Monroe County, NY Telephone Service

When used in this article, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings, unless the specific context clearly indicates otherwise:

911 SERVICE AREA

The area within the geographic boundaries of Monroe County.

E911 SYSTEM

An enhanced emergency telephone service which automatically connects a person dialing the digits 911 to the established public servicing answering point, which includes but shall not be limited to selective routing, automatic number identification and automatic location identification.

PUBLIC SAFETY AGENCY

A functional division of a public agency which provides or has the authority to provide police, fire fighting, emergency medical or ambulance services or other emergency services or private entity which provides emergency medical or ambulance services.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANSWERING POINT

The communications facility which receives 911 calls from persons within the 911 service area and directly dispatches the services of a public safety agency or extends, transfers, relays or otherwise routes 911 calls to the appropriate public safety agency.

SERVICE SUPPLIER

The telephone corporation which provides local exchange access service within the 911 service area.

SYSTEM COSTS

The costs associated with obtaining and maintaining telecommunication equipment and the telephone services costs necessary to establish and provide an E911 system.

§ 365-3 Purpose and establishment of surcharge for system costs.

The 911 Surcharge Law is to serve as a mechanism by which to impose a surcharge, which shall be in the amount of $0.35 per access line per month of the customers of every service supplier within the county, to pay for the costs associated with obtaining and maintaining the telecommunication equipment and telephone services needed to provide an enhanced 911 emergency telephone system.

Each service supplier within the Monroe County E911 service area shall begin to add the surcharge to the billings of its customers 45 days following notice by the county to impose such surcharge.

Any service supplier within the county required to impose a surcharge pursuant to the provisions of this article shall be given a minimum of 45 days' written notice prior to the date it shall begin to add such surcharge to the billings of its customers or prior to any modification to or a change in the surcharge amount.

§ 365-4 Application; limitation exemptions.

The surcharge imposed pursuant to this article shall be imposed on a per-access-line basis on all current bills rendered for local exchange access service within the 911 service area.

The surcharge shall have uniform application and shall be imposed throughout the entire county to the greatest extent possible in conformance with the availability of the E911 system within the county.

No surcharge shall be imposed on more than 75 exchange access lines per customer per location.

Lifeline customers and the county shall be exempt from the surcharge imposed pursuant to this article.

§ 365-5 Collection of surcharge.

Each appropriate service supplier serving the 911 service area shall act as collection agent for the county and shall remit the surcharge funds collected to Monroe County each month. Such funds shall be remitted no later than 30 days after the last business day of each such period.

The surcharge required to be collected by the service supplier shall be added to and stated separately in its billings to the customer.

The service supplier shall annually provide to the county an accounting of the surcharge amounts billed and collected.

§ 365-6 Liability for surcharge.

Each service supplier customer who is subject to the provisions of this article shall be liable to the county for the surcharge until it has been paid to the county, except that payment to a service supplier is sufficient to relieve the customer from further liability for the surcharge.

The service supplier shall have no obligation to take any legal action to enforce the collection of any surcharge. However, whenever the service supplier remits the funds collected as the surcharge to the county, it shall also provide the county with the name and address of any customer refusing or failing to pay the surcharge imposed by this article and shall state the amount of such surcharge remaining unpaid.

§ 365-7 System revenues.

All surcharge moneys remitted to the county by a service supplier and all other moneys dedicated to the payment of system costs from whatever source derived or received by the county shall be expended only upon authorization of the County Legislature and only for payment of system costs as permitted by this article. The county shall separately account and keep adequate books and records of the amount and source of all such revenues and of the amount and object or purpose of all expenditures thereof. If at the end of any fiscal year the total amount of all such revenues exceeds the amount necessary and expended for payment of system costs in such fiscal year, such unencumbered cash surplus shall be carried over for the payment of system costs in the following fiscal year. However, if at the end of any fiscal year such unencumbered cash surplus exceeds an amount equal to 5% of that necessary for the payment of system costs in such fiscal year, the County Legislature shall by local law reduce the surcharge for the following fiscal year to a level which more adequately reflects the system cost requirements of its E911 system. The County Legislature may also by local law reestablish or increase such surcharge, subject to the provisions of § 303 of Article 6 of the County Law, if the revenues generated by such surcharge and by any other source are not adequate to pay for system costs.

§ 365-8 Miscellaneous provisions.

The county public service answering point within the 911 service area shall be operated on a twenty-four-hour basis.

The enactment of this article shall in no way preclude or restrict the county from applying for and accepting federal moneys or accepting contributions and donations from any source whatsoever for the purpose of funding an E911 emergency telephone system.

Records, in whatever form they may be kept, of calls made to a county's E911 system shall not be made available to or obtained by any entity or person, other than the county's Public Safety Director or his designee or a private entity or person providing medical, ambulance or other emergency services, and shall not be utilized for any commercial purpose other than the provision of emergency services.

Article II 911 Call Delivery System

[Adopted 10-12-1999 by L.L. No. 8-1999, approved 10-28-1999]

§ 365-9 Policy for providing 911 service.

The Legislature hereby establishes the following policy for providing 911 call delivery service in Monroe County.

"911" shall be the primary public safety number in this county.

The form of 911 call delivery shall be the nonselective routed form, with all 911 trunk lines terminating in the county's general dispatch facility. All wireline and wireless carriers operating within Monroe County, New York, shall route all 911 calls placed by their subscribers operating within Monroe County directly to the Rochester/Monroe County Office of Emergency Communications. These communications may be by cellular or personal communications services (PCS) phone, may be digital or analog in nature, and may be voice or data.

To facilitate the 911 call delivery system and the dispatching of public safety agency equipment, there shall be a computer-aided dispatch support system.

To ensure the accuracy of dispatch, both automatic number identification (ANI) and automatic location identification (ALI) shall be provided in this system as required by New York State and federal statutes, codes, rules and regulations.

A formal personnel training and certification program for employees in the central dispatch facility shall be maintained.

The County of Monroe shall finance, administer, contract and/or staff the operations of the Central Public Safety Communications Facility.

A satisfactory method of financing the operations of the Central Public Safety Communications Facility by the County shall be determined, either from the county's general fund or through a charge to telephone users, or a combination of these and other methods.

The costs associated with any special services not designed for availability and provision county-wide to all jurisdictions which are desired by individual agencies or groups shall be charged to the agency served.

A telephone location data base needed for the automatic location identification feature shall be maintained.