NY State Senate Bill 2023-S3039

Senate Bill S3039

2023-2024 Legislative Session

Relates to special districts for ambulance services and to volunteer firefighter and ambulance services staffing

download bill text pdf

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Local Government Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

Please enter your contact information

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A valid email address is required.

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 03, 2024	referred to local government
Jan 27, 2023	referred to local government

co-Sponsors

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A2812
Current Committee:: Senate Local Government
Law Section:: General Municipal Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §122-b, Gen Muni L; add §719, Exec L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2017-2018: S7443, A9589
2019-2020: S1996, A1577
2021-2022: S5331, A857

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Relates to the establishment of special districts for general ambulance services; requires a report on issues of volunteer firefighter and ambulance services staffing.

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S3039

SPONSOR: STEC
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the general municipal law, in relation to the establish-
ment of special districts for general ambulance services; and to amend
the executive law, in relation to a report on volunteer firefighter and
ambulance services staffing

 
PURPOSE:

This bill would authorize municipalities to establish a special district
for general ambulance services, and would require a report by the
commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services
to identify challenges concerning volunteer emergency services or
personnel.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 -This bill would allow any county, city, town or village, to
establish a special district for the financing and operation of general

ambulance services.

Section 2 - This bill would also require a report with recommendations
on volunteer firefighter and ambulances services by the commissioner of
the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.

Section 3 -Provides effective date

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Article 11 of the Town Law governs the requirements to form a fire
district. Presently, a town board or village board of trustees may
establish a joint fire district, when the territory in the joint fire
district is contiguous. However, for a town to establish a new fire
district, it must be outside of any village or city. This restriction
creates difficulty for districts in rural communities or those with
unique geography such as waterways or mountains, as transportation
networks can be limited and response times unavoidably delayed. This
difficulty has led to difficulty obtaining volunteer crews, as each
individual crew member can be required to cover more territory and pUt
in more hours than in other areas of the state.

According to the New York State Department of Health, a 2013 analysis
showed that the average scene to destination time throughout New York
State was 13.16 minutes. However, in the Adirondack mountain region, for
instance, it was significantly higher in many areas, with the average
scene to destination time in Clinton County being 17.77 minutes, Essex
County 25.55 minutes, Franklin County 18.32 minutes, Hamilton County
53.46 minutes, and Warren County 21.59 minutes. These delayed response
times pose a great threat to saving lives, protecting property and
encouraging the recruitment and retention of volunteers.

This bill seeks to address this issue in two ways. First, it would allow
a municipality to establish a special district with any county, city,
town, or village, thereby allowing communities to establish districts
with economies of scale and participants, in an effort to increase the
quality of emergency protection services.
Second, it would further require a study by the Division of Homeland
Security and Emergency Services, calling upon its experts in the state
office of fire prevention and control, to investigate, report and make
recommendations on how to encourage recruitment of crews and improved
response times for their operations.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2022/2021: S5331 referred to Local Government; A857 referred to Local
Government

2020/2019: S1996 referred to Local Governments; A1577 referred to Local
Governments

2018: S7443 passed Senate; A9589 referred to Local Governments

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act would take effect immediately.

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   3039
 
                        2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 27, 2023
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sens.  STEC,  GALLIVAN, OBERACKER, ORTT, TEDISCO -- read
   twice and ordered printed, and when printed to  be  committed  to  the
   Committee on Local Government
 
 AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to the establish-
   ment of special districts for general ambulance services; and to amend
   the  executive  law,  in relation to a report on volunteer firefighter
   and ambulance services staffing
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  Paragraphs  (d),  (e) and (f) of subdivision 1 of section
 122-b of the general municipal law, as amended by  chapter  303  of  the
 laws  of  1980  and  paragraph (e) as amended by section 2 of part KK of
 chapter 55 of the laws of 2022, are amended and a new closing  paragraph
 is added to read as follows:
   (d)  ESTABLISH  A  SPECIAL DISTRICT FOR THE FINANCING AND OPERATION OF
 GENERAL AMBULANCE SERVICES AS SET FORTH BY  THIS  SECTION,  WHEREBY  ANY
 COUNTY,  CITY, TOWN OR VILLAGE, ACTING INDIVIDUALLY, OR JOINTLY WITH ANY
 OTHER COUNTY, CITY, TOWN AND/OR VILLAGE, THROUGH ITS GOVERNING  BODY  OR
 BODIES,  FOLLOWING  APPLICABLE PROCEDURES AS ARE REQUIRED FOR THE ESTAB-
 LISHMENT OF FIRE DISTRICTS IN ARTICLE ELEVEN OF THE TOWN LAW OR  FOLLOW-
 ING APPLICABLE PROCEDURES AS ARE REQUIRED FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF JOINT
 FIRE  DISTRICTS  IN  ARTICLE ELEVEN-A OF THE TOWN LAW, WITH SUCH SPECIAL
 DISTRICT BEING AUTHORIZED BY THIS SECTION TO BE ESTABLISHED  IN  ALL  OR
 ANY  PART  OF  ANY SUCH PARTICIPATING COUNTY OR COUNTIES, TOWN OR TOWNS,
 CITY OR CITIES AND/OR VILLAGE OR VILLAGES;
   (E) Employ any combination of the methods authorized in paragraph (a),
 (b) [or], (c) OR (D);
   [(e)] (F) A contract may be entered into pursuant to the provisions of
 this section for the services of an emergency rescue and first aid squad
 of a fire department or fire company which is subject to the  provisions
 of section two hundred nine-b of this chapter;
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD07304-01-3

 S. 3039                             2
 
   [(f)]  (G)  Consider  prehospital  emergency  treatment  as  that care
 provided  by  certified  emergency  medical  technicians  or   certified
 advanced   emergency  medical  technicians  certified  pursuant  to  the
 provisions of article thirty of the public health law.
   ANY COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR VILLAGE WHICH ESTABLISHES OR PARTICIPATES IN
 A  JOINT  DISTRICT  PURSUANT  TO PARAGRAPH (D) OF THIS SUBDIVISION SHALL
 DISSOLVE AND ABOLISH ANY PREEXISTING LOCAL  DISTRICT  SERVING  THE  SAME
 JURISDICTION.
   §  2.  Paragraph  (e) of subdivision 1 of section 122-b of the general
 municipal law, as amended by chapter 303 of the laws of 1980, is amended
 to read as follows:
   [(e)] (F) No contract shall be entered into pursuant to the provisions
 of this section for the services of an emergency rescue  and  first  aid
 squad  of  a  fire  department  or  fire company which is subject to the
 provisions of section two hundred nine-b of [the general municipal  law]
 THIS CHAPTER;
   §  3. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 719 to read
 as follows:
   § 719. REPORT ON VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER AND AMBULANCE  SERVICES  STAFF-
 ING.  1. ON OR BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF JANUARY TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE,
 THE  COMMISSIONER,  IN  CONSULTATION  WITH  THE  STATE  OFFICE  OF  FIRE
 PREVENTION AND CONTROL, SHALL PREPARE AND PUBLISH A REPORT ON THE STAFF-
 ING  OF  VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER AND AMBULANCE SERVICES IN NEW YORK STATE.
 SUCH REPORT  SHALL  EXAMINE  AND  EVALUATE  THE  CHALLENGES  AND  ISSUES
 CONCERNING THE RECRUITING AND MAINTENANCE OF TRAINED, AVAILABLE STAFFING
 BY  VOLUNTEER  FIRE  DEPARTMENTS, DISTRICTS AND COMPANIES AS WELL AS FOR
 VOLUNTEER AMBULANCE DISTRICTS AND COMPANIES. SUCH REPORT  SHALL  SPECIF-
 ICALLY  EXAMINE  AND EVALUATE THE CHALLENGES AND ISSUES THAT ARE PARTIC-
 ULAR TO RURAL AREAS OF THE STATE AND AREAS  WITH  GEOGRAPHIC  CHALLENGES
 SUCH AS MOUNTAINS, WATERWAYS OR LIMITED TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS.
   2.  IN  ADDITION  TO  IDENTIFYING CHALLENGES AND ISSUES CONCERNING THE
 RECRUITING AND MAINTENANCE OF TRAINED, AVAILABLE STAFFING  BY  VOLUNTEER
 FIRE DEPARTMENTS, DISTRICTS AND COMPANIES AS WELL AS FOR VOLUNTEER AMBU-
 LANCE  DISTRICTS  AND  COMPANIES  ACROSS  NEW YORK STATE, AS REQUIRED BY
 SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION, SUCH REPORT SHALL ALSO MAKE RECOMMENDA-
 TIONS ON HOW TO ADDRESS AND REMEDIATE THE CHALLENGES AND ISSUES  IDENTI-
 FIED,  WITH  SUCH  RECOMMENDATIONS  BEING SUBMITTED TO THE GOVERNOR, THE
 TEMPORARY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE, THE  SPEAKER  OF  THE  ASSEMBLY,  THE
 CHAIR OF THE SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND THE CHAIR
 OF  THE  ASSEMBLY  STANDING COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT AT THE TIME OF
 THE PUBLISHING OF THE REPORT.
   § 4. This act shall take effect immediately; provided,  however,  that
 the amendments to paragraph (e) of subdivision 1 of section 122-b of the
 general  municipal  law made by section one of this act shall be subject
 to the expiration and reversion of such paragraph pursuant to section  4
 of  part  KK  of chapter 55 of the laws of 2022, when upon such date the
 provisions of section two of this act shall take effect.

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Senate Bill S3039

Share this bill

Sponsored By

Daniel G. Stec

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Local Government Committee

co-Sponsors

Patrick M. Gallivan

Peter Oberacker

Robert G. Ortt

James Tedisco

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Summary

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

2023-S3039 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments