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DC Mayor’s PAC Pulling In HUGE Donations From Outside The City

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A political action committee affiliated with District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bower received large donations from individuals and companies located outside the city.

Many of the donations made to FreshPAC, which totaled just less than $200,000 between August and October, came from people located outside the District. One is from as far away as California, according to a Wednesday filing made with the Office of Campaign Finance.

So far this year, the PAC has raised upwards of $300,000.

Out of the 26 donations made to the Bowser affiliated PAC, 11 totaling almost $88,000 came from outside the city. Seven of the 11 donations were for $10,000.

One particularly interesting donation came from a private ambulance operator from Georgia.

Steve Adams, president and CEO of West Georgia Ambulance Service and Southeastrans, two private ambulance companies based near Atlanta, Ga., donated $10,000 to FreshPac on Oct. 1, 2015.

Two days earlier, on Sept. 29, 2015, Bowser announced her intentions to bring private ambulances into the district to handle low priority calls.

The council passed that legislation Oct. 6 with little review and no public input at its next legislative meeting just a week later.

Bowser proposed emergency legislation to D.C. Council that would allow the city’s fire department to contract with third-party providers to provide transportation for patients with ailments deemed nonlife-threatening.

A call placed to West Georgia Ambulance Service resulted in a woman, who would not give her name, hanging up on The Daily Caller News Foundation. The woman did, however, say the company has no plans of extending services to the nation’s capital.

The Souteastrans website describes the company as a “non-emergency transportation management” company.

Upon passage of the emergency legislation, the city immediately began the process of procuring private ambulance services. After 120 days, the city will begin a long-term competitive bidding process.

The move came after repeated failures by the District’s aging and deficient ambulance fleet left people waiting for long periods of time for emergency service.

According to data presented by Bowser, the number of emergency calls D.C. FEMS receives each month has steadily increased since 2011. In August of 2011, the agency received 11,777 calls. In August of 2015, The agency received more than 15,000.

This increase in demand has led to daily occurrences where no ambulances are available and people are forced to wait for long periods.

As an example, Bowser used statistics from July 31, 2015, just an average day in the district. At 4 p.m. that day, there was just one ambulance available in the entire city. At 5 p.m., there were zero available ambulances, and the average wait time for an ambulance was more than 17 minutes.

A request for comment from the mayor’s office was not immediately returned.

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