http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-965195.mp3
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In the next two months, new chairs of Kansas city Council committees will have assigned members to work on tasks for their highest priorities. Incoming Mayor, Sly James, handed out the power positions late last week.
For the next head of the redesigned Public Safety and Emergency Services Committee, John Sharp, it will be improving response times for ambulances. The national standard is to arrive at life-threatening situations in less than nine minutes. Sharp says the city has a challenge to go to meet those.
"You're never going to meet them on 100 percent of the calls, but the ordinance says to meet them on 90 percent of calls city wide and 85 percent of the calls in four different ambulance response districts," Sharp says. "[In] the district north of the river, we're meeting them 70-75 percent of the time, and we're not making the 90 percent city wide. So we've got a ways to go."
Sharp says MAST ambulance better met those goals before the fire department took over ambulance services. He once headed Mast Ambulance.
Other council committee proprities will be laid out as new office holders are sworn in.