Memorandum
Date: March 5, 2023
To: The Honorable Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Michael S. Green, District 4 Supervisor
Bruno Sabatier, District 2 Supervisor
Subject: Consideration of amending the Emergency Medical Care Committee By-Laws
Executive Summary:
The Emergency Medical Care Committee (EMCC) has been at a standstill for several months due to a lack of quorum attributed to several vacant “consumer” seats. Among other issues, failure to achieve quorum has stymied a long-proposed revision of the EMCC bylaws to clarify operations of the committee and its subcommittees. Additionally, several EMS stakeholders desire to present their proposed revisions to the county’s ambulance ordinance to the EMCC for its review and recommendations prior to the matter coming to the Board of Supervisors. This important work needs to move forward.
To assist the EMCC achieve its primary purpose - advising your board on the best ways to provide efficient and effective emergency medical care to the people of Lake County - we have prepared a simple draft amendment of the EMCC bylaws that restructures the membership while still complying with state laws governing the committee. This modest change, if adopted, would give the committee the chance to regroup and timely consider proposed revisions to the ambulance ordinance. It also would allow the health services director and public health officer to participate in longer-term discussions, including future bylaws revisions if needed.
The prior by-laws offered a minimum of 24 positions and required 2/3 of the membership to show up for a meeting in order to meet quorum. The recommended changes would shrink the minimum number of members to nine (9) members with a requirement of 50% + 1 to make quorum. The nine positions are already filled and are constant participants in the EMCC.
Below is the membership positions we are offering:
• Timothy Stephens and Dr. Evan Bloom for hospital representation
• Dr. Noemi Doohan - Public Health Officer
• Anthony Arton - Health Services Director
• Chief Willie Sapeta and Jim Dowdy - Fire Districts
• Jaison Chand and Ashley Giangrosso - Private Ambulance
• Michael Green - Board of Supervisors
We also recommend eliminating certain committee seats for which participation has been less regular:
• Sheriff Howe - Sheriff
• Najia Sadiq - ER Affiliated-Medical Care
• Lt Gavin Wells - OES Director
• Zach Pindell - Fire District
• Patrick Reitz - Fire District
• Katie Baza - EMT Representative
• Lynne Smith Kinniburgh - EMT Representative
Again, our goal was to satisfy the need to establish quorum. The EMCC has two tasks ahead that it has failed to achieve: Updating its by-laws and reviewing the new ambulance ordinance that has been crafted. The simplified bylaws offered here are intended to help EMCC accomplish its important mission.
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Recommended Action: Approve proposed changes to the EMCC By-Laws.