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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEmergency Telephone System Establishing Financing OrdinanceOrd',Il6lV1CQi -BOOK a, PI'S '13 ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING FINANCING OF THE 911 EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM HARNETT COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA F.NArTMF.NT This is an ordinance establishing and providing for the financing of the 911 Emergency Telephone Service for Harnett County, North Carolina. PREAMBLE WHEREAS, in the opinion of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners, County -wide local 911 emergency telephone service will promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of Harnett County, and WHEREAS, County -wide local emergency telephone service will reduce the response time of emergency service agencies, and WHEREAS, the Harnett County Board of Commissioners has solicited public comment and given due notice of public hearing and have conducted said hearing as required in North Carolina General Statute Chapter 62A entitled "Public Safety Telephone Act ", and WHEREAS, all applicable requirements of the General Statutes of North Carolina have been met. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HARNETT COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS AS FOLLOWS: AUTHORITY The provisions of this ordinance are adopted under authority granted by North Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 62A, entitled "Public Safety Telephone Act." JURISDICTION The jurisdiction of this ordinance includes the entire geographic area of Harnett County, with the exclusion of the municipalities of Dunn and Erwin. The municipalities of Angier, Coats, and Lillington are included in this ordinance as evidenced by a resolution from each town in support of this ordinance. rHARrF.R A 911 service fee will be added to the regular monthly bill for each exchange access facility subscribed to by telephone subscribers whose exchange access lines are in the area served or will be served by the 911 service. Beginning November 1, 1993, the service provider shall bill subscribers a "911 Service Charge" of $1.25 monthly. PAYMENT AND COLLECTION OF CHARGES The service supplier shall, on behalf of Harnett County, collect the charges from those subscribers to whom it provides exchange telephone service in the area served by the 911 service. As part of its normal monthly billing process, the service supplier shall collect the charges for each month or part of the month an exchange access facility is in service. The service supplier will list the charge as a separate entry on each bill. If a service supplier receives a partial payment for a monthly bill from a subscriber, the service supplier shall apply the payment against the amount the subscriber owes the service supplier first. A service supplier has no obligation to take any legal action to enforce the collection of the 911 charges for which any subscriber is billed. However, a collection action may be initiated by the County of Harnett and reasonable costs and attorneys' fees associated with that collection action may be awarded to the County of Harnett as allowed by N.C.G.S. 62A -5. Harnett County shall remain ultimately responsible to the .service supplier for all 911 installation, service, equipment, operation, and maintenance charges owed to the service supplier. Upon request by the County, the service supplier shall provide a list of amounts uncollected along with the names and addresses of telephone subscribers who have not paid the 911 charge. Any taxes due on 911 service provided by the service supplier will be billed to the County of Harnett. ADMINISTRATION The service supplier is entitled to a one percent (1%) administrative fee as compensation for collecting the charges. The service supplier shall remit the rest of the charges it collects during a month to the County within ten days after the last day of each month. EMERGENCY TELEPHONE SYSTEM FUND The County shall deposit the charges in a separate, restricted fund. The fund shall be known as the Emergency Telephone System Fund. The fiscal officer may invest money in the Fund in the same manner that other money of the local government may be invested. The fiscal officer shall deposit any income earned from such an investment in the Emergency Telephone System Fund. PAYMENTS FROM FUND Money from the Emergency Telephone System Fund shall be used only to pay for: (1) The lease, purchase, or maintenance of emergency telephone equipment, including necessary computer hardware, software and database provisioning, addressing, and nonrecurring costs of establishing a 911 system, and (2) The rates associated with the service supplier's 911 service and other service supplier recurring charges. The following expenses are not eligible for payment from the Fund: the lease or purchase of real estate, cosmetic remodeling of emergency dispatch centers, hiring, training, and compensating dispatchers, and the purchase of mobile communications vehicles, ambulances, fire engines, or other emergency vehicles. The County may contract with a service supplier for any term negotiated by the service supplier and may make payments from the Emergency Telephone System Fund to provide any payments required by the contract. TELEPHONE RECORDS The telephone service supplier shall provide subscriber telephone numbers, names, and service addresses to 911 systems when required by the County. Although customer numbers, names and service addresses shall be available to 911 systems, such information shall remain the property of the disclosing service supplier. The total cost of the system shall include expenses paid to service suppliers to provide and maintain 911 information. This information shall be used only in providing emergency response services to 911 calls. The County may not release a telephone number required to be provided under this section to any person for purposes other than including the number in the emergency telephone system database or providing the number to permit a response to police, fire, medical, or other emergency situations. To the extent necessary to provide 911 service, private listing customers of a service supplier in the 911 service area waive the privacy afforded by unlisted and nonpublished numbers when the 911 service is established. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY The service supplier, including any telephone company and its employees, directors, officers and agents, is not liable for any damages in a civil action for injuries, death, or loss to persons or property incurred by any person as a result of any act or omission of a service supplier or of any of its employees, director,s officers, or agents, except for willful or wanton misconduct, in connection with developing, adoption, implementing, maintaining, or operating any 911 system. MISUSE OF 911 SYSTEM; PENALTY Any person who intentionally calls the 911 number for other than purposes of obtaining public safety assistance commits a misdemeanor. DEFINITIONS (1) 11911 system" or 11911 service" means an emergency telephone system that provides the user of the public telephone system the ability to reach a public safety answering point by dialing the digits 911. The term 911 system or 911 service also includes "Enhanced 911 service ", which means an emergency telephone system that provides the user of the public telephone system with 911 service and, in addition, directs 911 calls to appropriate public safety answering points by selective routing based on the geographical location from which the call originated and provides the capability for automatic number identification and automatic location identification features. (2) "911 charge" means a contribution to the local government for the 911 service start -up equipment costs, subscriber notification costs, addressing costs, billing cost, and nonrecurring and recurring installation, maintenance, service, and network charges of a service supplier providing 911 service pursuant to this chapter. (3) "Addressing" means the assigning of a numerical address and street name (the street name may be numerical) to each location within a local government's geographical area necessary to provide public safety service as determined by the local government. This address replaces any route and box number currently in place in the 911 database and facilitates quicker response by public safety agencies. (4) "Exchange access facility" means the access from a particular telephone subscriber's premises to the telephone system of a service supplier. Exchange access facilities include service supplier provided access lines, PBX trunks and centrex network access registers, all as defined by tariffs of telephone companies as approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Exchange access facilities do not include service supplier owned and operated telephone pay station lines, or Wide Area Telecommunications Service (WATS), Foreign Exchange (FX) or incoming only lines. (5) "Local government" means any city, county, or political subdivision of North Carolina and its agencies. (6) "Public agency" means the State and any city, county, municipal corporation, charted organization, public district, or public authority located in whole or in part within the State which provides or has authority to provide fire fighting, law enforcement, ambulance, medical, or other emergency services. (7) "Public safety agency" means a functional division of a public agency which provides fire fighting, law enforcement, medical, suicide prevention, civil defense, poison control, or other emergency services. (8) "Service supplier" means a person or entity who provides exchange telephone service to a telephone subscriber. (9) "Telephone subscriber" or "subscriber" means a person or entity to whom exchange telephone service, either residential or commercial, is provided and in return for which the person or entity is billed on a monthly basis. When the same person, business, or organization has several telephone access lines, each exchange access facility shall constitute a separate subscription. EFFECTIVE DATE This ordinance shall become effective and be in full force from and after the 1st day of November, 1993. Adopted this the 21st day of June, 1993. THE HARNETT COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Vanessa W. ung Clerk to th Board NORTH CAROLINA ACKNOWLEDGEMENT HARNETT COUNTY I, a Notary Public of the County and State aforesaid, certify that H.L. Sorrell, Jr. personally appeared before me this day who being by me duly sworn, deposes and says: that he is the Chairman of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners and Vanessa W. Young is the Clerk of said Board, that the seal affixed to the foregoing instrument is the official seal of Harnett County, that said instrument was signed and sealed by him, attested by the said Clerk and the County's seal affixed thereto, all by authority of the Board of Commissioners of said County, and the said H.L. Sorrell, Jr. acknowledged said instrument to be the act and deed of Harnett County. O�AOIARY Notary Public T COMA My Commission Expires: s�