The Kaysville City Council has signed an Interlocal Agreement between Kaysville, Davis County and Davis County Cities for the transfer of Paramedic Services. This agreement outlines the timing and steps involved in transitioning Paramedic Services from under Davis County control to the control of cities. 

Each city has been organized into a group by geographical and other factors. Kaysville will be grouped with Farmington and Fruit Heights. 

In meetings attended by every city manager and fire chief in the county, the Davis County Sheriff’s Office has steadfastly insisted that any change must bring improved paramedic service, be a cooperative effort that eliminates underserved islands in the county, and establish a closest-available-unit dispatch model where paramedics are dispatched irrespective of geo-political boundaries. This preliminary plan had been developed and, if approved by elected officials county-wide, would allow the Sheriff’s office to transition out of providing paramedic service and into providing more robust and effective law enforcement service in about two years. 

Fire Chief Paul Erickson said “this agreement is a crucial step in moving forward on meeting this important service in our city and in Davis County.” City Manager Shayne Scott said future discussion would be needed as to method and timing to remove the County Paramedic Funding Levy from property taxes being collected by Davis County to pay for paramedic services. He said this paramedic program would be in addition to the established firefighter program, and Kaysville must continue to fund the program once Davis County removes the tax. Future decisions would need to be made whether this would be a tax-neutral change or whether taxes should be raised to the needed service level.  

Currently, the paramedic services are being subsidized heavily by the County’s General Fund, and the program is not sustainable. The paramedic tax no longer covers the costs of services in the County. Due to the County’s growth, there’s an increased need for more paramedic and law enforcement services (issues include increased response times, one paramedic response, billing, and supplies). 

Councilmember Mike Blackham said “there are few agencies across the county that have dually trained officers, Davis County was one of only several operating paramedic services under a sheriff’s department, and this transfer needs to go to the Fire Department.” Erickson agreed and said while that type of arrangement had been a good partnership in the past (since 1978) when there were low populations, there was now need to transition due to demographics, dynamics, and to allow officers to focus solely on law enforcement. He said 64% of Fire Department calls involve emergency medical services. 

Erickson said the entire transition would involve timing and juggling, including application for paramedic licensure, hiring and training of additional personnel, and purchasing necessary equipment and vehicles. Scott said the plan included waiting for the interlocal to pass (all 15 cities); and once unified, the group could press forward with the lengthy process. He said this would include the public relations campaign to inform the public about the need for a change in the provision of Paramedic services. The change in taxing could be confusing, and it would take some time to properly convey that information. He said Paramedic services will change drastically in Kaysville and the surrounding communities; the precise financial impact is still being established. He said the program had to be fully staffed by December 31, 2022 when Davis County will discontinue services.

Scott said there was concern any time there is talk about increasing or changing taxes, but there is an entire year (plus) built in for a public relations campaign to get the word out to the residents and educate them to understand what is happening. This would involve more pieces than just paramedics and more than just a City Council meeting (public engagement, mailers, open houses, etc.). He said all entities involved would coordinate and market the change as a unit. He said most citizens did not understand the difference between paramedic and firefighter and the hope was for the coordinated effort to assist in that education process. 

Mayor Katie Witt said the whole reason for bringing paramedics into our communities was the desire for communities to be safer and have better service, citing “maybe it costs more, but that is the value of human life.”