NY city auctions off ambulances despite union grievance over elimination of service

By Thomas J. Prohaska
The Buffalo News

LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Almost two years after the city stopped its ambulance service, Lockport's two ambulances were auctioned off last week – even though a grievance over the elimination of the service has yet to be resolved.

The ambulances were among a long list of surplus city equipment offered for sale in an online sale through Auctions International. The city also sold a paving machine, a pavement crack-sealing machine, and an assortment of mowers, snowplow blades and vehicles, some dating back from the 1980s or '90s.

The ambulances both were 2008 models with about 65,000 miles on them. One sold for $11,301 and the other for $11,601 in bidding that began May 20 and ended last Monday.

Mayor Anne E. McCaffrey said that both ambulances were purchased by the same bidder. The mayor said Highways and Parks Director Michael E. Hoffman told her that the buyer was from downstate, but she wasn't sure whether it was a municipality, a fire company or an ambulance company. Bids on Auctions International are under anonymous names.

The sale of the ambulances came before the resolution of a grievance filed by the firefighters' union over the September 2014 elimination of ambulance service and a connected reduction in minimum staffing levels on each Fire Department shift.

Firefighter Kevin W. Pratt, president of the Lockport Professional Fire Fighters Association, said the matter was argued months ago before an arbitrator from the state Public Employment Relations Board, but no ruling has been issued; nor is it known when one will be made. The PERB arbitrator conceivably could order the city to return to offering its own ambulance service, instead of through its contract with Twin City Ambulance Service.

"I'm surprised only because they were advised by legal counsel not to sell them until the results of the PERB hearing were in," Pratt said.

McCaffrey said, "They've been sitting for a couple of years. They're depreciating."

She added that Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano "is aware of the sale and confirms there is no municipal purpose for them."

Of the ambulances, Pratt said, "They were on their last legs, anyway. They weren't roadworthy. So if we get back into the ambulance business, we'd have to get new ambulances, anyway. It doesn't break my heart one way or the other."

McCaffrey said Hoffman compiled a sale list last fall, but decided to delay the auction until spring in hopes of getting better prices, especially for the paving equipment. The paver, purchased in 2004, sold for $13,101, even though it hasn't been used for several years. The sale listing said that it has no batteries and "an undiagnosed electrical problem."

The crack sealer, which dates from 1999 and hasn't been used in two years although it works, sold for $9,101.

In all, the auction of 26 items brought in bids totaling $57,991, according to the Auctions International website.

Copyright 2016 The Buffalo News

from EMS via xlomafota13 on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1UvNDot
via IFTTT