A.
This Legislature hereby finds and determines that assistance to protect
the lives and property of Suffolk County residents is almost always
summoned by telephone, that a multiplicity of emergency telephone
numbers exist within the County and that unintentional, though avoidable,
delays in reaching appropriate emergency assistance can and do occur
to the detriment and jeopardy of life and property.
B.
This Legislature further determines that the three-digit number 911
is a nationally recognized and applied telephone number which may
be used to summon emergency aid and to eliminate delays caused by
lack of familiarity with emergency numbers and by understandable confusion
in the moment of crisis.
C.
This Legislature also finds that the enhanced emergency telephone
service known as "enhanced 911" provides substantial benefits beyond
basic 911 systems through the provision of selective routing and automatic
number and location identification and that these enhancements not
only significantly reduce the response time of emergency services,
but also represent the state of the art in fail-safe emergency telephone
system technology.
D.
This Legislature further finds and determines that a major obstacle
to the establishment, upgrading and maintenance of an enhanced 911
system in the County is the cost of telecommunication equipment and
services which are necessary to provide such system.
E.
Therefore, the purpose of this article is to implement a funding
mechanism to assist in the payment of the costs associated with establishing
and maintaining an enhanced 911 system and thereby considerably increasing
the potential for providing all citizens of this County with the valuable
services inherent in an enhanced 911 system.
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
An enhanced emergency telephone service which automatically
connects a person dialing the digits 9-1-1 to an established public-service
answering point and which shall include, but not be limited to, selective
routing, automatic number identification and automatic location identification.
The area within the geographic boundaries of Suffolk County.[1]
A functional division of the County which provides or has
the authority to provide police, fire-fighting, emergency medical
or ambulance services, or other emergency services or another entity
which provides emergency medical ambulance services as designated
by a municipal subdivision.
The communications facility which first receives 911 calls
from persons within the 911 service area and which may, as appropriate,
directly dispatch the services of a public safety agency or extend,
transfer, relay or otherwise route 911 calls to the appropriate public
safety agency.
[Amended 9-17-2009 by L.L. No. 33-2009]
[Amended 11-23-1999 by L.L. No. 39-1999]
A committee comprised of the following members:
Twelve agency members, one from each of the following 12 public
safety answering points (PSAPs):
Suffolk County Police Department.
Northport Village Police Department.
Amityville Village Police Department.
Riverhead Town Police Department.
Southampton Town Police Department.
Southampton Village Police Department.
Southold Town Police Department.
East Hampton Village Police Department.
East Hampton Town Police Department.
Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services.
Babylon Central Fire Alarm and Rescue Alarm Corporation.
Smithtown Fire District.
One member from the County Executive's office to be appointed
by the County Executive.
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
One member from the County Legislature to be appointed by the
Presiding Officer.
In the event that one of the above 12 commissioned PSAPs shall
become decommissioned, either through action by Suffolk County or
by voluntary withdrawal, it shall no longer have representation on
the committee.
The Commission is authorized to submit a budget request each
year in accordance with the provisions of Article IV of the Suffolk
County Charter and Article IV of the Suffolk County Administrative
Code. No additional compensation shall be paid to such persons for
the performance of their duties on behalf of the committee.
The Commission shall annually elect a member to serve as Chairperson
of the Commission.
[Added 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
The costs associated with obtaining and maintaining the telecommunication
equipment, all operations and maintenance costs and the telephone
services costs necessary to establish and provide the enhanced 911
system.
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
Any service that:
[Added 9-17-2009 by L.L. No. 33-2009; 9-15-2011 by L.L. No.
49-2011]
Enables real-time, two-way voice communications;
Requires a broadband connection from the user's location;
Requires Internet protocol compatible customer premises equipment
(CPE); and
Permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the
public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public
switched telephone network.
[1]
Editor's Note: The definition of "Enhanced 911 Steering
Committee," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed
11-23-1999 by L.L. No. 39-1999. See now "Suffolk County E-911 Commission."
A.
This Legislature hereby authorizes, empowers and directs the installation
of a County-wide enhanced 911 emergency telephone system with multiple
PSAPs to be located in each of the following locations: Suffolk County
Police Department, Babylon Central Fire Alarm and Rescue Corporation,
the Smithtown Fire District, Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency
Services, Northport Village Police Department, Amityville Village
Police Department, Riverhead Town Police Department, Southampton Town
Police Department, Southampton Village Police Department, Southold
Town Police Department, East Hampton Village Police Department and
the East Hampton Town Police Department. Additional PSAPs may be designated
by the Enhanced 911 Steering Committee at a later date. PSAPs may
only be deleted by duly enacted amendments of this article after a
review and recommendation of the E-911 Commission.
[Amended 9-15-2011 by L.L. No. 49-2011]
B.
PSAPs shall provide to Suffolk County written evidence of all necessary
and appropriate liability insurance coverage as determined by the
Suffolk County Division of Insurance and Risk Management.
C.
No PSAP, excluding the Suffolk County Police Department PSAP and
the Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services PSAP (“non-County
PSAP”), shall qualify as such or be designated as such under
this chapter unless it first agrees to enter into an intermunicipal
agreement with Suffolk County outlining the responsibilities and liabilities
of both the County and the non-County PSAP as a precondition to such
qualification or designation, including but not limited to the non-County
PSAP accepting sole responsibility for the cost and expense of operating
its PSAP.
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
D.
Any non-County PSAP receiving monies pursuant to this chapter shall
agree to separately account for and keep adequate books and records
of the amount and source of all revenues received for system costs,
from whatever source derived or received, and of the amount and object
of each expense or purpose of every expenditure thereof. The non-County
PSAP shall further agree to the inspection and audit of such accounts,
by a duly authorized representative of the County of Suffolk, as deemed
necessary by the County.
[Added 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
A.
The service supplier is hereby authorized, empowered and directed,
in accordance with state law, to impose a surcharge of $0.35 per access
line per month on each service supplier’s subscriber in Suffolk
County to pay for the costs associated with implementing, installing,
operating and maintaining the telecommunication equipment and telephone
services needed to provide an enhanced 911 emergency telephone system.
On the date of the passage of this article, the service supplier shall
be authorized to begin to add such surcharge to the billings of its
customers. Within 30 months from the date of the passage of this article,
enhanced 911 services are authorized to begin.
[Amended 9-17-2009 by L.L. No. 33-2009; 12-3-2013 by L.L. No.
3-2014]
B.
Any such surcharge shall have uniform application and shall be imposed
throughout the entire County to the greatest extent possible in conformity
with the availability of such enhanced 911 system within the municipality.
C.
No such surcharge shall be imposed upon more than 75 exchange access
lines per customer per location.
D.
Lifeline customers and Suffolk County shall be exempt from any surcharge
imposed under this article.
A.
The appropriate service supplier or suppliers serving a 911 service
area shall act as collection agent for Suffolk County and shall remit
the funds collected as the surcharge to the Suffolk County Police
Department each month. Such funds shall be remitted no later than
30 days after the last business day of such period.
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
B.
The service supplier shall be entitled to retain as an administrative
fee an amount equal to 2% of its collections of the surcharge.
C.
The surcharge required to be collected by the service supplier shall
be added to and stated separately in its billings to the customer.
D.
Each service supplier shall maintain adequate records to permit the
review of the surcharge amounts billed and collected and shall annually
provide to the Suffolk County Comptroller an accounting of the surcharge
amounts billed and collected within 45 days of the end of the service
provider’s fiscal year.
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
A.
Each service supplier customer who is subject to the provisions of
this article shall be liable to the County of Suffolk for the surcharge
until it has been paid to the County of Suffolk, except that payment
to a service supplier is sufficient to relieve the customer from further
liability for such surcharge.
B.
The service supplier shall have no obligation to take any legal action
to enforce the collection of any surcharge. Whenever the service supplier
remits the funds collected as the surcharge to the County of Suffolk,
it shall also provide the County of Suffolk 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.
A.
All surcharge
moneys remitted to the County of Suffolk by a service supplier and
all other moneys dedicated to the payment of system costs from whatever
source derived or received by the County of Suffolk shall be expended
only upon appropriation of the County Legislature and only for payment
of system costs as permitted by this article. The County of Suffolk
shall separately account for 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. 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 costs requirements of its enhanced 911 system. The County
Legislature may also by local law reestablish or increase such surcharge
if the revenues generated by such surcharge and by any other source
are not adequate to pay for system costs.
B.
No less than 20% of the surcharge moneys remitted by the service providers to the County for landline and VOIP services pursuant to this article in any fiscal year shall be allocated to the non-County PSAPs. The amount allocated to each individual non-County PSAP shall be determined by a majority of the representatives of the non-County PSAPs of the E-911 Commission and set forth in the intermunicipal agreement required under § 441-3 of this chapter.
[Added 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
A.
This Legislature hereby authorizes, empowers and directs the E-911 Commission to review each request by public safety agencies desiring to be considered as an additional PSAP. This Legislature authorizes the establishment of as many additional PSAPs, not to exceed a total of 38, exclusive of the PSAPs authorized in § 441-3 of this article, as shall be necessary to serve all of Suffolk County. The E-911 Commission shall review each request as long as the public safety agency in question provides dispatching services 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employs a certified emergency medical dispatcher on duty at all times and meets any other conditions as may be established by the Commission.
[Amended 9-15-2011 by L.L. No. 49-2011]
(1)
All requests for designation as a public safety answering point shall
be submitted, in writing, to the E-911 Commission and shall be acted
upon within 30 days in accordance with the requirements set forth
herein.
(2)
Any provisions in this section to the contrary notwithstanding, the
E-911 Commission reserves the right to review any additional requests
for PSAP designation and to grant such requests pursuant to the requirements
herein and any other conditions as may be established by the Commission.
Such requests shall only be granted by an affirmative vote of at least
a majority plus one of the entire membership of the Commission.
B.
The County Executive or his designee is authorized, empowered and
directed to initiate the process to contract with a qualified vendor
of an enhanced 911 emergency telephone system for the installation
of multiple public safety answering points in those locations delineated
by the Legislature herein in accordance with and in full compliance
with and adherence to all relevant state and local procurement statutes,
rules and regulations.
A.
At least one public-service answering point within and serving the
911 service area of Suffolk County shall be operated on a twenty-four-hour
basis.
B.
The County of Suffolk may also apply for and accept federal moneys
and may accept contributions and donations from any source for the
purpose of funding an enhanced 911 emergency telephone system.
C.
All costs not included within the definition of "system costs," shall be a County expense subject to the provisions of § 441-3C of this article.
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
D.
Records, in whatever form they may be kept, of calls made to the
County's enhanced 911 system shall not be made available to or
obtained by any entity or person other than the County's public
safety agency, another government agency or body or a private entity
or a person providing medical, ambulance or other emergency services
and shall not be utilized for any commercial purpose other than the
provision of emergency services.
E.
Surcharge moneys remitted by the service providers to the County
pursuant to this article in any fiscal year, and allocated to the
non-County PSAPs in the annual budget, shall be distributed to the
non-County PSAPs in proportion to the actual cash collections and
shall be made quarterly, within 60 days of the end of each quarter.
In no event will surcharge moneys be distributed to any non-County
PSAP in the absence of an intermunicipal agreement between the County
and the non-County PSAP.
[Added 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2014]
This article shall apply to any actions taken on or after the
effective date of this article.
