Ambulance committee fails to muster quorum

It will be at least Aug. 5 before the committee charged with recommending how to provide ambulance and rescue service for parish residents outside the Ruston city limits resumes its discussions.

But exactly who will be sitting around the table is now in question. Wednesday’s scheduled meeting of the Ambulance Service Committee failed for lack of a quorum, partially because the city of Ruston’s representatives thought they were no longer on the committee.

But the city’s contingent didn’t formally resign. So, when the head counting for a quorum began, those four seats were considered in the number.

That meant the presumed 16-member committee needed nine members for a quorum. Only seven were present. One of those, Choudrant Mayor Bill Sanderson, arrived seven minutes after the 9 a.m. start time.

By then, Assistant District Attorney Lewis Jones, the panel’s legal counsel, had already declared no quorum present and the meeting had been rescheduled for Aug. 5. Jones is not on the committee but has been convening the group since its first meeting in April.

Jones said after the meeting, he would ask parish Administrator Doug Postel to contact Ruston to determine the status of its members.

“We want to know if they still plan on being part of the committee,” Jones said.

Evidently they don’t. In a prepared statement released around midday, Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said the city’s off the committee.

“We believed that upon the Lincoln Parish Police Jury’s rejection of our EMS/Rescue service proposal at their July 12 meeting, we were no longer considered voting members of the commission,” Walker said.

“If that is a misinterpretation of events, we will be happy to submit a letter requesting each of our four committee members be dismissed. We feel it would be unfair for the city to retain voting privileges of the committee related to issues that do not affect the city of Ruston.”

The panel’s inability to meet further shortens the time it has left to make a recommendation to the Lincoln Parish Police Jury on what to do when the parish’s current contract with the Ruston Fire Department ends at midnight Dec. 31.

Last week, the jury rejected the committee’s recommendation to accept Ruston’s one-time $645,604 offer to extend EMS and rescue service parish wide through 2023. Two days later, the city withdrew its proposal.

The composition of the Ambulance Service Committee has been nebulous since it came into being.

On Feb. 8, the police jury authorized formation of the committee and tapped jury President Richard Durrett to appoint its members. The group never elected a chairman.

Jones said he was asked by Postel to convene the panel’s first meeting on April 28. That practice has continued. Jones said he still has no list of committee members.

At various times over the three-plus months of the committee’s life, supposed members have said they don’t know who’s on the panel either.

A list obtained by the Leader last week from the police jury office shows 14 people: three from the city of Ruston, three jurors, one representative each from the Lincoln Parish Fire Protection District No. 1, Grambling, Simsboro, Dubach, Choudrant, Downsville, and the Health Hut and one citizen member at large.

But Wednesday, Durrett said the committee has 16 members, with the jury and Ruston having four. He said the two additional representatives were added early on, but he couldn’t name them.

He and jury Vice President Milton Melton were present Wednesday. So were Dubach Mayor Mona Wilson, Downsville Mayor Reggie Skains, Simsboro representative Stephen Yeich, citizen representative Charlie Edwards and Choudrant’s Sanderson.

Both fire district representative Richard Aillet and Grambling representative police Chief Tommy Clark were out of town. Juror Annette Straughter was also absent. Heath Hut representative Jackie White has not attended a meeting.

So far, the committee has only one proposal for ambulance service on the table and none for rescue. Pafford EMS has offered to furnish one advance life support ambulance for $360,000 annually for five years.

Though the parish fire district continues to say it’s interested in providing service, it has yet to put in an offer.

“We’re still trying to figure out our costs,” parish Chief Kevin Reynolds said.