BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 2281
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 9, 2012

                    ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
                               Steven Bradford, Chair
                  AB 2281 (Torres) - As Amended:  February 24, 2012
           
          SUBJECT  :   Emergencies: the State 911 Advisory Board.

           SUMMARY  :   This bill would make changes to the State 
          9-1-1Advisory Board (Advisory Board). Specifically,  this bill  :  

             1)   Would add two members to the Advisory Board, one member 
               to be appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly and the 
               other to be appointed by the Chair of the Senate Rules 
               Committee.

             2)   Would require members of the Advisory Board to 
               themselves attend meeting and not be allowed to designate a 
               substitute representative.

           EXISTING LAW  

          Establishes a State 9-1-1

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   Unknown

           COMMENTS  :   

          1)According to the author, "The ultimate goal is to deliver on 
            the promise of the Warren 9-1-1 Act of 1976 (Stats. 1976, Ch 
            443) and the Federal 9-1-1 Act to afford the public a 
            seamless, responsive universal 3-digit number for emergency 
            calls without regard to the technology used by the caller to 
            access the system.  The bills address several of the 
            dimensions of a system of overlapping institutions that will 
            take several years and multiple measures to address 
            thoroughly."

          2)The Advisory Board meets and considers topics with statewide 
            significance, including oversight of State-Emergency Telephone 
            Number Account (SETNA), a fund of approximately $10.5 million. 
             The membership does not include a Legislative representative 
            who can participate on the Advisory Board and develop an in 
            depth understanding of the status of the fund









                                                                  AB 2281
                                                                  Page  2

          3)The California 9-1-1 Strategic Plan, issued in 2009, reported 
            that they received comments expressing concerns regarding the 
            effectiveness of the Advisory Board and the knowledge that 
            Board members possess about "public safety answering point" 
            (PSAP) operations. One of the recommendations from this 
            Strategic Plan included removing the ability of Board members 
            to assign substitutes:

               "Many of the current difficulties experienced by the 
               Advisory Board could be significantly mitigated by 
               reviewing the Board's advisory role?adhering to the 
               Government Code requirements regarding term limits and 
               qualification of the members,  removing the ability to 
               assign substitutes  and by modifying the position of the 
               Board chairperson to become a voting member selected by the 
               Board."

          4)This bill is one of a number of bills introduced by the author 
            to address 9-1-1. These bills include AB 770, AB 2459, and ACR 
            130.

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :   

           Support 
           
          California Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association 
          (CalNENA)

           Opposition 
          
          None on file.
           
          Analysis Prepared by  :    Susan Kateley / U. & C. / (916) 
          319-2083