The Farmington City Council has agreed to participate in a countywide transfer of paramedic services from Davis County to individual cities.

“This proposal will require a property tax increase on the City’s part and a property tax decrease on the County’s part,” said Farmington City Manager Shane Pace in the written agenda for the March 16 council meeting.

“… Our property tax increase to fund the new team will be 23%. That will be lowered by the County’s [sic] elimination of the paramedic tax to an increase of 13%. If we choose to subsidize the unit with general funds, we can lower that property tax increase lower. This will require a truth in-taxation hearing in August.”

According to Pace, the cities of Layton, Centerville, Bountiful, West Bountiful, Woods Cross, and North Salt Lake have already started funding paramedics in their own cities or fire districts instead of using the services provided by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office.

“This issue has been discussed many times through the years,” Pace said in the agenda. “I am the one who brought it up again and started the process again.”

Pace also said in the agenda the current model has worked well for the county for many years. “However, the County [sic] now has a population of over 360,000 and [is] very urban. Davis County and only one more rural county in Florida are the only entities who still run combined deputy/paramedics.”

An unnamed member of the meeting said that the reason for separating the paramedics from the sheriff’s office is not just to enhance the medical service. “There may be cases where [the sheriff’s office] may need to take police action, or are they supposed to act as paramedics? That seems like it’s not a good idea.”

“This is the right time for this to happen,” Farmington Mayor, Jim Talbot, said of the separation. “Shane has really taken this and has run with it. He has put in countless hours having meetings with the fire chiefs and the city managers to get this agreement to where everybody can really agree on it.”

The written interlocal agreement, which is directed toward Farmington, Fruit Heights, Kaysville, Clinton, and Syracuse Cities, says that county services will cease “not later than Dec. 31, 2022.”

The council passed a motion in favor of the agreement with no opposition.