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CC Minutes - 06/11/01 Work Session
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CC Minutes - 06/11/01 Work Session
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City Council Minutes
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Work Session
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1/1/2001
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Mr. Papd noted his own experience with false alarms as a business and property owner. He believed that <br />verification of false alarms would significantly reduce false alarms. He thought the ordinance proposed would <br />help to focus attention on the problem and reduce false alarms. He wanted to reduce false alarms to maintain <br />the number of officers on the street. He wanted a shift toward verification and highlighting the responsibility <br />of property owners in stopping false alarms. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly expressed appreciation for the staff work that had gone into development of the agenda materials <br />and staff recommendation. He said it appeared there was no single solution, but a combination of solutions. <br />He also appreciated Mr. Rayor's remark regarding the definition. Mr. Kelly said that officer safety and freeing <br />up officer time were both important considerations to him. He anticipated the fees would be revenue-neutral. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly reminded the staffthat the fiscal and resource impact of the ordinance should be addressed in the <br />packet material. <br /> <br />In response to Mr. Kelly, Mr. Smith confirmed that the proposal was intended to be revenue-neutral. He said <br />that the policy question was to what extent the City should be recovering the cost of the officers' time and <br />whether the department should build a reserve fund to pay for new software related to the Computer-Aided <br />Dispatch system to better track false alarms. Mr. Kelly did not oppose the establishment of the reserves but he <br />hoped the moneys would come from the fines for repeated false alarms and not from a general registration fee. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly said it appeared the proposal was not only revenue-neutral, but would be time-positive for officers <br />to respond to other calls, which was a financial and community benefit. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman agreed there was a need for the ordinance and generally supported the changes proposed by staff <br />to the code. She wanted to ensure the revenue associated with the ordinance was sufficient to pay all the costs <br />of administration, the CAD software, education, and outreach. She suggested the cost of education might be <br />most appropriately paid by revenues from the permit fee. Ms. Bettman wanted the fines to be high enough to <br />discourage future false alarms. She noted the disparity between the fine schedule and highest recommended <br />fine in the ordinance. Mr. Smith clarified that the schedule set the fee limits; another schedule set the fees. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman observed that a provision in the existing code that allowed the City to place a lien on the property <br />that generated false alarms had been removed as a result of the draft ordinance. She suggested that in cases <br />where the permit owner was the property owner, that tool should be retained to recover those costs. She asked <br />what the tool was being replaced with, adding that the court approach was a costly one. Mr. Smith said a lien <br />was a costly tool to use as well. The intent behind the ordinance was to make it as simple to use as possible. <br />Those who do not pay are on verification status until they pay; their unpaid bills would be sold to a collection <br />agency, minimizing the City's cost and generating some revenue. <br /> <br />Mr. Fart also noted his experience in responding to false alarms. He said that the most important thing was to <br />ensure the City could respond to actual calls for service from the police. He thought the ordinance would <br />reduce the need to respond to false alarms as well as ensure that true alarms were responded to. Mr. Fart <br />determined from Mr. Smith that a business could purchase packages from the private sector that included <br />alarm verification services. Mr. Smith said that businesses purchasing that service were also subject to the <br />ordinance, even though they had, in effect, adopted best practices. He noted that the issue had also been raised <br />by Mr. Kelly and in public meetings. Staff included those businesses because it believed that there was a need <br />for basic information regarding the need for a biennial renewal. He added that the key lever in determining the <br />response to true alarms as opposed to quelling the frequency of false alarms was the point at which the <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 11, 2001 Page 10 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />
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