Another exec quits ambulance firm

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 10:54 a.m.

The turnstile continued to spin at Rural/Metro Corp.'s administrative office Wednesday when its executive vice president resigned only nine days after the company lost its chief executive officer.

Robert Ramsey was chairman of the management team assigned to guide the Scottsdale, Ariz., ambulance company after Chief Executive Officer John Furman resigned Jan. 10.

Rural/Metro is the funding partner for Southwest Ambulance, which is locked in a war with the Las Vegas Valley's sole ambulance provider, American Medical Response.

Ramsey's abrupt departure is one of a string of resignations or firings that both AMR and Rural/Metro have faced since the end of December.

As Rural/Metro accepted its second significant resignation, Southwest administrators quickly moved to ensure Las Vegas residents the turbulence in Arizona will not affect Southwest's financial status in Las Vegas.

In a prepared statement released by Southwest Ambulance on Wednesday afternoon, Rural/Metro's new Chief Operating Officer, Jack Brucker -- who had been a member of the management team -- reaffirmed the company's commitment to Las Vegas.

"The changes in management at Rural/Metro in no way affects our partnership with Southwest Ambulance," Brucker said. "We remain supportive of local owner/operators John Wilson and Sharon Henry, and we look forward to entering the market under their leadership."

Southwest's application for a franchise agreement was approved by county commissioners last month. The two cities that have an interlocal agreement with the county -- Las Vegas and North Las Vegas -- have yet to vote on the matter.

Wilson, Southwest's executive co-partner and former AMR administrator, reiterated that a shake-up in Rural/Metro's front office will not affect his company because of Southwest's local ownership.

"This points out, yet again, why it's important to have local owners and operators because we don't quit," Wilson said. "We don't say one day we're going to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho."

Wilson was referring to AMR-Las Vegas Chief Executive Officer Michael Williams' decision to resign in the middle of the ambulance war to take a job in Idaho. Williams resigned four days after James Bullock, chief executive officer of AMR's parent company Laidlaw Inc., was fired.

Wilson conceded that the movement in both companies' front offices might be more newsworthy now because of the companies' intense rivalry and turf battles nationwide.

"People make changes on a routine basis," he said. "Now we have a lot of focus on it. What is unusual is Mike Williams leaving in the middle of this process."