If so, the Bountiful Republican may need to kill his SB183, which would take away local-government power to pick an ambulance company.
Cities and counties remain opposed to the main point of the bill - to end the "request for proposal," or RFP, process run by local governments and instead revert to a process in which the state Department of Health chooses the transportation company.
Gold Cross - it lost contracts in Salt Lake City and West Valley City after an RFP process - helped write the bill and says the RFP process hasn't been open or fair. The company believes going through the state would be more fair.
But Mike Jensen, deputy chief of the Unified Fire Authority and a Salt Lake County councilman, noted Gold Cross agreed to the RFP process that was created in previous legislation.
"We have had consensus three, going on four, years that we don't want to go back on," he said Wednesday during a meeting among local government officials, Eastman and Gold Cross.
And Scott Freitag, spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, said the process of picking an ambulance carrier through the health department doesn't foster competition. No private company other than Gold Cross has been licensed in the state until the capital recently hired Southwest Ambulance after an RFP, he said.
Eastman is concerned about situations in which governments step in and provide ambulance service - taking away from private business. West Valley City issued its Fire Department the contract for 911 business over Gold Cross.
"I will always come down on the side of business if they're fair and equitable," Eastman said. "Gold Cross has their own money in this thing. Those private-sector people - Southwest included - ought to have a chance to bid."
