PETITION OF:

SECTION 1. The county of Norfolk is hereby authorized to establish a special account to be known as the “Norfolk County Fire and Rescue Dispatch Account”. Into such account shall be deposited all receipts, revenues, grants and funds from any source derived from any activity of the Norfolk County Fire and Rescue Dispatch Center.

SECTION 2. The Norfolk County Fire and Rescue Dispatch Center shall provide timely fire dispatch and emergency medical dispatch and shall function as a department of the County of Norfolk but under the direction of officials of such cities and towns as shall agree to pay for and collaborate in the operation of a joint fire and rescue dispatch center. Membership shall be limited to individual cities or towns of the commonwealth. Initial membership in said center shall require the vote of a town meeting or a town or city council. Initial commitment for membership shall be three years. In any future year, failure to make the required annual appropriation shall constitute withdrawal from the county dispatch center effective July 1 next succeeding. Any membership dues shall be based, as near equally as practicable, upon population as measured by most recent state or federal census, wealth as measured by most recent equalized assessed valuation and service calls as measured by most recent twelve months of municipal experience. Dues shall be originally established at the rates of $1.75 per capita, $0.0124 per thousand dollars of equalized assessed valuation and $12.40 per fire and emergency call of most recent calendar year. For the first fiscal year of any new member, including fiscal year 2006, when any member will be a new member, dues rates shall be one-half of the rates, otherwise established originally by this act or as later properly amended. Any new member joining in fiscal year 2010 and thereafter shall also be required to pay a one-time entry fee, of $2.00 per capita, which shall be credited to the capital improvement/stabilization fund of the dispatch center. Said fee may be paid as one lump sum or by equal payments over five years. Operations of said center shall be under the care and control of the operating council, established under section six of this act. For fiscal years 2009 and thereafter, the operating council shall have authority to adjust the rates from those initially established by this act, provided notice of the same is given to participating municipalities no later than December 31 next prior to that fiscal year. Payment of such annual dues to the county shall be made by the participating municipality no later than August 1 of that membership year. The annual budget of the center shall be timely prepared by the operating council and shall thereafter follow the process normal for a county department.

SECTION 3. Employees of said center shall be county employees. If any such new county employee shall be hired from a qualifying member town, the county may credit such accumulated but uncompensated benefits, as an opening balance on the benefit records of said employee. Such credit shall be as the Norfolk County Commissioners, at their sole discretion, so determine. The administrator of the center, even if a working manager, shall not be eligible for membership in any collective bargaining unit representing the center’s dispatchers. Salaries and benefits of employees of said center shall be paid from the Norfolk County Fire and Rescue Dispatch Account established in section one of this act and shall not be paid from any other funds of Norfolk County.

SECTION 4. The account authorized in section one shall be maintained by the County Treasurer in accordance with the provisions of section ten of chapter thirty-five of the General Laws and expenditures from such account shall be made by the administrator of the Norfolk County Fire and Rescue Dispatch Center, subject to appropriation, and be used solely for the operation and maintenance and for the provision of capital, equipment and plant for said center. Such account shall be maintained in accordance with generally accepted principles of accounting and shall be audited annually by a certified public accountant. Such audits shall be submitted to the board of selectmen or mayor or manager of participating municipalities, the operating council, the Norfolk County advisory board, the Norfolk County treasurer, and the bureau of accounts. The county treasurer shall invest the monies in said account as authorized by law and the interest accruing thereon shall inure to the benefit of said center. For the purposes of providing timely fire dispatch and emergency medical dispatch to the citizens of the county of Norfolk, said county may from time to time appropriate monies into said account and donations from private sources may be received into said account.

SECTION 5. The treasurer of the County of Norfolk, with the approval of the county commissioners, may borrow upon the credit of the county such sums as may be necessary, not exceeding, in the aggregate, one million seven hundred thousand dollars, and may issue bonds or notes of the county therefor, which shall bear upon their face the words, Norfolk County Fire and Emergency Dispatch Center Loan, Act of 2005. Each authorized issue shall constitute a separate loan and such loans shall be payable in not more than fifteen years from their dates. The bonds or notes shall be signed by the county treasurer and countersigned by a majority of the county commissioners. The county may sell the said securities at public or private sale, upon such terms and conditions as the county commissioners may deem proper, but not for less than their par value. Indebtedness incurred hereunder shall, except as herein provided, be subject to chapter thirty-five of the General Laws. Notwithstanding any special or general law to the contrary, such indebtedness may be incurred for any initial operational or other start-up costs not to exceed two years once said center is operating and to reimburse any amounts advanced from the county’s accounts in furtherance of such purposes. Debt service on all indebtedness shall be charged by the county against the special account established by section one of this act.

SECTION 6. Effective upon passage, governance of the dispatch center shall lie in an operating council, consisting of four active fire chiefs, nominated by the Norfolk County Association of Fire Chiefs; one fire professional nominated by the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts; and two retired fire managers appointed by the Norfolk County Commissioners. There shall be created an advisory council, consisting of the fire chief and a representative of the collective bargaining unit of firefighters of each municipality participating in Norfolk County mutual aid or subscribing to dispatch services. The operating council shall meet with the advisory council not less than once annually.

SECTION 7. This act shall take effect upon its passage.