PKR-28-16-00004-P Criteria Enabling Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies to Receive State Aid for Snowmobile Enforcement Duties

7/13/16 N.Y. St. Reg. PKR-28-16-00004-P

NEW YORK STATE REGISTER

VOLUME XXXVIII, ISSUE 28

July 13, 2016

RULE MAKING ACTIVITIES

OFFICE OF PARKS, RECREATION AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION

PROPOSED RULE MAKING

NO HEARING(S) SCHEDULED

 

I.D No. PKR-28-16-00004-P

Criteria Enabling Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies to Receive State Aid for Snowmobile Enforcement Duties

PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE State Administrative Procedure Act, NOTICE is hereby given of the following proposed rule:

Proposed Action:

This is a consensus rule making to amend section 457.33(b) of Title 9 NYCRR.

Statutory authority:

Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law, sections 3.09(8) and 25.01

Subject:

Criteria enabling municipal law enforcement agencies to receive State aid for snowmobile enforcement duties.

Purpose:

To promote local snowmobile enforcement by easing restrictions on State aid eligibility.

Text of proposed rule:

Subsection (b) of section 457.33 of Title 9 is amended as follows:

(b) Personnel [service, temporarily] assigned to snowmobile law enforcement. (1) The wages of personnel so assigned, authorized and paid by the county or municipality, during the period in which the person actually performs the duty of enforcing article 25 of the Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law, shall be an authorized expenditure. If an officer is assigned to such duty, all wages earned during such period become part of a claim. If an officer is assigned snowmobile duties intermittently, an itemized account of such time [and the reasons therefor] must be submitted, and that portion of wages earned while actually engaged in snowmobile law enforcement shall be deemed an authorized expenditure. [However, in cases of intermittent duties in snowmobile law enforcement, no claim may be submitted unless each person involved has been engaged in the duty of snowmobile law enforcement for a total period of not less than 40 hours during the calendar year.]

[(2) Temporary personnel employed seasonally for the specific purpose of snowmobile enforcement. The total wages of persons in this category are an authorized expenditure. However, these persons shall be engaged exclusively in the duty of snowmobile law enforcement, and their period of employment shall not exceed the duration of the snowmobile season which is common to the county, city, town or village submitting the claim. A minimum total of 40 hours of snowmobile enforcement duty and completion of a State-sponsored law enforcement training school is required before a claim for reimbursement of wages may be submitted.]

Text of proposed rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:

Shari Calnero, Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12207, [phone], email: [e-mail]

Data, views or arguments may be submitted to:

Same as above.

Public comment will be received until:

45 days after publication of this notice.

Consensus Rule Making Determination

The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) is proposing to amend, by a consensus rule making, the criteria allowing municipal law enforcement agencies to be eligible for state aid for personnel assigned to snowmobile enforcement as set forth in 9 NYCRR § 457.33(b).

The amendment will promote local snowmobile enforcement of OPRHP’s snowmobile regulations by easing restrictions on state aid eligibility. Specifically, the rule, as amended, allows municipal law enforcement agencies to receive state aid for assigning personnel to snowmobile enforcement duties regardless of whether the personnel are permanent or seasonal employees and without the requirements that personnel log 40 hours of snowmobile enforcement duty per year or complete a State-sponsored law enforcement training.

No party is likely to object to the positive impacts that will result from this rule change. Moreover, this amendment will not have a negative impact because there is no change in the amount of state aid available for snowmobile enforcement, which amount is capped at $150,000. The amendment would likely have a positive impact because it will allow understaffed law enforcement agencies to utilize their snowmobile law enforcement personnel and resources more efficiently by making more snowmobile enforcement hours eligible for state aid. Additionally, these officers will be able to address the concerns of the snowmobiling public, such as the large presence of unregistered snowmobiles on the trails, and agencies will be able to allocate more officers to these concerns with the elimination of the training and 40 hour duty minimum. The proposed amendments would incentivize increased snowmobile law enforcement duty by making more personnel eligible for state aid. For the above reasons, the proposed rulemaking would not cause controversy, but rather have a positive impact on the law enforcement agencies and the safety of the snowmobiling public.

Job Impact Statement

A job impact statement is not submitted because this proposed rule will have no adverse impact on jobs or employment opportunities. In fact, the proposed amendments to 9 NYCRR 457.33(b) will likely create more jobs because they will promote local snowmobile enforcement by easing restrictions on state aid eligibility. Because law enforcement agencies would be able to allocate more officers for snowmobile law enforcement duty, there is no adverse impact on jobs or employment opportunities.