TORONTO

Forget the sound and fury surrounding City Hall politics in the past 48 hours.

The grinding business of government goes on regardless. As it should.

One item that has to be addressed sooner rather than later is the future of Toronto Emergency Medical Services.

For the past week, the Sun has highlighted a string of examples of poor management decisions that stretches to the very highest levels of this important public service.

A stupendous amount of overtime bonuses being paid to senior managers is one. These overtime amounts eat into the $170 million in annual funding provided by the city that could go to hiring more frontline staff.

We named dozens of senior managers who are never required to deal with a patient earning up to 50% on top of their yearly pay rate in overtime.

This has been going on for years, unchecked and unconstrained.

Then there is the poor infrastructure spending decisions.

On Tuesday, CUPE 416 shop steward Mike Merriman told the Toronto Sun of another example that defines EMS management and its attitude to taxpayer dollars.

In 2011, EMS spent millions to expand the garage at 38 Station — at Kipling and Horner Aves. — to be better able to place support buses.

“One problem,” Merriman said. “After the huge garage was finished, somebody realized that the EMS buses couldn’t navigate the turning radius of the driveway. Nobody had ever measured it.

“That additional garage sat empty as managers tried to work out what to do next.”

That debate was fought between District 3 (responsible for running the station) and District 5 (special ops who run the buses).

The latter finally decided to store gator transport-type golf carts for special events at the facility.

Clearly a better option would have been a smaller garage (around a third of the size of the eventual building) that would have held additional ambulances at a much lower capital cost.

Then there’s the 13 new Chevy Tahoes being issued to senior EMS management.

These top-of-the-line models, issued to paramedic supervisors but rarely if ever taken to the scene of an incident, have now been fitted with the very latest in electronic surveillance and monitoring equipment called ACETECH.

Each costs several thousands of dollars per vehicle to equip and install. The units help monitor transport, occupants and communications.

Trouble is, the vehicles are never required to be first responders at the scene of a major incident. For the most part, senior managers use them on their day-to-day commute and on weekends.

The taxpayer, courtesy of corporate gas cards, provides fuel.

As part of the 2012 budget process, City Hall ordered efficiency reviews undertaken during 2012 that would include a combined EMS/Fire Service Efficiency Study. That might address some of the problems mentioned above.

Pomax Public Safety Inc. is conducting the study that will develop a 10-year efficiency plan for Toronto Fire Services and EMS.

It will also make recommendations for EMS future staffing levels.

This review, commissioned by the city manager, has now been delayed twice and is not expected before February 2013.

EMS management will be guided by the recommendations that could include a controversial merger with TFS, according to spokesman Supt. Kim McKinnon.

“Staff have fully participated in sharing information with the expert consultants and the senior management team at Toronto EMS look forward to receiving the report and its result,” McKinnon said.

“Toronto EMS’ senior management team will most definitely share the information with key stakeholders including our employees and with council at the appropriate time and with the support of the city manager.”

Merriman said his union members have seen plenty of reports in the past. They just want a commitment to better financial management by EMS and a lift in frontline staffing rates rather than senior manager benefits.

“EMS management has become too statistically orientated and based. By doing that they have neglected the human factor that my people in the field see every day they go to work.

“We just want the tools to do our jobs properly for the people who are trained to do it,” Merriman said.