Clintonville moving to operate its own ambulance service

CLINTONVILLE – At a special Clintonville Common Council meeting, July 24, the council unanimously approved to “move forward with operating a municipal ambulance service as of January 1, 2027.”
That was the message that Clintonville City Administrator Jason Moser relayed to the Clintonville Area Ambulance Commission (CAAS) at its July 27 meeting. Also, as part of that approval, the council agreed to “continue working with the Clintonville Area Ambulance Service Commission towards an agreement to remain partners as a municipal ambulance service managed by the city of Clintonville with confirmation by the commission of that approach communicated to the city of Clintonville no later than August 12, 2026.”
That message was relayed to the CAAS Commission in the middle of a discussion about a new CAAS agreement proposed by the city of Clintonville.
When discussing the proposed CAAS agreement between municipalities that was submitted by the city of Clintonville, it was brought up that the proposed agreement did not indicate that Clintonville would have more representation when voting on issues. The amount of representation was one of the complaints that Clintonville brought up regarding the current CAAS agreement.
Moser said the proposed agreement did not include an additional seat on the CAAS Commission. Rather, the proposed agreement included the creation of an executive committee which would consist of three members. The three members would consist of a member from the municipality with the largest population, a member from the municipality with the second largest population, and a third member voted on by the rest of the commission members without the two largest population members voting. Currently, Clintonville and Marion are the two largest populations in the agreement.

Moser said financial issues would go to the executive committee, and the full commission would need to ratify any decision the executive committee proposed by a two-thirds vote. This would include the annual budget and capital purchases.
“The intent here was to recognize that the two largest municipalities in the partnership are obviously the largest financial contributors,” Moser said. “So, kind of addressing the imbalance relative to the voting versus the financial contributions to the service.”
It was mentioned that currently, Clintonville, Marion, and Dupont have submitted their intent to withdraw from the current CAAS agreement.
CAAS Director Cliff Peterson said the proposed agreement calls for the CAAS Commission to be unincorporated and non-profit. He said that will impact the amount of funds the commission would receive from the state of Wisconsin.
“You have to be very careful with that as far as Medicare, Medicaid, and what have you,” Peterson said. “It could be detrimental.”
CAAS Commission Chairman Steven Schinke said each municipality would need to discuss the proposed agreement at each of their monthly meetings, so no approval could be made at the current time. The earliest that a decision could be to ratify the proposed agreement would be at the commission’s August meeting.
Moser was asked if Clintonville would rescind its notice to withdraw from the commission if the proposed agreement was approved.
It was at this point in the discussion that Moser shared with the commission the action that the Clintonville Common Council approved at its July 24 meeting. Moser told the commission that the proposed agreement being discussed was drafted prior to the special council meeting.
“It’s (proposed agreement) still applicable, because even if the partners stay together and join the city of Clintonville in that municipal ambulance service the city would seek to amend the existing agreement with these amendments,” Moser said.
Marion Mayor Chris Goke said Marion has not yet decided where it will obtain ambulance services from once the city is no longer part the current CAAS agreement.
“We are in favor of the (proposed) amended agreement that is presented to you guys tonight,” Goke said. “We will definitely take that back to our council and then make our decision based off of where we go from there. We are keeping our options open as well.”
Schinke verified with Moser that Clintonville is looking at operating its own ambulance service and having the municipalities in the current CAAS agreement to join that service.
“I think that’s a fair summary,” Moser said.
He added, “Our hope is that all the partners will join us in that because we see it as a way to improve the service and potentially provide additional benefits to employees that might assist with retention and recruitment.”
“If that’s what Clintonville is looking to do, to bring it inhouse, we would certainly be in support of that and in support of the agreement that is in front of you,” Goke said.
Moser was asked what would happen to the existing equipment the CAAS Commission has, such as the ambulances and properties.
Moser said the service would operate as it currently operates, but the ambulance service would be under the control of the city of Clintonville.
“We’ve all paid in as partners, right, to the capital, to the assets, so that would continue,” Moser said. “If some of the partners chose to go a different direction, we need to work through those details in terms of what that looks like. I think the current agreement doesn’t have any kind of exit provisions specifically in recapturing any of those investments and assets. So, that’s an open question what that would look like.”
Commission member Lynn Jespson, representing the town of Larrabee, said he is concerned that the municipalities won’t have any say in how much they are charged for ambulance services if Clintonville operates the ambulance service.
Goke said the full commission would still need to approve the budget for the ambulance service.
Moser was asked who would run the ambulance service if the city operated it.
“I think that would be determined by the commission,” Moser said. “…Ultimately it would be the executive committee of the commission.”
Moser was asked if the city of Clintonville was willing to take up to a year to discuss the CAAS agreement to involve all the municipalities.
Moser said he did not have the authority to answer that question, adding that he could take it back to the council for discussion.
“I think the bottom line is, I think we know that the city of Marion is likely going to exit unless we find a way to make it attractive enough for them to stay,” Moser said. “The city of Clintonville’s hope is that we can do that and maintain this longstanding relationship with all you because if you lose the two largest contributors to the service, then the concern would be, what does that mean to the future of the service in all of your municipalities? Our strong preference would be to stay together and make it better through this municipal arrangement.”
Doug Behnke, representing the town of Bear Creek, said the proposed CAAS agreement was a “non-starter” for him because it called for a municipality withdrawing from the agreement to “receive the value of their contribution” from the remaining municipalities in the agreement.
“We’ve had this commission for a long time, and I think things were working fine,” Schinke said. “I know there’s problems (finding and retaining personnel).”
He added, “Me personally, I don’t think that’s going to be any benefit of what you’re offering is going to make any difference for employees. There just isn’t employees out there.”