Who’s bidding for San Diego’s next EMS contract

Later this year, San Diego is going to ask private companies to bid on a chance to run the city’s ambulance system.

When they do, the city’s former fire chief — who helped the city initiate its effort to rebuild its emergency medical services system — will be working for one of the companies expected to vie for that opportunity.

In October, former fire chief Colin Stowel took over as AMR’s director of fire partnerships in California. One of his first big jobs this year will be helping the company win back the role it held in San Diego from 1997 until it was replaced by Falck in 2021.

But as I break down in a new story, his involvement in the company’s pursuit of the contract sheds light on the revolving door between the public and private sectors — and on the powerful state law that guides government contracts. That law has played a big role in city politics in recent years.

Stowell talked about his role in the bidding process for a new EMS system in the spring of 2024, a few months before he retired. Now, as the city is poised to release the request for proposals sometime this year, he could still be a major player in how that new system comes together — but this time it’ll be as an employee of one of the companies expected to compete for the contract.

• San Diego made national news Friday when President Donald Trump granted clemency to Adriana Camberos, marking the second time he has freed the South Bay businesswoman, as our partners at inewsource covered. He commuted her fraud sentence in 2021, but she and her brother were convicted of fraud again last year, after a jury found she committed wire fraud 42 days after her first clemency.