BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 911 (Bloom) - Telephone systems: 911.
Amended: August 13, 2013 Policy Vote: EU&C 10-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 30, 2013 Consultant:
Marie Liu
SUSPENSE FILE. AS PROPOSED TO BE AMENDED.
Bill Summary: AB 911 would require that a 911 call made from a
telephone station of a multi-line telephone service (MLTS), in
areas where enhanced 911 is available, to be routed with
information specific to the building and floor location of the
caller.
Fiscal Impact (as proposed to be amended): Unknown one-time
costs, possibly in the hundreds of thousands to millions of
dollars, from General Fund and various special funds to replace
and update any MLTS system owned and operated by the state to be
able to transmit the required information with 911 calls.
Background: The Warren 911 Emergency Assistance Act requires
every local public agency to establish and operate an emergency
telephone system that automatically connects a person dialing
911 to an established public safety answering point (PSAP) that
dispatches emergency responders (GC §53109). The act also
requires each PSAP to have a "basic" 911 system and requires the
Public Safety Communications Office within the Office of
Emergency Services to "not delay" implementation of enhanced 911
(E911). E911, made possible with caller ID type technology,
automatically transmits with a 911 call, the number and street
address location of the caller.
Proposed Law: This bill would that, beginning January 1, 2016, a
MLTS be operated and maintained so that dialing 911 (plus any
applicable additional digit), is routed to a PSAP with automatic
display of the caller's number, address, and location of the
phone. A MLTS operator would be required to review and verify
the accuracy of the number and location data at least annually.
Sellers or lessors of a MLTS system would be required to provide
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the purchaser or lessee with a demonstration or written
instruction of how to place an emergency call from a telephone
station. The MLTS operator shall provide this information to the
MLTS users.
This bill would indemnify any MLTS operator, service provider,
or its agents for the damages related to the release of
information not in the public record made in connection with an
emergency call or damages related to the maintenance or
operation of the MLTS system in accordance to this bill except
for gross negligence.
These requirements would not apply to a MLTS serving a building
with a combined total workspace of 7,000 square feet or less.
Staff Comments: MLTS installations and upgrades made in the last
ten years are likely already include built-in E911 capabilities
that can be utilized immediately for compliance with this bill's
requirements. For older equipment, compliance may can be
achieved through software upgrades, though some systems will
need to be replaced for compliance.
The state will incur costs as a result of this bill as an
operator of a MLTS operator and a lessee of MLTS systems.
Because of the extremely large number of systems operated and
leased by the state, including the California State University
system and the University of California, and the fact that these
systems are not owned or leased centrally, an estimate of
upgrade and replacement needs is not known. However, staff
believes that it is reasonable there will be some systems that
will need replacing and a substantial number of systems that
will need upgrades. The cost of upgrades could be up to $200,000
and a replacement could cost between $50,000 to $1,000,000 per
system.
Staff notes that the bill becomes operative in 2016. It is
possible that the oldest systems might be replaced by the
operative date for other reasons.
Proposed Author Amendments: Delay implementation of this bill's
requirements until 2017.
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