The Humboldt County Commission adopted a Business Impact Statement related to 911 surcharge increases. County Manager Dave Mendiola told the Commission that two public meetings were held but “We got very little feedback from the community in terms of the business folks.” He said the essence of the impact statement “that it really had no major impact on them.”
Mendiola said there were two public meetings held at which time the community had the opportunity to make comments.
Commission also approved the first reading related to changes to local ordinances regarding how the surcharge fee is to be used. The
The fee increases and ordinance changes came about as result of the Nevada State Legislature passing Senate Bill 176 (NV SB 176) during the 2017 session. The law amended Nevada Revised Statue (NRS) 289.930 requiring “uniformed peace officers who routinely interact with the public to wear portable event recording devices (body-worn cameras) while on duty.” The City of Winnemucca and Humboldt County have put in place portable event recording device programs, which is to be in place no later than July 1, 2018.
Mendiola said the County is working with telecommunication providers to ensure that fees are credited to the appropriate county. According to Mendiola, some county residents have had issues with fees being paid to the wrong county. “If we’re missing out on thirty to forty percent of the money that’s currently supposed to be coming to Humboldt County and it's not maybe we don't need that [increase].”
As part of the amended statutes, NRS 244A.7643 was also changed to “allow for the use of the 911 telephone line surcharge revenues for the purpose of paying the costs associated with the acquisition and maintenance, storage of data, upgrade and replacement of equipment and software necessary for the operation of the portable event recording devices and vehicular event recording devices or systems that consist of both portable event recording devices and vehicular event recording devices.”
The surcharge revenue can only be used “for enhancements to the 911 emergency systems or the portable event recording device (body worn and vehicle mounted cameras) programs at the City of Winnemucca Police Department and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.” Revenues collected may also be used to improve the 911 dispatch center computer hardware, software and licensing for reporting an emergency in the county, as well as “costs associated with the acquisition, maintenance, storage of data, upgrade and replacement of equipment and software necessary for the operation of portable event recording devices and vehicular event recording devices or systems that consist of both portable event recording devices and vehicular event recording devices.”
The current surcharge rate is $0.25 per month for each customer access line to the local exchange of a telecommunications provider, $0.25 per month for each telephone number assigned to a customer of mobile telephone service, including Voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP), and $2.50 per month for each customer trunk line to the local exchange of a telecommunication provider.
On September 6, 2018, Humboldt County’s 911 Surcharge Advisory Committee voted to recommend that the county increase the 911 surcharge rate and set the amount at $1.00 per month for access to local exchanges, $1.00 per month for each assigned telephone number, and $10.00 for each trunk line.
The final approval to change the ordinance increasing the fees will be on a future agenda for the Commission to vote on.
