NYSAC WEEKLY WIRE - NYSAC Weekly Wire is a re-cap of events, legislative action, and other Albany news with an impact on county government - June 23, 2000 - Legislature Gives Final Approval to Comprehensive 911 Bill
On June 22nd both houses of the Legislature approved a bill with far reaching ramifications for county 911 operations. Highlights of the bill (S. 8088-Seward/A. 11379-DiNapoli) are as follows:
Establishment of a New York State 911 Board made up of 18 representatives involved with 911 service delivery. The board will be chaired by a representative of the New York State Department of State.
The newly established state board will:
act as a resource center to gather and disseminate data; monitor and review 911 service in the state to ensure conformance with applicable standards and guidelines; require local officials to submit information concerning their respective 911 systems upon request; provide planning and developmental assistance to local governments with respect to implementation of 911 service; recommend funding to comply with applicable law and regulations; adopt non binding guidelines unless enacted by local law; and perform a detailed analysis of at least five counties' plans for maintaining and improving 911 service.
In addition, the legislation requires wireless telephone carriers to route wireless 911 calls to one designated local public service access point (PSAPs). The routing of wireless calls to county PSAPs is optional by the local government. To be eligible for local routing, the PSAP must be certified according to criteria outlined in the legislation. Counties may have wireless calls routed to more than one PSAP if the PSAPs were receiving calls in more than one location prior to the effective date of the legislation (60 days after the Governor's approval) or if the wireless carrier agrees with the county on multiple locations. Should a county not have a certified PSAP designated to receive all wireless 911 calls, the call will be routed to the State Police.
Many of the issues addressed in the bill have the support of NYSAC. However, NYSAC opposed the bill in its final form because it did not include authority for counties to increase landline surcharges at local option and did not share the cellular revenues with counties on an equitable basis. The state currently collects approximately $40 million in cellular revenues, but despite county emergency response resulting from wireless calls, counties receive none of the revenues. (Stephen J. Acquario)
File created - 25Sept00 - item found on ?NY Assoc of Counties website - they have weekly Email newsletter