(A) There is hereby created the First Responders Advisory Committee which shall consist of:

(1) the following eleven members, or their designees:

(a) the Chairman of the Governor's Security Council;

(b) the Director of the State Law Enforcement Division;

(c) the Director of the Department of Public Safety;

(d) the Adjutant General;

(e) the Director of the Emergency Management Division;

(f) the Director of the Emergency Medical Services Division of the Department of Health and Environmental Control;

(g) the State Fire Marshal;

(h) the President Pro Tempore of the Senate;

(i) the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(j) the State Chief Information Officer; and

(k) the Chairman of the Commercial Mobile Radio Services Emergency Telephone Services Advisory Committee; and

(2) the following nine members who represent the following associations:

(a) the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association;

(b) the South Carolina Police Chiefs Association;

(c) the South Carolina Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association;

(d) the Association of Public Communications Officials;

(e) the South Carolina Emergency Medical Services Association;

(f) the Emergency Management Association;

(g) the South Carolina Fireman's Association;

(h) the South Carolina Fire Chiefs' Association; and

(i) the Palmetto 800 Advisory Committee.

(B) Expense reimbursement or per diem payment shall not be paid to members of the committee or its staff.

(C) All committee members shall serve until the end of the 2003 session of the South Carolina General Assembly.

(D) The Governor shall fill any vacancy on the Advisory Committee. An association to which a vacating member belonged may make recommendations to the Governor to fill the vacancy.

(E) A committee member who terminates his holding of the office or employment that qualified him for appointment shall cease immediately to be a member of the committee.

(F) The committee shall establish rules and procedures with respect to:

(1) the selection of its officers;

(2) the selection of meeting sites; and

(3) conducting its meetings.

(G) The authority and responsibilities of the committee are to research, study, analyze, determine, and report annually by January first to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House concerning the needs of the first responders, including personnel involved with fire, law enforcement, emergency medical, emergency planning and coordinating, and 911 and other emergency communications. The issues to be studied with regard to first responders include, but are not limited to:

(1) performance of their duties, rendering of their services to the public in general, and to the individuals involved in an emergency, including the other first responders involved;

(2) preparing for the performance of those duties, including equipping, training, planning, and coordinating;

(3) funding their operations;

(4) preserving and enhancing their personal fitness, well-being, morale, and welfare;

(5) the appropriate role the State should play in continuing to assess and address the identified needs, including whether, and in what form, a new or existing state agency could and should be authorized and funded to assist in that role; and

(6) the consideration of legislation to address the identified needs and providing the General Assembly with draft legislation with regard to these issues.

(H) The First Responders Advisory Committee shall receive clerical and related assistance from the staff of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Department of Public Safety, and the Office of Information Resources.

HISTORY: 2002 Act No. 339, Section 41; 2019 Act No. 1 (S.2), Section 49, eff January 31, 2019.

Effect of Amendment

2019 Act No. 1, Section 49, in (G), in the first sentence, substituted "annually by January first to the President of the Senate" for "to the General Assembly by January 1, 2003, and thereafter to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate".