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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1984-05-22 - City Commission Workshop Meeting MinutesMAIL REPLY TO: P.O. BOX 25010 TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33320 5811 NORTHWEST 88TH AVENUE TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33321 TELEPHONE (305) 722-5900 May 11, 1984 CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING EMERGENCY/BURGLAR ALARM SYSTEMS There will be a City Council Workshop Meeting on Tuesday, May 22, 1984 at 10:00 A.M. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 5811 NW 88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida to discuss a revised alarm Ordinance. Public attendance and input is encouraged. Carol A. Evans Assistant City Clerk P=CY OF Imo]-DLsqu)maTION ON BASIS OF HkOICAPPM ST.ATVS AN MAL OMKRNnY DFLOYIIt CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING EMERGENCY/BURGLAR ALARMS May 22, 1984 ,Pape CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Kravitz called the Workshop Meeting to order at 1 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, May 22, 1984 in the Council Chambers of City Hall. ROLL CALL: PRESENT: Mayor Philip B. Kravitz Councilman Jack Stelzer Councilman Raymond J. Munitz Vice Mayor Sydney M. Stein @ 10:25 ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Councilman John J. Dunne ALSO PRESENT: Leroy Browne, Assistant to City Manager Samuel"Stevens, Chief Building Official Joseph McIntosh, Police Chief Bernard Simon, Fire Chief Patricia Marcurio, Secretary 1. Introductory Remarks - Mayor, Council and Staff Mayor Kravitz said the prime purpose of changing the old Ordinance is to keep false alarms at a minimum. Leroy Browne, Assistant to the City Manager, said this workshop was scheduled for input from the public and afterwards, staff will meet to make recommendations to Council and will then implement what Council advises., He said they have invited a number of the recognized burglar alarm companies to address several areas. He said the City Manager's office is concerned about crime prevention, reducing false alarms and the enforcement of the Ordinance in final form. He said some of the inquiries they have had are from the FCN, the official publication of the Burglar and Fire Alarm Association,and also the Security Equipment Industry Association. He said the Chief Building Official will comment concerning permits, design, wiring, installation prewiring and final inspection. The Police Department will discuss problems enforcing the Ordinance, the qualifications of existing staff to inspect the alarms, the scope of the Police Department vs. burglar alarm companies, the communication center impact, the drain on the present resources and comment on fines and permit fees. Samuel Stevens, Chief Building Official, introduced Pat Keiley, Chief Electrical Inspector, to outline the inspections made and the permit fees charged. Pat Keiley.said the inspection procedures now, dictated by the Council and Burglar Alarm Committee, are minimal. He said it is mechanical execution of work on the rough to see that the Burglar Alarm wiring is not dangerously installed and on the final inspection, to check the equipment is in and mounted properly. Bernie Simon, Fire Chief, said the proposition of smoke detectors has to be interpreted in the proper form; it is interior notification only for people in the building. He said smoke alarms that are attached to a proprietory company or an alarm monitoring device are for commercial premises only. The best approach would be either a manual alarm or the 911 telephone number. He said some cities have tried connecting smoke detectors to an automatic notification of the Fire Department and it has been disasterous. He said their present estimate for a structural fire is $150 per run and most would be unnecessary because of improper functioning. He requested they be used in the proper context, NFPA-74, which only addresses the local notification of the people with a loud noise which is a minmun of 85 decimals. C/M Stelzer asked how many are connected to the burqlar alarm system 1 _ 5/22/84 /pm Joseph McIntosh, Police Chief, said there are presently approximately 200 smoke alarms connected to the burglar alarm system. He said the Ordinance was finalized in April, 1982, after it was rewritten 14 times. He said he stated numerous times that it could not be enforced and this has been proven. He said one of the reasons is that the law enforcement officer is charged with the responsibility of inspecting alarm systems and he has no qualifications for doing this. He said he has been told there are several unlawful systems which are pro- hibited by this Ordinance such as vibrating, sensor -type systems. He said the City needs someone who is qualified to be employed for that purpose. He said there is a disruptive situation in the communications center which has over 1,000 alarms that terminate at the Police Communications Room and the Media Room is designed as the policeman's lifeline. He said there are 2 radios and 5 telephone lines and during a storm, it is most confusing. He said the alarms should be in another room with someone else monitoring. He said 2 years ago that was agreed to and it was put in the City budget for Alarm Clerks to monitor the alarms, however, that never happened and these alarms were.never;removed from the radio room. Chief McIntosh said, in addition, the drain on the Police resources is unbelievable since at least 2 cars must respond whenever an alarm goes off. He said'in the last year there were 2,700 false alarms and, during the 4 years he has been Police Chief, there have been approximately 8,000 false alarms with no real alarms, therefore, 99 to 100% are false alarms. He ;said if these alarms were privately monitored they could be screen6d:and the Police would not respond to at least half. He said they have a number of uncollected fees outstanding since the Ordinance states that anyone that does not pay their fine in 30 days would have their alarm disconnected. He said he cannot disconnect the alarm and there could be a liability to the City if this were done and the home was later burglarized. C/M Munitz asked the Police Chief if he would recommend the City disassociate itself completely with any burglar alarm reporting and go to the private sector and Chief McIntosh said the Police will always have to be involved when a response is necessary. V/M Stein entered the meeting at 10:25. 2. Service Points of View - Burglar_Alarm Committee Members and all interested public participants Allan Bernstein,Chairman of the Burglar Alarm Committee, said the system as it exists does work. He said the primary purpose is to deter burglaries and it has been successful in that respect since a minimum number of homes equipped with burglar alarms have been burglarized. He said the only reasonable measure of false alarms is how many there are per 100 systems and, in that respect, Tamarac has a good record. He said there is pressure from special interest groups who lose revenue by virtue of the fact that Tamarac is operating a highly successful system rendering service to its residents without the normal monthly charges. He said the ways this system can be improved are: 1. screening incoming calls. 2. doing -their own dispatching. 3. computerizing. 4. accepting cancellations when a car has been dispatched and the homeowner reports a mistake by phone. 5, hiring an electrical inspector competent to inspect these systems. Mr. Bernstein said the community can best be served by: 1. giving the Police the necessary manpower to operate the system properly. 2. accepting fire and medical emergency alarms. 3. tests should not go into the Police Department. - 2 - 5/22/84 /pm Mr. Bernstein said he has submitted written memos as to the technical upgrading he feels should be done and he feels the Burglar Alarm Committee should be given more flexibility in handling the cases that come before it as well as more power over installers. He said there should be a 60-day break-in period on the new systems before being connected to the board and he feels the legalities should be worked out so that the City is held. harmless by agreements signed by the homeowners in cases where cancellations are accepted by phone. Lewis Breslin, member of the Burglar Alarm Committee, said the monitoring of the burglar alarms should go to a private system. Vickie Beech, resident, said this is a private function and should remain such. Lou Vladem, President of the Woodmont Property Owners Association, said he agrees that this should be a private sector problem since those that take the burglar alarms should pay for the service. Bruce Hoffman, resident, said the Ordinance is unreasonable since it causes a $50 fee for a permit as well as a yearly tax of $50 for the use of the alarm system. He said the Ordinance requires that a homeowner have his alarm inspected periodically by an independent contractor who did not do the work. He said many contractors will not give a fair appraisal of work they did not do. He said the present Ordinance should be changed to provide: 1. a permit to install a burglar alarm should cost the same fee as a permit for any electrical installation. 2. unless an alarm system is connected to the Police monitoring board, no yearly use fee should be charged. 3. a yearly fee should be charged to people who do use the service of the Police monitoring board and it should be based on the cost of the operation. 4. the City should promulgate a Code for burglar alarm equipment and its proper installation. 5. inspectors of the City's Building Department should be responsible for the inspection. Melvin Schwartz, resident, said he relies on a private company for the operation. He said none of the surrounding cities have penalties for responding to false alarms and he questioned the purpose of this Pape Ordinance. Walter Rekuc, resident, said the false alarms are a 2 nuisance to everyone. He asked what is being done by the City to properly report the addition to the tax rolls of the revenue these burglar alarms produce, what is being done to collect .the taxes on installations done in prior years, what is being done to enforce the violations to the building Code. Bernie Hart, resident, said the present system is highly successful and it should be determined what percentage of the approximate 15,000 residential units in the City use this system to warrant the cost to the City. Lee Browne said there are certain facts that the present operation consists of: 1. the Tamarac Police Department now directly monitors approximately 600 systems at no charge to the users. 2. the monitoring system (3 pieces of equipment) is owned by the Woodland Home Owners Association. 3. the Tamarac Police Department dispatcher, upon receiving alarms, calls the Broward Sheriff office 911 who dispatches directly to the Tamarac Police cars. 4. the Tamarac Police Department responds with 2 patrol cars each time they are dispatched, this is standard Police procedure. 5. many alarm users do not want their signal received directly by the Tamarac Police Department because of no screening, $50 fines are a major issue. Correction to be considered by incorporating screening service. 6. insurance companies offer premium discounts with central station monitoring. He said an 8 day test was conducted which revealed that of 100% of the calls received, 87-1/2% that were not dispatched, leaving a total of 12-1/2% in the errors which include both human errors and unknown equipment, left an actual dispatch number of .3%. - 3 - 5/22/84 /pm . Leo Isaacson, resident, said he represents the Woodlands Home Owners Association and he commended the City for undertaking the burglar alarm systems monitoring. He said this could be solved by having the alarm owner call the Police when there is a false alarm requesting that they not respond. He said if the Police do not respond when the correct code number is given half of those calls would be eliminated. He said a homeowner should be required to sign a release to the Police Department so that the City could be held harmless. C/M Stelzer asked what other cities in the area have a monitoring system for burglar alarms and Chief McIntosh said some cities have a monitoring setup but mostly for businesses not residences. C/M Stelzer said he understands that it costs the City approximately $100,000 to man this system and the income is roughly $85,000. He said the income the City receives for false alarms is $30,000. He said there are about 1,000 alarms in the City for about 15,000 homes, leaving the other several thousand residents to subsidize the cost of putting the alarms in these 1,000 places and this is unfair. 3. .Technical Points of View - Alarm Company Representatives with Topics to Include: 1. False Alarms 2. Central Monitoring 3. Community Relations; regarding design standards, installations and inspections and operations. Terry Akins, representative of the Alarm Association of Florida and an owner of a burglar alarm company which services Dade and Broward Counties, said he has been asked by representatives of Wells Fargo, Crime Control and an equipment manufacturer for the burglar alarm industry who are also present, to speak on their behalf. He said as an association, they are aware of the problems Tamarac is having and they encourage their members to try to do certain things to prevent or limit false alarms. He said they represent over 200 companies in Florida and they are an affiliate member of the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association. He said taking the alarm monitor- ing board out of the Police Department is happening all over the country because it is so costly and because of the liability that a Police Department may incur if something should happen. He said his company understands the business risk and are able to accept the liability of monitoring a third party. He said they recommend this because of the screening and also because the control the alarm company has over their respective alarm sytems. He said there are many companies that have installed alarms in Tamarac who are not legitimate which might account for some of the false alarms. He said he has a training school that is available to State Alarm Association member companies with a public sector which invites policemen, building and electrical inspectors, etc. He said it is held in Orlando twice a year for 3 days in 2 segments and several cities are using this program. Mr. Akins said if Council wishes to take advantage of their expertise, they will offer themselves as liaison between the alarm committee and Council to help create an Ordinance. C/M Munitz asked what the qualifications are to become a member to this Association and Mr. Akins said the requirements are that the applicant must have been doing business for one year, be a licensed company in the area and competency and licensing must be submitted. He said their convention this year will be held in Bonaventure and he invited Council to attend. Bill Platz, Manager of Wells Fargo Alarms in Miami, said 5 years ago Wells Fargo had 41 alarm panels in Florida Police Departments but today there are only 19. He said one reason for this is that the alarm industry has the ability to monitor alarm systems externally. He said Miami has a very strong Ordinance and they have a Burglar Alarm Division which is part of the Police Department but works with an alarm industry. - 4 - 5/22/84 /pm Mr. Platz said when there is a troublesome account, they negotiate with the owner of the premises who is responsible to replace the equipment. He said if the Police decide on the premises that the alarm should not be rearmed, the owner is informed and if they turn it on they are in violation of the Ordinance and will be arrested. He said many fines are then being paid by the alarm company instead of the user. He said Wells Fargo has approximately 71 commercial accounts in Tamarac. V/M Stein asked Mr. Akins if it is his opinion that Tamarac would have less trouble if a burglar alarm company were used rather than the Police and Mr. Akins said it would lessen the problem but not be the total answer. Mr. Platz said the average charge is $240 per year depending on the City and this is less than they are paying now. C/M Stelzer asked how much more it would cost if a subscriber was hooked directly to the burglar alarm company compared to the system now and Mr. Akins said the average cost would be between $18 and $25 per month. Sal Church, President of National Early Warning Systems, said they manufacture equipment and do not install it themselves and the trend is to have monitoring done by central stations. He said this will not eliminate the problems but would diminish them and the present system is going in the wrong direction. Tom Paluso, General Sales Manager of Florida Crime Control, said many suppliers in Tamarac are computerized and on a CRT screen they can access complete knowledge of the account in question. He said several of the alarm systems are getting older and false alarms will be on the increase. Tape Florence Bochenek, resident, said the main concerns of this workshop 3 are, first, the cost due to the false alarms and, second, the system is only being used by 1,000 people in a City of approximately 35,000 who are paying for a system for the minority. Nick Camerano, resident of Shaker Village, said the City should get out of the alarm business. Shirley Blank, resident, asked if volunteers have been considered as assistants in the monitoring of calls -for the Police Department and she volunteered her help in this retard. Harold Schneider, resident, said when he came to the City 7 years ago, he was not aware that there was a fee of $50 for a burglar alarm. He said his system is not connected to the Police Department and he questioned why he must pay $50 per year. Larry Levine, Woodmont resident, said the penalties imposed on alarm owners are a deterrent to crime prevention. He said these people should not be required to pay an annual usage fee but should be encouraged to install alarms since they are known to be positive in nature. Vickie Beech, resident, said Council should limit the cost of running the City. Mr. Schwartz, resident, said instead of applying the fine to everyone, the problems should be the only ones fined. Bruce Hoffman, resident, said the Ordinance should cover separately the alarm systems that go into a monitoring board and an alarm system that does not. C/M Dunne entered the meeting at 11:30. Al Robbins, Woodmont resident, said for $47 per quarter he gets continual service from the central station and he considers this a bargain. He said he owns his system but subscribes to the service. Dick Zonn, representative of Security Screens, said he installed systems in the Woodlands area several years ago and at that time the reason for the Police monitoring the system was that this allowed a direct wire from their homes to the Police channel. He said when the Police Department moved to its present location, it became more expensive to have this system. He said this may have just grown past the City's capacity. Lillian Feldman, President of Woodlands Homeowners Association, asked if the City receives additional revenue as a result of the false alarms. - 5 - 5/22/84 /pm Police Chief McIntosh said in the fiscal year 1981/82 they estimated that the cost to the City was approximately $100,000 and the revenue received was $56,000. He said this past year the revenue received was $87,000 and the cost to the City would rise accordingly. He said the City is losing money. He said these figures include fines as well as fees. V/M Stein asked why Tamarac should be in the burglar alarm business when there are ways for the residents to hook into a burglar alarm company. Mr. Isaacson said Tamarac is not in the burglar alarm business but does provide security of a direct nature through its Police Department which is quicker and more efficient. He said with a private company monitoring the alarms, private industry is making a profit from something that should be a Police function. Amy Lew, resident, said she is more than willing to pay for education but is not willing to pay for someone else's burglar alarm system. Richard Bernstein, representative of Honeywell Protection Services, said Underwriters Laboratory gives a higher rating for systems which tie directly into Underwriter Laboratory approved central stations. He said the only reason the cost would be lower to tie directly into the Police Department would be because the residents are subsidizing the cost and not being paid for by the users directly. Alan Bernstein said there has never been a time that the residents have subsidized the operation of the board in the Police Department. The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 P.M. A SISTA T CIT CLERK This public document was promulgated at $ - /,3 per copy to inform the general and employees about recent opinions and Council of the City of Tamarac. 6 a cost of $ / 4 n or public and public officers considerations by the 5/22/84 /pm