COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2444
(By Delegates Love, Collins, Manuel and Pettit)
(Originating in the House Committee on the Judiciary)
[February 28, l995]
A BILL to amend and reenact sections three and three-cc, article
one, chapter seven of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating
to emergency communications systems; authorizing counties to
establish a uniform system for the naming or renaming of
roadways; increasing local telephone service fees to
implement the uniform system; adopting minimum standards for
emergency communications systems; and establishing standards
for alarm systems.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections three and three-cc, article one, chapter seven
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 1. COUNTY COMMISSIONS GENERALLY.
§7-1-3. Jurisdiction, powers and duties.
The county courts commissions, through their clerks, shall
have the custody of all deeds and other papers presented for
record in their counties, and the same shall be preserved therein, or otherwise disposed of as now is, or may be prescribed
by law. They shall have jurisdiction in all matters of probate,
the appointment and qualification of personal representatives,
guardians, committees, curators, and the settlement of their
accounts, and in all matters relating to apprentices. They shall
also, under such regulations as now are or may be prescribed by
law, have the superintendence and administration of the internal
police and fiscal affairs of their counties, including the
establishment and regulation of roads, ways, streets, avenues,
drives and the like, and the naming or renaming thereof, in
cooperation with local postal authorities, the division of
highways and the directors of county emergency communications
centers, to assure uniform, nonduplicative conversion of all
rural routes to city-type addressing on a permanent basis,
bridges, public landings, ferries and mills, with authority to
lay and disburse the county levies. They shall, in all cases of
contest, judge of the election, qualification and returns of
their own members, and of all county and district officers,
subject to appeal as prescribed by law. Such tribunals as have
been heretofore established by the Legislature under and by
virtue of the thirty-fourth section of the eighth article of the
Constitution of eighteen hundred and seventy-two, for police and
fiscal purposes, shall, until otherwise provided by law, remain
and continue as at present constituted in the counties in which
they have been respectively established, and shall be and act as
to police and fiscal matters in lieu of the county court
commission herein mentioned, until otherwise provided by law.
And until otherwise provided by law, such clerk as is mentioned in the twenty-sixth section of the eighth article of the
Constitution, as amended, shall exercise any powers and discharge
any duties heretofore conferred on, or required of, any court or
tribunal established for judicial purposes under the said article
and section of the Constitution of eighteen hundred and seventy-
two, or the clerk of such court or tribunal respectively,
respecting the recording and preservation of deeds and other
papers presented for record, matters of probate, the appointment
and qualification of personal representatives, guardians,
committees, curators and the settlement of their accounts, and in
all matters relating to apprentices.
§7-1-3cc. Authority of county commissions to establish enhanced
emergency telephone systems, technical and
operational standards for emergency communications
centers,
and standards for education and training of
emergency communications systems personnel; standards
for alarm systems; fee upon consumers of telephone
service for such systems and for roadway conversion
systems; authority to contract with the telephone
companies for billing of such fee.
(a) In addition to possessing the authority to establish an
emergency telephone system pursuant to section four, article six,
chapter twenty-four, a county commission or the county
commissions of two or more counties may, instead, establish an
enhanced emergency telephone system or convert an existing system
to an enhanced emergency system. The establishment of such a
system shall be subject to the provisions of article six, chapter
twenty-four of this code. The county commission may adopt rules after receiving recommendations from the West Virginia enhanced
911 council concerning the operation of all county emergency
communications centers or emergency telephone systems centers in
the state, including, but not limited to, recommendations for:
(1) Minimum standards for emergency telephone systems and
emergency communications centers;
(2) Minimum standards for equipment used in any center
receiving telephone calls of an emergency nature and dispatching
emergency service providers in response to that call, and which
receives 911 moneys or has basic 911 service funded through its
county commission; and
(3) Minimum standards for education and training of all
personnel in emergency communications centers.
(b) A county commission may impose a fee upon consumers of
local exchange service within that county for an enhanced
emergency telephone system and associated electronic equipment,
and for the conversion of all rural routes to city-type
addressing, as provided in section three of this article. Such
fee shall be utilized solely for the capital, installation and
maintenance costs of the enhanced emergency telephone system,
and of the conversion to city-type addressing. The county shall
reduce such fee when the capital and installation costs have been
fully recovered to the level necessary to offset recurring
maintenance and dispatcher costs only. No such fee may be used
for the costs associated with establishing, equipping,
furnishing, operating or maintaining a county answering point.
(c) A county commission may contract with the telephone
company or companies providing local exchange service within the county for such telephone company or companies to act as the
billing agent or agents of the county commission for the billing
of the fee imposed pursuant to subsection (b) of this section.
The cost for such billing agent services may be included as a
recurring maintenance cost of the enhanced emergency telephone
system.
(d) A county commission of any county with an emergency
communications center or emergency telephone system may establish
standards for alarm systems, including security, fire and medical
alarms.