University City Awarded $1.9 Million Federal SAFER Grant

UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — University City has been awarded a federal Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant for $1.9 million to "grow and maintain the number of trained, 'front line' firefighters" available in the city, according to a press release.

The money will most likely go toward bringing the city's EMS service back in-house, though getting out of a five-year contract with the private ambulance service Gateway may yet prove challenging. The city will hold a study session on the EMS service today at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.

Many citizens have complained about Gateway's billing and response times since the city outsourced the service in 2015, with some suggesting the company's numbers don't add up.

An official analysis by the last administration found that Gateway's response times were, on average, about a minute faster than the old in-house ambulance service. That was one of the city's stated intentions three years ago, to speed up ambulance service by stationing crews in their ambulances at hot spots around the city, rather than at a central firehouse.

But documents show dozens of discrepancies between the city's raw data and the data provided for independent review. Some incidents included in the city's data were not sent to the auditor for analysis, while others were duplicated. Some calls were cancelled, yet still showed on-scene times. Others, impossibly, showed ambulances arriving before they had even been dispatched.

Supporters of the outsourcing say these are normal errors that tend to cancel out in the aggregate, while critics claim Gateway is cooking the books — though the new administration has not made that claim officially.

Greg Pace, a retired engineer who helped write the Gateway contract, said the outsourcing pushback has been largely political. He has raised concerns that even with the SAFER grant, the city will not be able to afford to bring its ambulance service back in-house, asking in an email to city staff: "Do you plan to increase rates for ambulance service to our residents?"

He also raised concerns that matching funds have not yet been approved by the city council.

City Manager Gregory Rose promised those concerns and others will be addressed at the study session tonight.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for the community of University City," Rose said in a statement. "The acceptance of the SAFER Grant by the Mayor and Council will enable us to restore the fire department to full strength."

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"We appreciate the significant effort put into this grant by our City Manager and staff. This will help our community address a concern that has weighed heavily on our residents for the past several years," said University City Mayor Terry Crow.

The city thanked U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay for his support in securing the grant, as well as University City firefighter Matt Pagano, who was "instrumental in researching this grant and drafting the application."

"Matt, the HR department, the finance department, and so many others really worked tirelessly to secure this grant for the city," University City’s Acting Fire Chief, William Hinson, said in a statement. “With this grant, we’ll be able to increase our manpower and start hiring qualified firefighters right away.”

Photo by J. Ryne Danielson/Patch