Murrieta Fire Chief Matt Shobert is proposing the city begin charging residents for emergency medical care.
Under the plan, Murrieta would charge $350 every time its firefighter paramedics respond to a medical emergency. Residents could avoid the fee by opting to pay a $48 annual "subscription" charge.
Shobert said the Fire Department had cut overtime, administrative jobs and other expenses over the past two years. Without new revenue the department faces having to close stations, cut firefighters or introduce other money-saving measures.
"We don't have any low-hanging fruit," Shobert said.
The plan is still a proposal, and the council took no action on it Tuesday. Mayor Doug McAllister said he hoped to bring it back for a vote in about six weeks.
The Fire Department's budget is funded primarily through property taxes, which have dropped severely because of the housing market downturn. The fire budget, which is separate from the city's general fund, is about $11.7 million.
Shobert estimated the plan to charge residents would bring in about $500,000.
Firefighters would still respond to every emergency as fast as possible, regardless of whether a resident had paid the subscription fee, Shobert said.
The chief and City Council members laid the problem at the feet of Riverside County and its exclusive ambulance service provider, American Medical Response. The officials said Murrieta was forced to pay to have paramedics on every fire truck because AMR's response times are too slow.
The contract calls for ambulances to get to the scene of an emergency within 10 minutes, 90 percent of the time. Murrieta fire's average response time is about six minutes, Shobert said, meaning firefighter paramedics are usually on the scene caring for patients long before ambulances arrive.
Firefighters responded to nearly 7,000 calls last year, two-thirds of which were for medical reasons, Shobert said.
The county's contract with AMR is up for review. Murrieta officials have been among the most vocal in recent months in calling for the county to open its ambulance contract to competitive bidding.
Follow John F. Hill on Twitter: @johnfhill2
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