Salem city councilors will vote Monday on moving forward with the hiring of 60 full-time medics and support workers in preparation for the city’s takeover of Salem’s ambulance services from private provider Falck.  Staffing would be funded with a $6.1 million internal loan to cover hiring, training and onboarding. In March, city councilors unanimously approved bringing emergency medical services inside the Salem Fire Department. The transition goes into effect on July 1, 2025, the date the city’s contract with Falck lapses.  UPDATE: Councilors approve public takeover of Salem’s ambulance service Money for the new employees would be loaned from the city’s equipment replacement reserve fund to the building and safety fund to pay for the new employees, the city’s Chief Financial Officer Josh Eggleston said in a staff memo.  The city said it will hire the employees in advance of the July 2025 start date of the new city ambulance system to provide ample time for training. Staff assistants will be hired in June, and paramedics and emergency medical technicians will be hired beginning in January 2025.  According to the memo, the city plans to hire a deputy fire chief, a program manager, three management analysts, an administrative analyst, two staff assistants, 22 paramedics, 30 emergency medical technicians, and one senior HR analyst.   In August, during a meeting with an oversight committee focused on the emergency medical services transition, now-retired Salem fire chief Mike Niblock said the city’s new system would require 12 ambulances and 52 new city employees to run them. At the time, he estimated the new system would cost roughly $10 million a year for wages and benefits.  He also said the city expects to turn a profit on ambulance services through billing patients and from potential state reimbursements. Keeping ambulance services in house would also reduce costly overtime spending required when Falck fails to meet its contract requirements, Niblock said.  Fire chief says Salem on track for city takeover of ambulance service How to participate The meeting starts at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, and will be both in-person at the council chambers, 555 Liberty St. S.E., and available to watch online. Members of the public can submit a comment for the budget hearing or on any other item on the council agenda. To comment remotely, sign up on the city website between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube in English and Spanish. For written comments, email [email protected] before 5 p.m. on Monday, or submit on paper to the city recorder’s office at the Civic Center, 555 Liberty St. S.E., Room 225. Include a statement indicating the comment is for the public record. City working to get short term rentals like Airbnbs licenced    Salem city councilors will consider redefining “transient lodging” on Monday to exclude short-term rentals like Airbnbs from paying a tourism promotion fee that’s charged to hotels.  The 2% fee on hotel stays was added in 2019 and mostly goes to Travel Salem to fund marketing efforts, tourism and improvements to local lodging businesses. Under the current requirements, the fee, which must be renewed every five years, cannot be renewed if 33% of transient lodging operators object to the renewal. This would result in the fee being ended. Travel Salem requested short term rentals like Airbnbs be excluded from the fee and barred from being able to object to the fee’s renewal. The change comes as the city is working to implement a better system to track and license Airbnbs and other short-term rental properties. There are currently 20 licensed short-term rentals in Salem but the city believes there are far more operating unlicensed, City Attorney Dan Atchison said in a staff memo. City employees are working to use software to help identify short term rentals to ensure they comply with licensing requirements and pay Salem’s hotel tax, which funds cultural events and tourism. Once that work is complete, the city could reevaluate adding short-term rentals back to the list of properties that must pay the tourism promotion fee. Other items On Monday, Oct. 14, Salem Mayor Chris Hoy will proclaim October 14, 2024 as Indigenous People’s Day in accordance with the Oregon Legislative Assembly’s approval of a bill in 2021 designating the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.  Hoy will also proclaim Oct. 20-26, 2024 as Hands & Words Are Not for Hurting Week which is meant to encourage residents to join together as a family and community to pledge that “I will not use my hands or my words for hurting myself or others.”  The Salem Police Foundation will donate about $80,000 to help purchase the frame for a replacement bomb truck. The police department’s current bomb truck is 20 years old and the current equipment is outdated and in need of replacement. The total cost of the new vehicle is $383,000 and the rest of the funding will come from a $98,000 Oregon Office of Emergency Management grant, $110,000 from asset forfeiture, $45,000 from the city’s general fund, and $50,000 from the proceeds from the sale of the current bomb truck.  City councilors will vote on whether or not to authorize the city manager to enter into a contract with Phronesis Network, an organization specializing in conflict management, to provide consultant services related to watershed management. The authorization is in adherence to city policy and is necessary to avoid a conflict of interest because the company is associated with a city employee.  Also on Monday, Salem city councilors will vote on whether or not to approve an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Oregon Department of Transportation to move forward with Americans with Disabilities Act compliant crosswalks along state highways within Salem city limits. The new ADA curb ramp project must be completed within five years of the agreement taking effect, and the curb ramps will be installed in Salem along Oregon Highways 22, 221, 99E and Interstate 5 interchanges. A map of where curbs will be installed can be found online. Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE – If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post City councilors to discuss authorizing funding for 60 new emergency medical employees appeared first on Salem Reporter.