The Santa Barbara County Fire Department will sell 35 unused ambulances and decline taking over services in Lompoc and South Coast areas.
The county’s new American Medical Response agreement allows the Fire Department to provide ambulance services in Lompoc, Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted not to take the subcontract.
County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said the areas are hard to serve and generally not profitable. A consultant’s financial analysis says the department would lose tens of millions of dollars over a 5-year contract term.
Hartwig also got permission to sell off the 35 ambulances his department purchased in pursuit of the countywide ambulance services contract.
County officials say they had to order the ambulances so the department could be a qualified bidder for that contract, which ultimately went to American Medical Response.
The Fire Department spent $3.5 million on the ambulances and another $4.2 million outfitting them with equipment and supplies.
The vehicles have been stored at a Santa Maria Airport hangar since January 2024 for $15,000 a month, county spokesperson Kelsey Gerckens Buttitta said.
That’s more than $200,000 spent on storage to date.
Now, County Fire will try to return equipment to vendors, and for everything else, try to resell, auction, transfer or repurpose them to county agencies.
During public comment on Tuesday, Andy Caldwell, executive director of the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture & Business, accused the county of wasting $11 million pursuing a County Fire ambulance contract.
“This thing was a scam and the taxpayers would like to have an apology,” Caldwell said.
Supervisors did not discuss the subcontract or ambulance disposal, which were items on the administrative agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.
Only Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino made a brief comment before the vote.
Lompoc and Carpinteria-Summerland fire officials have used “strong language” pushing for County Fire to take over, Lavagnino said.
“In this contract, we were allowed to have County Fire handle the Lompoc area and we aren’t doing that, and it seems to be because of cost, which Lompoc didn’t talk about, it was always about service.
“I hope at some point, Lompoc comes back and explains their position. I’m all ears.”
