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The considerable differences between city and county versions of the governing body prompted the decision, said Mayor Mark Johnsrud and council president Bill Harnden.
“I think there’s too many fundamental differences between the city’s joint EMS commission compared to the county’s,” Johnsrud said Friday.
He also said La County Board Chairman Steve Doyle’s plan is a departure from what the camps agreed on in months of mediation.
But Doyle, who introduced his version just a few days after Johnsrud, called his draft more balanced and less political.
Doyle’s plan has won the support of Tri-State Ambulance, Gundersen Lutheran and Franciscan Skemp medical centers.
City and county leaders agreed to delay action and create a joint subcommittee to hash it out.
“This is such an important issue that it behooves us to try and work it out rather than fight it out,” Doyle said. “Everyone agrees that the worst outcome is a stalemate.”
Tri-State director Matt Zavadsky said the company, a subsidiary of Gundersen Lutheran, prefers the county’s version, in part because it grants the commission broader authority.
While Johnsrud wants to reserve the right to start an ambulance service whenever the city chooses, Doyle prefers the commission determine who provides ambulance services.
Doyle’s proposed commission also would oversee the entire emergency medical system, including dispatch and first responders.
“We think the whole system should have some governance and some long-term strategic conditioning,” Zavadsky said.
But Johnsrud wants to limit the commission’s reach to overseeing ambulance service.
The city resolution gives four of the 11 voting seats to city representatives: the mayor, two common council members and a citizen member.
Doyle’s county version of the commission put slightly more power in the hands of representatives outside the city.
Johnsrud’s proposal was scheduled for a city council vote Sept. 11.
