City to seek proposals from private EMS

The Aurora City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to seek requests for proposals from privately run ambulance services after hearing more than an hour of feedback from community members who spoke both for and against considering an alternative to the city’s existing fire-based EMS operation.
A crowd estimated at nearly 150 people showed up for a meeting moved from City Hall to the Bremer Center in anticipation of high public interest. The city’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) have been in the spotlight since a February audit report revealed that the current operation has depleted all of the city’s cash reserves. City Administrator Adam Darbro announced before the meeting that soliciting a Request for Proposal (RFP) would not commit the city to abandoning its existing service, but would provide information on an alternative option.
Darbro lead off the 90-minute meeting by addressing questions that have been commonly asked in recent weeks, both publicly and on social media. One of the most asked questions, he said, is why is the city only looking at EMS for reductions or changes.
“We are looking at all departments,” Darbro began. “As we’ve stated previously, the EMS department was prioritized due to the significant budgetary shortfall and depletion of general funds that we have had due to the service. Some of the priority items for the 2026 budget that we’ll be reviewing include wage comparability, reviewing healthcare contributions (city versus employee), pension contributions (city versus employee) and then reviewing all departments. We will be looking at staffing levels and potential consolidation of duties.”
Another question city leaders have been asked is why hasn’t the county contribution toward EMS operations been renegotiated from its present level of $250,000 per year? 
“Regardless of how we decide to move forward with our service, that agreement will be renegotiated with the county,” Darbro reported.
Another common question was if the city can raise property taxes to cover the shortfall. 
“So we ran the numbers and based on our budget for this last year, the current year, if we were to raise our tax levy to the maximum legal limit of 45 cents per $100 of property valuation it would generate an additional roughly $300,000, leaving us with a shortfall of approximately $500,000,” he said, referring to the EMS department’s current $896,000 annual shortfall. “So raising property taxes will not cover the shortfall.”

Sales tax option
Another common question was in reference to using a local sales tax to cover the shortfall. The community rejected a sales tax proposal in May of 2024, but the question could be put to voters again, at a later date.
Darbro reported that using historical trends of operating expenses, revenues and sales receipts for Hamilton County, including 50 percent of motor vehicle sales and a 1-1/2 sales tax, he projected that the shortfall of expense less revenues would exceed the revenue generated by the local sales tax by 2028.
“So if we had a sales tax in place currently, if we stay on the trends of our expenses of the EMS service and our revenues, the expenses would exceed any revenue we would bring in from that sales tax,” he reported.
Darbro then reminded those in attendance that  the only action item on the agenda for the meeting was for the council to consider authorizing staff to prepare, advertise and solicit a request for proposals for emergency medical service. It does not obligate the city to award a bid to a private service provider.
“We can reject any bids that we would get if they decide to move forward,” he said before public input began.
After the public input, which is reviewed in a separate article, council members discussed the RFP process briefly before voting unanimously to proceed with seeking proposals from private ambulance companies. The vote was 4-0, since council members Wayne Roblee and Mark Dunn were both absent.
Darbro noted that those proposals will be due May 11, with the council then scheduled to hear presentations on each at the May 12 meeting. A decision could be made at the May 26 meeting, though he said that schedule is subject to change.
“I want to say that I think it’s part of our due diligence to just be able to get all the facts, so I don’t think that this is a preconceived outcome that we have in mind here,” said council member Esther Bergen prior to the vote. “I do feel it’s hard to make a decision on what options could be taken if we don’t have proposals.
“Any proposal we get is binding,” she continued. “So then it’s not just a company with a conjecture, with high hopes that maybe they could do something. It’s a lot more information and I feel like it’s something we can learn from as well. Maybe we could see that our current model is effective, but we could have something to compare it to. I would like to be able to have as much information as possible to draw on.”