08 LC 36
0935S
The
Senate Health and Human Services Committee offered the following substitute to
SB 402:
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Title 32 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to highways,
bridges, and ferries, so as to establish the Georgia Coordinating Council for
Rural and Human Services Transportation to encourage efficient transportation
service delivery in the rural areas of the state and to coordinate human service
transportation services in both the rural and urban areas of the state; to
provide for legislative findings; to provide for the membership, meetings, and
expenses of such council; to provide for advisory committees; to provide for the
duties of the council; to provide for an annual report; to provide for related
matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for
other purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Title
32 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to highways, bridges, and
ferries, is amended by adding a new chapter to read as follows:
"CHAPTER
12
32-12-1.
The
General Assembly finds that there exists a number of programs designed to
provide rural and human services transportation, and that frequently these
services are provided over large geographic areas and through various funding
sources which are frequently targeted to narrowly defined client bases. The
sheer number of such programs lends itself to a need for coordination among the
programs so as to best assist economies in purchasing equipment and operating
these many programs, to better serve the taxpayers of the state in ensuring the
most cost-effective delivery of these services, and to best serve the clients
utilizing the transportation services provided through these
programs.
32-12-2.
There
is hereby created the Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services
Transportation. Such council shall be composed of the State School
Superintendent and the commissioners of the Department of Transportation,
Department of Human Resources, Department of Community Health, and Department of
Labor, or their respective designees. The commissioner of transportation or his
or her designee shall serve as chairperson. Designees appointed pursuant to
this Code section by the commissioner of an agency or the State School
Superintendent shall at a minimum be at the level of division
director.
32-12-3.
The
Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services Transportation shall
meet at the call of the chairperson at such times and locations as the
chairperson shall determine. The council shall meet not less often than
quarterly, and expenses for participation of its members in said meetings shall
be borne by each participating agency. Administrative expenses, other than
travel or per diem expenses of members, shall be borne by the Department of
Transportation.
32-12-4.
The
Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services Transportation may
establish such advisory committees as it deems appropriate to fulfill its
mission, which committees may consist of local government representatives;
private and public sector transportation providers, both for profit and
nonprofit in nature; public transit system representatives, both rural and
urban; area planning and development commissions; and representatives of the
clients served by the various programs administered by the agencies represented
on the council.
32-12-5.
The
Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural and Human Services Transportation shall
examine the manner in which transportation services are provided by the
participating agencies represented on the council. Such examination shall
include but not be limited to:
(1)
An analysis of all programs administered by participating agencies, including
capital and operating costs, and overlapping or duplication of services among
such programs, with emphasis on how to overcome such overlapping or
duplication;
(2)
The means by which transportation services are coordinated among state, local,
and federal funding source programs;
(3)
The means by which both capital and operating costs for transportation could be
combined or shared among agencies, including at a minimum shared purchase of
vehicles and maintenance of such vehicles;
(4)
An analysis of those areas which might appropriately be consolidated to lower
the costs of program delivery without sacrificing program quality to clients,
including shared use of vehicles for client trips regardless of the funding
source which pays for their trips;
(5)
An analysis of state of the art efforts to coordinate rural and human services
transportation elsewhere in the nation, including at a minimum route scheduling
so as to avoid duplicative trips in a given locality;
(6)
A review of any limitations which may be imposed by various federally funded
programs and how these limitations might be overcome through shared capital
purchases or operations;
(7)
An analysis of how agency programs interact with and impact upon state, local,
or regional transportation services performed on behalf of the general public
through state, local, or regional transit systems; and
(8)
An evaluation of potential cost sharing opportunities available for clients
served by council agencies so as to maximize service delivery efficiencies and
to obtain the maximum benefit on their behalf with the limited amount of funds
available.
32-12-6.
No
later than December 31 of each year, the Georgia Coordinating Council for Rural
and Human Services Transportation shall provide a report to the Governor and to
the presiding officers of the General Assembly, with copies of said report
being sent to the chairpersons of the transportation committees and the health
and human services committees of each chamber of the General Assembly. The
report shall address each of the specific duties enumerated in Code Section
32-12-5 and such other subject areas within its purview as the council shall
deem appropriate. Each report shall focus on existing conditions in
coordination of rural and human services transportation within the state and
shall make specific recommendations for means to improve such current practices.
Such recommendations shall address at a minimum both the cost implications and
the impact on client service of each recommendation."
SECTION
2.
This
Act shall become effective upon its approval by the Governor or upon its
becoming law without such approval.
SECTION
3.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.