The City of Lockport violated the law and its contract with the city firefighters' union by privatizing ambulance service in 2014, a state administrative law judge ruled Monday.
Judge Lynn Fitzgerald of the Public Employment Relations Board ordered the city to return the ambulance duties to the fire department. But that won't happen anytime soon.
For one thing, the city's labor attorney said the city intends to appeal the ruling. Also, the city auctioned off its ambulances earlier this year and would have to obtain new ones. And thirdly, the city surrendered its state permit to operate an ambulance service and would have to go through the bureaucratic process to get that back.