4931.53 Election on monthly charge on telephone access lines to fund certain systems.
4931.53 Election on monthly charge on telephone access lines to fund certain systems.
(A) This section applies only to a county that has a final plan for a countywide 9-1-1 system that either has not been approved in the county under section 4931.44 of the Revised Code or has been approved but has not been put into operation because of a lack of funding.
(B) A board of county commissioners may adopt a resolution imposing a monthly charge on telephone access lines to pay for the operating and equipment costs of establishing and maintaining no more than one public safety answering point of a countywide 9-1-1 system. The resolution shall state the amount of the charge, which shall not exceed fifty cents per month, and the month the charge will first be imposed, which shall be no earlier than four months after the special election held pursuant to this section. Each residential and business telephone company customer within the area of the county served by the 9-1-1 system shall pay the monthly charge for each of its residential or business customer access lines or their equivalent.
Before adopting a resolution under this division, the board of county commissioners shall hold at least two public hearings on the proposed charge. Before the first hearing, the board shall publish notice of the hearings once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. The notice shall state the amount of the proposed charge, an explanation of the necessity for the charge, and the date, time, and location of each of the hearings.
(C) A resolution adopted under division (B) of this section shall direct the board of elections to submit the question of imposing the charge to the electors of the county at a special election on the day of the next primary or general election in the county. The board of county commissioners shall certify a copy of the resolution to the board of elections not less than ninety days before the day of the special election. No resolution adopted under division (B) of this section shall take effect unless approved by a majority of the electors voting upon the resolution at an election held pursuant to this section.
In any year, the board of county commissioners may impose a lesser charge than the amount originally approved by the electors. The board may change the amount of the charge no more than once a year. The board shall not impose a charge greater than the amount approved by the electors without first holding an election on the question of the greater charge.
(D) Money raised from a monthly charge on telephone access lines under this section shall be deposited into a special fund created in the county treasury by the board of county commissioners pursuant to section 5705.12 of the Revised Code, to be used only for the necessary operating and equipment costs of establishing and maintaining no more than one public safety answering point of a countywide 9-1-1 system pursuant to a resolution adopted under division (B) of this section. In complying with this division, any county may seek the assistance of the public utilities commission with regard to operating and maintaining a 9-1-1 system.
(E) Nothing in sections 4931.40 to 4931.53 of the Revised Code precludes a final plan adopted in accordance with those sections from being amended to provide that, by agreement included in the plan, a public safety answering point of another countywide 9-1-1 system is the public safety answering point of a countywide 9-1-1 system funded through a monthly charge imposed in accordance with this section. In that event, the county for which the public safety answering point is provided shall be deemed the subdivision operating the public safety answering point for purposes of sections 4931.40 to 4931.53 of the Revised Code, except that, for the purpose of division (D) of section 4931.41 of the Revised Code, the county shall pay only so much of the costs associated with establishing, equipping, furnishing, operating, or maintaining the public safety answering point specified in the agreement included in the final plan.
(F) Pursuant to the voter approval required by division (C) of this section, the final plan for a countywide 9-1-1 system that will be funded through a monthly charge imposed in accordance with this section, or that will be amended to include an agreement described in division (E) of this section, shall be amended by the existing 9-1-1 planning committee, and the amendment of such a final plan is not an amendment of a final plan for the purpose of division (A) of section 4931.45 of the Revised Code.
Amended by 128th General Assembly File No. 29, HB 48, § 1, eff. 7/2/2010.
Effective Date: 09-21-2000