Rural metro/Ambulance all things were not equal.

I am not going to going to go down the argument of rural vs. Monroe. However, companies that have headquarters here grow opportunities here. Its nice to see representation in non-profits where the board is made of COTB, board members, presidents and CEOs rather than general manager, regional vp, local spokesman, store manager. The HQ’s contribute to organizations like the United Way, WXXI, sponsor local events. They don’t have to ask mommy (out of town HQ) for permission. People can aspire to their highest dreams at locally owned company. Locally owned companies buy out other companies and bring those management positions here. And that is how Rochester will grow (not waiting for all the small companies to bring one extra person on board). All things being equal, go local.

monroe had a cheaper bid with better technology. to me that stands for efficiency and value at a time when we need them most.

The lowest bid is not always the best. It doesn’t mean that someone is low balling a bid so they can make it up later in offsets or CRs (change requests).

Frankly that sounds a little naive.

RE Technology. What exactly are you referring to? I need help understanding yoru point so help me understand it.

If it is the computer hook up well, It exists unlike Duffy asserted and City Council found out that it does exist.

Dana Miller’s letter states, “In order to ensure that we had an adequate understanding of these complex issues, Council convened a series of workshops designed to provide sufficient background to enable an informed decision.” Then he lists the workshops. Dana follows up with “…additional sessions were held with representatives of the Administration’s review committee…The committee provided substantial and detailed responses to a series of questions that Councilmembers had posed. Following the review of this information, Councilmembers had additional Work Sessions in which the merits of the two proposals were discussed along with the various clarifications that had been requested from both companies.”

They then lay out the rational for each side’s (Administration and Council) decision. Basically, Rural Metro clarified that they would meet the parameters that Monroe Ambulance said they would provide. Hence, City Council decided that many other considerations (which are listed in detail), which weighed in favor of Rural/Metro, were relevant to the final decision.

It doesn’t sound like they went about this willy nilly. Dana’s letter appears quite balanced, in contrast to Duffy’s self-promotion letter. I also don’t agree with Duffy’s assertion (in his letter) that the process he used was transparent, open, or scholarly. Basically, it sounds (from his letter) as though he had 5 self-appointed experts meet with him in a room and tell him what they thought was best. Talk about Bushesque.

Finally - City Council approves a contract not rubber stamps so there must be something else going one here.

RE profits going out of town. Let me simply add - Applebees, Walmart, Red Robin, the Hyatt, etc etc etc. As you said, the employees are here - they are spending money here.

Why not local? Well, the city council in their wisdom decided that rural was capable of delivering the same service and per Miller

picked Rural/Metro because it was a known commodity with experience in the city, was accredited, employs a more diverse staff and more city residents, and has a union, showing a commitment to fair labor-management relations.

Oh - Woman owned business. OK - Personally I think that really is great. However, I have seen with other companies that to qualify for a contract someone puts their wife or someone in charge so they can claim woman owned. I’m not saying that in this case that is what happened but I have seen it some much in the past that woman owned needs to be defined better here,.

Firing 2 hundred employees and blackmail. Monroe is much smaller and would have had to grow substantially to handle the call volume. most if not all of those employees would/could have been absorbed.

Rural is an outsider? Weill is was founded here in 1952 and bough by someone in Arizona. Outsider? So is Harris Corporation (ne RF Communications), Bausch and Lomb, Frontier telephone, RG&E, etc. Heck - maybe the Amerks if Buffalo buys them outright.