Part 2 — IMPOSITION OF EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION SYSTEM SUPPORT FEE

A.

There is hereby imposed an emergency communications system support fee on every person who maintains access to the 911 Emergency Communication System by subscribing to telephone service within the City of San José.

B.

For purposes of this chapter, with respect to wireless telephone services, a person shall be construed to subscribe to telephone service within the City of San José if he or she has a "place of primary use," as such term is defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. § 124(8), within the geographic boundaries of the city.

C.

Only one payment of the fee herein imposed shall be required for any single access line, trunk line or high capacity trunk line, notwithstanding that access lines of more than one telephone corporation are used in furnishing telephone service to a telephone subscriber.

D.

The fee imposed under subsection A, above, shall be in effect for every person who subscribes to telephone service within the City of San José, but shall be suspended for any period of time during which the tax imposed by Chapter 4.52 of this Code is in effect and being collected. Should the tax imposed by Chapter 4.52 be rendered inoperative or for any reason be deemed or declared invalid, the fee suspension shall also be deemed inoperative and the fees imposed under this Section 8.20.200 shall immediately become effective, at the rates established in the most recent city council resolution adopted pursuant to this Chapter 8.20.

(Ords. 27229, 27785, Measure J (Ord. 2008.1), adopted by electorate, 12-9-08)

A.

The amount of the fee imposed by this section shall be established by resolution of the city council and shall be paid, on a per-line basis, by the person paying for such local telephone service.

B.

No telephone subscriber shall be required to pay fees in excess of twenty thousand dollars per account per service location in any calendar year. The cost of wireless telephone services shall not be considered for purposes of the fee cap established by this subsection, regardless of whether the service location is also a primary place of use for a wireless line. The amount of the cap established by this subsection shall be adjusted annually by the consumer price index: all urban consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San José area for all items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

(Ord. 27229.)

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as imposing a fee upon the access lines of:

A.

A lifeline customer of a service supplier; or

B.

A telephone corporation; or

C.

Coin-operated telephones; or

D.

A nonprofit hospital which is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or

E.

A nonprofit educational organization which is exempt from income tax under Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or

F.

Any person when imposition of such fee upon that person would violate the Constitution of the United States or that of the State of California or preemptive federal or state law; or

G.

City of San José, county of Santa Clara, state of California and United States government offices.

(Ord. 27229.)

A.

On or before December 15 of each year, beginning December 15, 2005, the director of finance shall identify data required and make appropriate requests to each service supplier for information sufficient to identify the number of access lines maintained by that service supplier during the preceding twelve months, including separate identification of the number of trunk lines and high-capacity trunk lines that are "access lines" for purposes of this chapter, as well as the number of exempt lines as defined in Section 8.20.220. Service suppliers shall respond to such request within sixty days. Upon a request by any service supplier, the director of finance shall provide the requesting service supplier with a nondisclosure, confidentiality agreement, which has been approved as to form by the city attorney, on behalf of the City of San José, and shall remain under a continuing duty to protect all information provided by service suppliers subject to such agreement from any use other than that described in this Section 8.20.230 and from disclosure to any third parties including, but not limited to, other service suppliers.

B.

No later than March 1 of each year, beginning March 1, 2006, and using the data provided by the service suppliers pursuant to the immediately preceding subsection, the director of finance shall estimate the percentage of access lines that were subject to payment of the emergency communication system support fee during the immediately prior fiscal year. This percentage shall be identified in the director of finance report as the percentage of project costs and operating costs that are eligible project costs and eligible operating costs for the following fiscal year. The director of finance report shall also identify the adjusted amount of the fee cap established by Section 8.20.210.B. that will apply in the following fiscal year.

C.

No later than March 1, 2006 and by March 1 each even numbered year thereafter, the director of finance will evaluate information from industry sources, regulatory bodies and city experience to determine whether the fee rates for trunk lines and high capacity trunk lines continue to reasonably reflect the increased estimated access to the 911 emergency communication system provided to trunk line subscribers relative to access line subscribers; and such determination shall be included in the director of finance report.

(Ord. 27229.)