2008-56 AMENDING CITY CODE - CHAPTER 45 - ALARM SYSTEMS

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Jul 28 2008 �! Y � TO: Honorable Mayor Carrigan and City Council II FROM: John Smith, Interim City Manager Billy Tyus, Assistant City Manager Ron Neufeld, Finance Director SUBJECT: City Code Chapter 45 Amendments '�, SUMMARY RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends appr�val of the proposed changes to city code Chapter 45 as related to false alarms. I BACKGROUND: Earlier this year we sent a memo to the city council regarding false alarms, specifically mentioning the fact that we'd begun to re xamine the City's fine structure for police and fire responses to residential and com ercial false alarms. As you know, in recent years we decided to increase the amount o the fine, allowing three free for residential calls and four free for commercial calls per alendar year. After the free alarms, we now charge $500 per call for commercial/ind strial false alarms and $100 per residential false alarm. We would propose going to a new structure which would i clude: • Continued Free Warnings: We would allow fou free warnings to both residential and commercial customers. • Graduated Fine Structure: Following the four free false alarms, we would charge $100 for 5-8 false alarms, $200 for the ninth and tenth call and $300 for more than 10 calls for commercial f cilities. For residential facilities, we would provide four free calls and c arge $50 for 5-8 false alarms, $100 for the 9t" and 10th call and $150 fo each false alarm after the 10th alarm. , • Notification Prior To Fine: We would send both residential and commercial residents a letter prior to a fine bein implemented notifying them that fines could be forthcoming if they have a ditional false alarms. Last ear false alarm calls resulted in 57 600 in fines althou h it should be noted that we did not increase the fines in an effort to in rease revenues. The reason behind increasing the fines was that there was a substan ial cost associated with having police and fire personnel and equipment dispatched to hat turned out to be a false alarm. Also, we wanted to encourage property owners to ake necessary repairs to equipment so that resources would not be diverted from actual emergencies to respond. It would be difficult to estimate the amount of fines that ould come in under the new structure, although I think that it's safe to say that it would e significantly less than last year. The call counts for calendar year 2007 were as follows: