — Mayor Moses is a Democrat. Another member of the board is a physician selected by a private nonprofit physician’s organization. Clearly, the
