The Chicago Tribune has an article which follow a previous post concerning a decision to cancel the purchase of an ambulance that had been approved in Des Plaines.
Weeks after Des Plaines leaders nixed a previously approved ambulance purchase, three aldermen want the Illinois attorney general’s office or an outside legal firm to examine the validity of that move.
The three aldermen — Patricia Haugeberg, Dick Sayad and Jim Brookman — have asked to talk about the topic at the upcoming City Council meeting, city documents show.
A resolution approving the ambulance purchase passed in a 5-3 vote at the March 3 City Council meeting. A resolution rescinding that decision passed at the March 17 meeting, with Mayor Matt Bogusz breaking a 4-4 tie.
That initial approval came following intense debate over whether the exhaust pipe should be located underneath the ambulance chassis — called a horizontal exhaust system — or above the ambulance in a vertical exhaust system.
Citing the frequency with which ambulances idle on the scene of service calls, Brookman — a former Des Plaines firefighter — successfully lobbied his colleagues to reject the horizontal system that he said exposes firefighters and patients to potentially dangerous exhaust fumes. The city’s own fire chief, however, disagreed with the need for the vertical exhaust system.
“Right now, our practices don’t put people in the way of fumes,” Chief Alan Wax said at the time of the purchase approval.
In introducing the rescission resolution at the March 17 meeting, Bogusz said the council had found “a solution in search for a problem.”
He said selecting an ambulance with a vertical exhaust system was unnecessary and the move was beyond the scope of the council.
“It’s not a policy decision. It’s an operation decision,” Bogusz told aldermen, according to video of the March 17 meeting posted on the city’s website. “This body needs to work to stick a little closer to policy.”
thanks Dan
