Senate Bill No. 728
(By Senator Chafin)
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[Introduced February 20, 2006; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §24-6-5 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to enhanced emergency telephone
system requirements; requiring an investigation on character
and criminal background to be conducted on certain persons to
be employed in an emergency dispatch center; prohibiting
persons with felony convictions from holding certain
positions; requiring both prospective and retroactive
application; and providing that current employees not in
compliance are to be removed from certain positions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24-6-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. LOCAL EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
§24-6-5. Enhanced emergency telephone system requirements.
(a) An enhanced emergency telephone system, at a minimum, shall provide that:
(1) All the territory in the county, including every municipal
corporation in the county, which is served by telephone company
central office equipment that will permit such a system to be
established
shall be is included in the system:
Provided, That if
a portion of the county or a portion of a municipal corporation
within the county is already being served by an enhanced emergency
telephone system, that portion of the county or municipality may be
excluded from the county enhanced emergency telephone system;
(2) Every emergency service provider that provides emergency
service within the territory of a county participate in the system;
(3) Each county answering point be operated constantly;
(4) Each emergency service provider participating in the
system maintain a telephone number in addition to the one provided
for in the system; and
(5) If the county answering point personnel reasonably
determine that a call is not an emergency, the personnel provide
the caller with the number of the appropriate emergency service
provider.
(b) To the extent possible, enhanced emergency telephone
systems shall be centralized.
(c) In developing an enhanced emergency telephone system, the
county commission or the West Virginia State Police shall seek the
advice of both the telephone companies providing local exchange service within the county and the local emergency providers.
(d) As a condition of employment, any person employed to act
as the director of an emergency dispatch center, who dispatches
emergency calls or supervises the dispatching of emergency call
takers, shall prior to the commencement of his or her employment be
subjected to an investigation of their character and background.
This investigation shall include, at a minimum, a criminal
background check, conducted by a certified law-enforcement officer.
Any felony conviction uncovered during this investigation shall act
as an automatic exclusion to hold any of these positions. This
requirement applies both prospectively and retroactively. The
requirement takes effect on the first day of July, two thousand
six, and any current employee not in compliance with this section
shall be removed from this public safety position as of that date.
(d) (e) As a condition of continued employment, persons
employed to dispatch emergency calls shall successfully
complete a forty-hour nationally recognized training course for
dispatchers within one year of the date of their employment; except
that persons employed to dispatch emergency calls prior to the
effective date of this subsection, as a condition of continuing
employment, shall successfully complete such a course not later
than the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-five.
(e) (f) Each county or municipality shall appoint for each
answering point an enhanced emergency telephone system advisory board consisting of at least six members to monitor the operation
of the system. The board shall be appointed by the county or
municipality and shall include at least one member from affected
fire service providers, law-enforcement providers, emergency
medical providers and emergency services providers participating in
the system and at least one member from the county or municipality.
The board may make recommendations to the county or municipality
concerning the operation of the system. In addition, the director
of the county or municipal enhanced telephone system shall serve as
an ex officio member of the advisory board. The initial advisory
board shall serve staggered terms of one, two and three years. The
initial terms of these appointees shall commence on the first day
of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four. All future
appointments shall be for terms of three years, except that an
appointment to fill a vacancy shall be for the unexpired term. All
members shall serve without compensation. The board shall adopt
such policies, rules and regulations as are necessary for its own
guidance. The board shall meet monthly on the day of each month
which the board may designate. The board may make recommendations
to the county or municipality concerning the operation of the
system.
(f) (g) Any advisory board established prior to the first day
of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, shall have three
years to meet the criteria of subsection (e) of this section.
(g) (h) Nothing
herein contained shall be construed to
prohibit or discourage in this section prohibits or discourages in
any way the establishment of multijurisdictional or regional
systems, or multijurisdictional or regional agreements for the
establishment of enhanced emergency telephone systems, and any
system established pursuant to this article may include the
territory of more than one public agency, or may include only a
portion of the territory of a public agency.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require an investigation
on character and criminal background to be conducted on certain
persons to be employed in an emergency dispatch center. It would
also prohibit persons with felony convictions from holding certain
positions in an emergency dispatch center. The bill would require
both prospective and retroactive application and provide that
current employees not in compliance will be removed from their
positions.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.