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Matt Mace 816-737-6034 816-875-9746 mattm@raytownfire.com Raytownfire.blogspot.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 16, 2013

STATEMENT REGARDING RAYTOWN FIRE/RAYTOWN EMS MERGER

During the meeting of the Raytown city council on October 15th, 2013, Alderman Charlotte Melson spoke on behalf of the Citys EMS merger discussion committee. She stated that the EMS/Fire merger discussion committee has decided that the merger is not advantageous to the city at this time and they will not be moving forward. The Fire District continues to believe that fire based EMS in our community would provide better value to our citizens and improve service delivery. The Fire District presented a detailed proposal in May of 2013 to substantiate this assertion. This proposal was developed with the cooperation of the City of Raytown, who provided audited financial information. That information was utilized to develop the consolidation proposal. In July of 2013, the citys Fire/EMS merger discussion committee held their only public meeting to discuss the proposal. At that meeting, officials from the Fire District were discouraged from participating in the discussion regarding the proposal. In fact, city officials have avoided any discussion with the Fire District regarding the details of the proposal. Fire Board President Robert Palmer issued the following statement: The Fire District was shocked and disappointed by Alderman Melsons announcement at the council meeting on Tuesday. We were given no notice that the statement was forthcoming and were provided with a brief letter from Alderman Melson immediately after the meeting. The letter, which follows this release, contains no explanation for the decision. The Fire Board is unsure of Alderman Melsons motive, be we are hopeful that Mayor Bower and the other aldermen will intervene and bring this issue in front of the full board for a vote. Our citizens deserve the opportunity to have an issue of this importance discussed in a public venue. We remain interested in cooperating with the city to improve the value and efficiency of emergency service delivery in our community. Our door is, and will remain open when the city is ready to have a substantive discussion regarding this issue.

For reference, the letter to the Fire District from Alderman Melson and the proposal from the Fire District which was presented to the City of Raytown in May of 2013 are attached after this statement.