Lack of agreement could prove costly for Dodge Center Ambulance

For months city officials from Claremont, Kasson, Dodge Center, and Mantorville, the communities that are part of the Dodge Center Ambulance Primary Service Area, have discussed the possibility of creating a taxing district, in order to be able to raise and appropriate the needed funds to keep the ambulance going.
Now, negotiations have all but seemed to have broken down with Kasson officials calling for the city to get additional voting power, due to the size of the community, while at least one community, Claremont, says it could have the potential to create trouble, and at this point, has no interest in allowing it.
If all four communities do not agree to take the framework of the proposed taxing district to a vote by its respective city councils, or if the councils don’t agree, then well, there could be the possibility the ambulance doesn’t continue much longer.
“There are possible bad consequences. I don’t want to start threatening the bad consequences as a given but they’re out there and they could happen,” Dodge Center City Administrator Lee Mattson said.
On Sept. 19, representatives from the various cities are expected to meet at Dodge Center City Hall to once again discuss a possible way forward.
Revenue needed
The biggest reason for why Dodge Center Ambulance is looking to secure a taxing district is to be able to get support from the community in terms of revenue.
Currently, Dodge Center and Kasson give a few thousand dollars a year, otherwise, all funding comes essentially from billing insurance.
But insurance, specifically Medicare, doesn’t pay its fair share, Dodge Center Ambulance Director AJ Gengler previously explained.
Dodge Center billed roughly $1.7 million two years ago and only received $650,000 in cash, which causes concern about the long-term plan.
“You can send a $2,000 bill and you maybe will get $400 or $500 if you’re lucky from that bill,” Gengler said about reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid.
With 60 to 70% of rural EMS calls being those patients, Gengler knows there needs to be other ways to generate revenue.
It led to issues with operating costs, even forcing the Ambulance recently to cut a full-time staff position, to help even the operating costs, getting it back to a break-even point. The Ambulance is able to do so due to having 14,000 volunteer hours last year.
But when it comes to long-term investments, specifically equipment, the lack of funding doesn’t allow for the Ambulance to pay for it, which is the main goal for now, of the Taxing District.
Not personal
Claremont Mayor Tasha Dahl, in an interview last week, explained her city council’s objection to a weighted voting system isn’t about Kasson, but rather the big picture.
“The standpoint that the Claremont Council is taking at this time is we don’t feel any city should have any additional voting rights, that every city should have equal voting power, and really the backbone to that is more in line with the stance that some point in time there is always the potential that you get put in a position where there’s an opportunity to be on the board to be there without the best intent,” she said.
Dahl explained the concern is, if a community has additional voting power, it would essentially only take one other community to agree with them, in order to pass or reject any item before the Taxing District.
“It’s not directed towards Kasson specifically,” Dahl said. “We’re looking broad picture, so we don’t feel any city should have additional voting power.”
For example, she said if a city had more voting power, and they convinced one other voting member to stand with them, that regardless of what the item is “the answer is no” for replacing needed equipment it could put the Ambulance in a bad position.
It goes the other way, as well, Dahl said, noting a community could decide it wants to make “lavish” expenditures, have one other community agree, and then the rest of the cities are stuck with the costs.
No signs of surrendering
Mattson, when pressed on what the next step is, if negotiations break down at the Sept. 19 meeting, said he would go back to the Dodge Center City Council and ask how they want to proceed.
“Our council is frustrated too that… discussions continue, and we are not sure if all the parties are going to come to an agreement about how we should move forward,” Mattson said.
All options would be on the table including giving up on its ambulance altogether, although Mattson said they aren’t giving ultimatums at this point, saying his hope is negotiations could yield some sort of agreement between all the different communities.
“That’s not off the table. I think it’s unlikely in the short term, but it’s one more step in that direction,” Mattson said.
He added, “I think it’s most likely in my opinion that if it all falls apart that we wait and see what the state’s going to do this year before we make a final decision.”
But as Dahl noted, there currently isn’t an appetite by Claremont’s City Council to give up any of its voting power, in order to secure a deal.
“At this point there’s no vision of surrendering,” she said.