Judge: San Bernardino County may have selected a selection of an ambulance contract – Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

A judge of the State Supreme Court has blown up a decision of San Bernardino County 2023 to switch his ambulance service from a long -time AMR provider to a coalition of local fire services.

According to Judge Jay H. Robinson, it seems that the county has decided to ignore the public bidding process in favor of awarding the contract for the ambulance of his preferred supplier, consolidated fire agencies or configuration, a joint operation of 15 fire departments in the area.

Instead of following the state legislation, the county took over the process of selecting an ambulance supplier “in the kingdom of uncertainty when the proposals rise and fall on the basis of arbitrary and capricious exercises of discretion,” 38 pages are partly said in the preliminary order of Robinson.

“By inventing a new process of public procurement, the district defendants willingly released from the restrictions of the state -approved process,” Robinson continued in his decision on October 29. “This decision was without evidence a change in ambiguous motivation.”

The preliminary order stopped the plan of the County to switch the ambulance service over Confire, which had to happen in October.

Instead, AMR continues to provide an ambulance service in the unaccorporated areas of the largest county in the country, along with some cities that shrink with the county.

The delay follows the company’s decision to sue District San Bernardino in February 2024. AMR claims that the Council’s decision violates the State Law in the award of the configuration contract, which noted less points in the process of review and evaluation of the county and that the general process violates federal antitrust law.

“The county believes that on the basis of all the evidence, he has correctly assigned the contract for configuration ambulance services,” David Vert, spokesman, wrote in an email.

AMR operates in the county since the late 1970s, initially doing business as advanced life support.

In a written statement, Mike Rice, Vice President of AMR operations, called the Victory preliminary order for the residents of the county.

“We are more admitted than ever that AMR should and will be awarded to the next contract for exclusive ambulance services,” Rice’s statement is partly manifested. “This would be a constant victory for the residents of the county, as AMR’s proposal invests in the community with more ambulances on the road on the road by experienced suppliers who have been taking care of the residents of San Bernardino for years.”

In the order, Robinson suggested that the county violate the terms of its own request for proposals (RFP) – a request for tenders – in its decision to continue with confire over AMR.

“If the Council retains the only body to determine the best needs of the county,” writes Robinson, “then what use is the process of evaluating and selected orders”?

There is no warning in the document, he writes that the county can still choose a “substantially equivalent” proposal, which is more generally.

According to RFP, “the highest evaluation proposal is given the opportunity – the only opportunity – to negotiate a final contract with the board,” Robinson writes. “The district department for the purchase of the district objectively neglects the state approved mechanism for the evaluation and evaluation of the RFP by forwarding both proposals for separate presentations of the Council. It was illegal to do this, and the AMR was essentially to prevail in the merits of its requested scripture because of this decision. “

The county ignores the procedures set out in RFP, the judge wrote, creating a new “ex nihilo” or nothing.