SB 565 Text

ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 565
(By Senators Wooton, Scott, Anderson, Yoder,
Dittmar and Bowman)
____________
[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 24, 1995.]
_____________

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; to adopt minimum standards for emergency communications systems; to establish standards for alarm systems; and to impose service fees for nuisance and nonemergency calls.

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 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 section thirty-four, article VIII of the constitution of one thousand eight hundred 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 commission herein mentioned, until otherwise provided by law. And until otherwise provided by law, such clerk as is mentioned in section twenty-six, article VIII 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 said section of the constitution of one thousand eight hundred 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; fee upon consumers of telephone service for such systems; authority to contract with the telephone companies for billing of such fee; impose service fees for nuisance and nonemergency calls.

(a) In addition to possessing the authority to establish an emergency telephone system pursuant to section four, article six, chapter twenty-four of this code, 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 said article. 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:
(i) Minimum standards for emergency telephone systems and emergency communications centers;
(ii) 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
(iii) 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 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. A county commission may impose service fees upon those persons, agencies and facilities responsible for any and all calls of a nuisance or nonemergency nature which are responded to by personnel operating the emergency communications center or emergency telephone system.

Print On Demand