HOUSE BILL 773

49th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2009

INTRODUCED BY

Patricia A. Lundstrom

AN ACT

RELATING TO EMERGENCY 911 SERVICE; DEFINING "CONSOLIDATED PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINT"; REMOVING ELIGIBILITY FOR FUNDING IN CERTAIN CASES; PROVIDING FOR EMAIL ADMINISTRATIVE NOTIFICATION; AUTHORIZING THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TO REQUIRE THE CONSOLIDATION OF PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINTS; AMENDING SECTIONS OF THE NMSA 1978.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. Section 63-9D-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1989, Chapter 25, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

     "63-9D-2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.--

          A. The legislature finds that:

                (1) isolated people, the elderly, the young and victims of crime are often at risk and without help;

                (2) children, elderly persons and victims of crime are frequently unable to explain directions to the location of an emergency situation;

                (3) life-threatening accidents, fires, crimes and natural disasters occur in the state each year;

                (4) an enhanced 911 [telephone] emergency system provides:

                     (a) expansion of the benefits of the basic 911 emergency telephone number;

                     (b) faster response time, which minimizes the loss of life and property;

                     (c) automatic routing to the appropriate emergency response unit;

                     (d) immediate visual display of the location and telephone number of the caller; and

                     (e) curtailment of abuses of the emergency system by documenting callers; and

                (5) New Mexico communities could make efficient use of the enhanced 911 [telephone] emergency system if the communities had adequate funding available.

          B. It is the purpose of the Enhanced 911 Act to further the public interest and protect the safety, health and welfare of the people of New Mexico by enabling the development, installation and operation of enhanced 911 emergency reporting systems to be operated under shared state and local governmental management and control."

     Section 2. Section 63-9D-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1989, Chapter 25, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "63-9D-3. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Enhanced 911 Act:

          A. "911 emergency surcharge" means the monthly uniform charge assessed on each access line in the state and on each active number for a commercial mobile radio service subscriber whose billing address is in New Mexico;

          B. "911 service area" means the area designated by the fiscal agent, the local governing body or the division to receive enhanced 911 service;

          C. "access line" means a telecommunications company's line that has the capability to reach local public safety agencies by dialing 911, but does not include a line used for the provision of interexchange services or commercial mobile radio service;

          D. "commercial mobile radio service" means service provided by a wireless real-time two-way voice communication device, including:

                (1) radio-telephone communications used in cellular telephone service;

                (2) the functional or competitive equivalent of radio-telephone communications used in cellular telephone service;

                (3) a personal communications service; or

                (4) a network radio access line;

          E. "commercial mobile radio service provider" means a person who provides commercial mobile radio services, including a person who purchases commercial mobile radio service from a provider and resells that service; 

          F. "commission" means the public regulation commission;

          G. "consolidated public safety answering point" means a single public safety answering point facility within a territory operated pursuant to a joint powers agreement between two or more local governing bodies in which both 911 call answering and radio dispatch for the territory occur within that one facility;

          [G.] H. "database" means information that is collected, formatted and disseminated and that is necessary for the functioning of the enhanced 911 system, including geographic information system [(GIS)] addressing and digital mapping information;

          [H.] I. "department" means the taxation and revenue department;

          [I.] J. "division" means the local government division of the department of finance and administration;

          [J.] K. "enhanced 911 system" means a landline or wireless system consisting of network switching equipment, database, mapping and on-premises equipment that uses the single three-digit number 911 for reporting police, fire, medical or other emergency situations, thereby enabling a caller to reach a public safety answering point to report emergencies by dialing 911, and includes the capability to:

                (1) selectively route incoming 911 calls to the appropriate public safety answering point operating in a 911 service area;

                (2) automatically display the name, address and telephone number of an incoming 911 call on a video monitor at the appropriate public safety answering point;

                (3) provide one or more access paths for communications between users at different geographic locations through a network system that may be designed for voice or data, or both, and may feature limited or open access and may employ appropriate analog, digital switching or transmission technologies; and

                (4) relay to a designated public safety answering point a 911 caller's number and base station or cell site location and the latitude and longitude of the 911 caller's location in relation to the designated public safety answering point;

          [K.] L. "enhanced 911 equipment" means the public safety answering point equipment directly related to the operation of an enhanced 911 system, including automatic number identification or automatic location identification controllers and display units, printers, logging recorders and software associated with call detail recording, call center work stations, training, latitude and longitude base station or cell site location data and [GIS] geographic information system equipment necessary to obtain and process locational map and emergency service zone data for landline and wireless callers;

          [L.] M. "equipment supplier" means a person who provides or offers to provide telecommunications equipment necessary for the establishment of enhanced 911 services;

          [M.] N. "fiscal agent" means the local governing body that administers grants from the fund for a given locality or region by agreement;

          [N.] O. "fund" means the enhanced 911 fund;

          [O.] P. "local governing body" means the board of county commissioners of a county or the governing body of a municipality as defined in the Municipal Code;

          [P.] Q. "proprietary information" means customer lists, customer counts, technology descriptions or trade secrets, including the actual or development costs of individual components of an enhanced 911 system; provided that such information is designated as proprietary by the commercial mobile radio service provider or telecommunications company; and provided further that "proprietary information" does not include individual payments made by the division or any list of names and identifying information of subscribers who have not paid the surcharge;

          [Q.] R. "public safety answering point" means a twenty-four-hour local communications facility that receives 911 service calls and directly dispatches emergency response services or that [relays] dispatches calls to the appropriate public or private safety agency;

          [R.] S. "subscriber" means a person who is a retail purchaser of telecommunications services that are capable of originating a 911 call;

          [S.] T. "surcharge" means the 911 emergency surcharge;

          [T.] U. "telecommunications company" means a person [who] that provides wire telecommunications services that are capable of originating a 911 call; and

          [U.] V. "vendor" means a person that provides 911 equipment, service or network support."

     Section 3. Section 63-9D-4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1989, Chapter 25, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:

     "63-9D-4. PROVISION FOR ENHANCED 911 SERVICES BY LOCAL GOVERNING BODIES--ENHANCED 911 SYSTEM COSTS--PAYMENT OF COSTS--JOINT POWERS AGREEMENTS--AID OUTSIDE JURISDICTIONAL BOUNDARIES.--

          A. A local governing body or a consortium of local governing bodies may incur costs for the purchase, lease, installation or maintenance of enhanced 911 equipment and training necessary for the establishment of an enhanced 911 system and may pay such costs through disbursements from the fund; provided that the local governing body has employed properly trained staff in its public safety answering point pursuant to the Public Safety Telecommunicator Training Act.

          B. If the enhanced 911 system is to be provided for territory that is included in whole or in part in the jurisdiction of the local governing bodies of two or more public agencies that are the [primary] providers of emergency firefighting, law enforcement, ambulance, emergency medical or other emergency services, [the agreement] a joint powers agreement pursuant to the Joint Powers Agreements Act for the procurement of the enhanced 911 system shall be entered into [by the fiscal agent designated by] between the local governing bodies, which agreement shall designate a fiscal agent for the parties to the agreement. A local governing body may expressly exclude itself from [the agreement] a joint powers agreement between two or more local governing bodies for the procurement of the enhanced 911 system. If a local public body is not a party to the joint powers agreement, it shall not be eligible for a distribution from the fund. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prevent two or more local governing bodies from entering into a joint powers agreement pursuant to the Joint Powers Agreements Act to establish a separate legal entity that can enter into an agreement as the enhanced 911 system customer.

          C. A public agency in an enhanced 911 service area shall provide that, once an emergency unit is dispatched in response to a request for aid through the enhanced 911 system, the emergency unit shall render services to the requester without regard to whether the unit is operating outside its normal jurisdictional boundaries.

          D. A local governing body in an enhanced 911 service area shall provide [GIS] geographic information system addressing and digital mapping data to the public safety answering point that provides the enhanced 911 service to the local governing body."

     Section 4. Section 63-9D-4.1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2003, Chapter 339, Section 1) is amended to read:

     "63-9D-4.1. EMAIL NOTIFICATION.--State and local 911 systems shall be able to receive [emergency] and send administrative notifications by email."

     Section 5. Section 63-9D-8.1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1990, Chapter 87, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "63-9D-8.1. DIVISION POWERS.--

          A. The division may adopt reasonable rules necessary to carry out the provisions of the Enhanced 911 Act.

          B. The division may fund enhanced 911 systems pursuant to the provisions of the Enhanced 911 Act.

          C. The division may require the consolidation of two or more 911 service areas in a territory into a single consolidated public safety answering point for that territory as a condition for distributions from the fund.

          [C.] D. Division powers are limited and do not include power to intervene between two vendors or restrict marketing efforts of vendors.

          [D.] E. The division and the local governing body may establish 911 service areas.

          [E.] F. Unless otherwise provided by law, no rule affecting any person, agency, local governing body, commercial mobile radio service provider or telecommunications company shall be adopted, amended or repealed without a public hearing on the proposed action before the director of the division or a hearing officer designated by the director. The public hearing shall be held in Santa Fe unless otherwise permitted by statute. Notice of the subject matter of the rule, the action proposed to be taken, the time and place of the hearing, the manner in which interested persons may present their views and the method by which copies of the proposed rule or proposed amendment or repeal of an existing rule may be obtained shall be published once at least thirty days prior to the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation and mailed at least thirty days prior to the hearing date to all persons or agencies who have made a written request for advance notice of the hearing and to all local governing bodies, telecommunications companies and commercial mobile radio service providers.

          [F.] G. All rules shall be filed in accordance with the State Rules Act."

     Section 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2009.

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