Johnston Represents American Medical Response in Dispute with San Diego Fire-Rescue Over Ambulance Service Selection

Partner Pamela Johnston was quoted in The San Diego Union-Tribune article, “Calif. Ambulance Service Protests City’s Selection of Foreign Rival,” about her representation of ambulance provider American Medical Response in connection with a dispute with city of San Diego officials over their selection of a rival provider. 

According to a letter Johnston wrote to the city of San Diego on behalf of AMR, the rival provider has a spotty track record unsuitable for San Diego, the bidding process was defective and the rival provider does not meet the minimum standards specified in its request for proposals.  Even worse, Johnston wrote, the rival provider “appears to have falsified a recent proposal to Alameda County” and “may have purloined the intellectual property” of a risk management company in Texas.

Johnston in the letter asked the city to vacate its selection and open negotiations with her client — or at least start the bidding process over.

“In order to meet the city’s stringent requirements, it is essential that the contractor be a well-oiled and well-functioning, experienced (emergency medical services) provider — one that has previously performed under contracts of a similar magnitude,” she wrote.