materials and technical rescue incidents within Jefferson County outside of the City of Louisville. After the creation of LMEMS all hazardous materials responsibilities, along with specialized vehicles and equipment, were transferred to the Jefferson County Fire Service. City-County Merger and Louisville Metro EMS The merger of the governments of the City Louisville and Jefferson County took place on January 6, 2003. The most visible (and publicized) merger activity of the new government was the integration of the county and city police forces. No pre-merger preparations were made in regards to emergency medical services. Immediately after the merger, the Louisville Fire Department EMS and Jefferson County EMS continued to operate separately as before. The new Metro Mayor, Jerry Abramson, eventually appointed a task force to review the current EMS practices and determine in what manner EMS will be provided in the new consolidated government. The fire services in Louisville-Jefferson County were (and still are) unable to be combined as nineteen of the twenty fire departments are independent of Metro government and were not subject to any merger legislation. The findings of the EMS task force presented several methods of EMS delivery. Included ideas were retaining two separate services, tasking the Louisville Division of Fire to provide EMS coverage to the entire city-county, the subordination of EMS duties to another "parent" organization such as the police or health departments, or the creation of a stand-alone department. After much debate, the mayor's office chose to create a new department and Louisville Metro EMS was created on February 5, 2005, by the combining the Louisville Fire Department EMS Bureau and Jefferson County Emergency Medical Services. 2015 Restructuring In February 2015, with the departure of Dr Neil Richmond, the agency's first executive head, Metro Government combined the emergency medical services with Emergency Management Agency to create "Louisville Metro Emergency Services." Emergency Services combines 911 call-taking, all radio dispatching, and LMEMS into a single agency. The new agency, despite its inclusive name, does not include the police or fire department which remain entirely separate. The job of chief executive officer, heretofore both the agency director and the medical director, was eliminated and the jobs again separated. The executive assistant director of Emergency Management Agency was given ultimate charge of LMEMS and a part-time physician hired to perform medical direction. Services LMEMS is a full-time provider of Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Life Support (ALS) and