BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2837
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2837 (Hertzberg)
As Amended August 29, 2000
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |63-14|(May 30, 2000) |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 30, |
| | | | | |2000) |
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Original Committee Reference: G.O.
SUMMARY : Authorizes local public agencies, as defined, to
establish a "311" non-emergency telephone system designed to
serve as the primary non-emergency telephone number within the
respective system.
The Senate Amendments: Define "local public agency" as a city,
county, city and county, and joint powers authority that
provides a public safety answering point, and; require the
Department of General Services to levy an additional surcharge
of up to 0.25% on intrastate calls made within the local public
agencies participating in these systems.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes a pilot program in the Division of
Telecommunications to evaluate methods of reducing the use of
the "911" telephone number for non-emergency assistance.
2)Establishes "911" as the primary emergency telephone number in
the state and requires local and state public safety agencies
to participate in the emergency telephone system. The system
is financed by a surcharge imposed upon all residential and
business telephone bills, and caps this surcharge 0.75% of a
customers phone bill.
3)Requires state and local agencies to maintain a secondary
number for non-emergency telephone calls.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill authorized local public
agencies to establish a "311" non-emergency telephone system
designed to serve as the primary non-emergency telephone number
in the state.
AB 2837
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS : In recent years, California's "911" emergency
response system has experienced a substantial growth in the
number of calls received. This increase in calls to "911" is
especially alarming to state and local agencies responsible for
implementing the emergency response system because of the high
ratio of non-emergency related calls. Some regional studies
indicate that for every 10 calls placed to "911," at least seven
of the calls are non-emergency related. The result of the
increased call volume is that many callers with legitimate
emergencies experience busy signals or have their calls held by
a recorded message when calling "911."
In response to the increased numbers of non-emergency calls to
the emergency response telephone number, the Legislature passed
and the Governor signed AB 1198 (Hertzberg), Chapter 887,
Statutes of 1997. AB 1198 provided funding for a pilot project
to evaluate two different approaches to reducing the number of
non-emergency calls: 1) The use of "311" as a means of reaching
local public safety agencies for non-emergency assistance and 2)
The improved marketing of the use of, and access to, existing
non-emergency telephone numbers for non-emergency assistance.
A preliminary draft of the results of the pilot project
indicates that the "311" approach to reducing non-emergency
calls had a greater positive impact on "911" than did the use of
improved marketing of existing non-emergency telephone numbers.
The study also suggested that the Legislature consider whether
focusing resources on other factors, such as emergency call
center staffing, would have a similar beneficial impact on
"911."
Analysis Prepared by : George Wiley / G. O. / (916) 319-2531
FN: 0007063