Milwaukee is short on both ambulances and EMTs. Here's how officials are trying to solve it.

Starting Sunday, the Milwaukee Fire Department will dedicate two ambulances for lower-level 911 calls, a short-term solution to a gap in services created after one of three private ambulance companies stopped contracting with the city.

The move is expected to free up fire engines and paramedic units — which have been forced to spend more time on less serious 911 calls in recent months — to be available  for more critical incidents, Acting Fire Chief Aaron Lipski told the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission on Thursday.

For the next five to six months, the two ambulances will supplement the department’s 12 paramedic units by absorbing calls that the remaining private ambulance services cannot take.

“These units, we’re anticipating, are going to be extremely busy,” Lipski told the commission. “This will take some pressure off the system. I want everyone to understand, we’re taking little nips out of an enormous problem.”

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The problem emerged in recent months after Midwest Medical Transport Co., which covered Milwaukee’s northwest side, began struggling to respond to calls, failing to take 65.5% of them and transferring them to the Fire Department in February, according to the Fire Department.

The Fire Department’s response times for the city’s northwest side have lagged behind other areas of the city during the first four months of 2021, according to John Johnson, a research fellow at Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy.

Midwest Medical gave notice to the city in April that it plans to end its work in the city. It comes as one of the remaining private companies, Curtis Ambulance Services, has also struggled — transferring a third of its calls to the Fire Department in February.

“There is an inferno that I fear is coming, if it is not already arriving,” Lipski said Thursday.

Officials with ambulance companies have said the costs of providing such a service have outpaced reimbursement from contractors. And in terms of staffing, Lipski said Thursday, ambulance services appear to be competing with, and losing workers to, various COVID-19 testing and vaccination programs. That means fewer ambulances on the streets.

To help address those challenges, Lipski said the Fire Department is weighing several options. One of them involves “heavily” recruiting Milwaukeeans to receive basic EMT training and either hiring them or handing them off to the remaining private ambulance companies.

“So it would be our expense and their gain, but we would then have an operational advantage because there would be more capacity in our system,” Lipski said.

Updates on searches for permanent fire and police chiefs

For the first time since former Milwaukee Fire Chief Mark Rohlfing announced his retirement last September, the Fire and Police Commission on Thursday publicly discussed how it wants to select his permanent replacement.

Lipski, formerly an assistant chief, has filled the acting chief role since October, after the commission had begun focusing on its search for a new police chief.

No votes were taken Thursday, but a majority of the commissioners indicated they would prefer to appoint Lipski to the remainder of Rohlfing’s term, which ends mid-May 2022. Two commissioners showed interest in allowing any internal candidates to apply for the chief position once the term concludes.

Commission chair Nelson Soler said the commission would hold a vote on the matter at its next meeting, May 20.

“I think that he has done a great service in the last six months,” Soler said of Lipski. “He is a champion for diversity.”

Also Thursday, Soler said the city’s search for a new police chief would be suspended indefinitely as a legal dispute with ousted Chief Alfonso Morales continues.

In December, a Milwaukee County judge reversed the commission’s summer 2020 decision to demote Morales to captain. Since then, he has neither reached a settlement agreement with the city to walk away from the job, nor has he returned to work.

Last week, Morales filed a motion in Milwaukee County Circuit Court asking a judge to force the city to allow him to return to work. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for May 19.

The search for a police chief has been stalled since December, after the commission identified two finalists from a nationwide search. Now just one candidate remains, however: FBI Supervisory Special Agent Hoyt Mahaley. He has said repeatedly he remains interested in the job.

Jeffrey Norman has filled the acting chief role since late December. He applied for the permanent role last fall but was not selected as a finalist. After about four months on the job, though, he has received positive feedback from City Hall officials and Milwaukee residents.

On Thursday, Soler also praised Norman’s performance.

“I just want to commend you because you are doing a great job,” Soler said. “You are passionate about the city of Milwaukee, you are passionate about what you’re doing.”

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.