Council rejects emergency fee plan

Alicia Robinson

If you feel your left arm start to tingle, just dial 911. You won’t

have to reach for your checkbook -- yet.

The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday voted down a proposal for

an emergency medical service subscription program that charges

residents an annual membership fee or bills them for emergency

medical calls if they don’t join. But Councilman Gary Monahan said

Thursday he’ll request a rehearing of the issue because other council

members still had questions about the program. He thinks he can

persuade them to support it.

The program could net about $350,000 a year for the city’s general

fund. Most other Orange County cities have such programs, Costa Mesa

Fire Chief Jim Ellis has said.

In a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, the council rejected the medical

subscription program, which could have cost households $36 a year for

membership or $300 per emergency medical call for nonmembers. The

city already charges nonresidents who use its emergency medical

services, as do most cities.

Councilman Eric Bever, Councilwoman Katrina Foley and Mayor Allan

Mansoor voted against the subscription program. Bever and Foley don’t

think residents should be burdened with additional taxes, though

Bever was specifically concerned that individuals would have been

charged the same fee as households or businesses.

“In the name of raising money, we are whacking the average

citizen, and I just can’t support that,” Bever said.

But with discussions of the 2005-06 budget on the horizon, council

members are likely to again face the question of which turnip might

have some blood left in it.

The emergency medical subscription program was one of four

proposals the previous council was looking at to close the gap

between the city’s revenues and its spending. For at least the past

five years, the council has supplemented city income with carry-over

funds from the previous budget year, city finance director Marc

Puckett said.

Other proposals were a sanitation franchise fee, approved in

November, and increases to the business license tax and transient

occupancy tax, which require voter approval and can’t get on the

ballot until 2006.

The emergency medical program isn’t dead, Monahan said. He pointed

out that the fees billed to nonsubscribers can be covered by health

insurance, which may even cover the membership fee.

While the city seems to be in good financial shape -- a recent

budget report showed carry-over spending was cut about in half by

increased revenues -- Monahan said more revenue is still needed, so

he’ll try to convince his colleagues to support the emergency medical

subscription program.

“It just seemed like we were close but not quite there, and I

think with a little more work we can get it there,” he said.