Council approves more than 150 layoff notices

If council members don't find what they're looking for, the city can rescind its layoff notices at any time, according to the City Council staff report.

Earlier in the meeting,, Righeimer met stiff resistance from residents and Councilwoman Wendy Leece in his proposal to explore if the city's contracted ambulance should have paramedics on staff, too.

The logic, according to Righeimer, was that more paramedics at the scene of a medical emergency the better, and they wouldn't replace Costa Mesa firefighter paramedics.

"All we're doing at this point is asking for the medical director of Orange County EMS to let us know if it even makes any feasible sense to evaluate a private-provider paramedic to increase capacity," said Monahan.

Fire Department EMS Coordinator Larry Grihalva warned the city that too many paramedics could actually be harmful because they would each get less time in the field performing the complex procedures they're trained for.

Righeimer's proposal passed 4-1 with Leece dissenting, but not before she accused him of having a larger plan.

"I think there's an ultimate goal of saving money and we're putting our residents at risk," she said.