HomeMy WebLinkAbout1984-12-18 - 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
December 10, 1984
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING
EMERGENCY/BURGLAR ALARM SYSTEMS
There will be a City Council Workshop Meeting on
Tuesday, December 18, 1984 at 10:00 A.M. in the
Council Chambers at City Hall, 5811 Northwest
88 Avenue, Tamarac, Florida to discuss a revised
alarm Ordinance.
Public attendance is encouraged.
6", 2 , -
Carol E. Barbuto
Assistant City Clerk
"An Equal Opportunity Employer"
CITY OF TAMARAC., FLORIDA
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING
December 18, 1984
Tape 1 CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Philip B. Kravitz called the meeting to order
at 10:00 A.M. on Tuesday, December 18, 1984, in the Council Chambers
at City Hall.
R LL_.CALL.: PREP NT:
ABSENT AND EXCUSED:
LU,Q FRE_$.ENT :
Mayor Philip B. Kravitz
Councilman Jack Stelzer
Councilman Allan C. Bernstein
Vice Mayor Sydney M. Stein
Councilman Raymond J. Munitz
Elly F. Johnson, City Manager
Jon M. Henning, City Attorney
Patricia Marcurio, Secretary
Mayor Kravitz read the official notice of the workshop meeting which
was called to discuss a revised Burglar Alarm Ordinance. He
explained that the purpose of this meeting is for input only.
Al Robbins, Chairman of the Burglar Alarm Committee, said at a
meeting held a few weeps ago, the five members of this committee
discussed eight recommendations they are going to present to the
Council regarding changes in the Ordinance. He said they are as
follows:
1. Removal of the board from the Police Department.
2. Discontinue the $50.00 per year user's fee charged to all home-
owners having burglar alarms.
3. License and bond all burglar alarm installers who will service
the Tamarac area.
4. Out of the Building Department, assign a man for burglar alarm
system training. Offers have been made to train this man at no
charge.
5. Charge a one-time fee at installation of the system to cover
cost of the initial inspection. The Building Department can set
up standards.
5. Continue the fine arrangement as is presently established with a
consideration for lowering the $50.00 fee.
7. Eliminate the $10.00 appeal fee.
8. The Ordinance should include provisions for fines to the
installers if the false alarm was caused by improper
installation. The bond might be used as a guarantee for
payment of fine.
Walter Rekuc, resident of the woodlands, said false alarms in the
Woodlands Country Club area are a nuisance to the residents and a
serious drai-n on the police protection of the City. He said Section
45.7 of the South Florida Building Code requires that a building
permit be obtained for the installation of alarm systems. He said
six of the false alarms investigated revealed that a building permit
was not obtained nor was inspection performed of the installation.
He said the City should enforce the Statutes as outlined in Chapter
71-575. He said former Assistant to the City Manager, Leroy Browne,
indicated that 1,100 residents, less than 3% of the City residents,
have alarm systems installed. He said the average cost of a burglar
alarm system is between $1,500 and $4,000. He said this is 2-1/2 to
4 million dollars of additional annual taxable dollars which cannot
be traced to the City tax rolls. He questioned what is being done
to properly report these additions to the tax rolls and collect the
taxes on installations done in prior years. He questioned what is
being done to enforce the violations to the building code. C/M
Stelzer said Mr. Rekuc should submit names and addresses to the City
if he is aware of any alarms that have been installed without
permits.
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Dr. Bernard Newman, resident, said he feels it is a conflict of
interest for Council members, who own burglar alarms, to vote on
this. Vickie Beech, resident, thanked Mr. Robbins for his
recommendations and she suggested the burglar alarms be operated
through a private facility. Joe Israel, representative of Merrill
Alarm Systems, said according to the statistics they receive from
the FBI and other police agencies, there is no way to protect
everyone only
with the municipal police forces. He said on the calls made for
burglaries, police response varies from 5 to 25 minutes.
He said they are hopeful that equipment will be better in the future
to avoid false alarms.
Nick Camerano, resident, said he does not want to pay for anyone
else's burglar alarm. Sidney Brumberger, member of the Woodlands
Homeowners Association Burglar Alarm Committee and a member of the
Tamarac Burglar Alarm Committee said he voted against removing the
board from the Police Department. He said there are 561 residents
on the Woodlands Homeowners Association board, which is open to all
residents of Tamarac. He said of that amount, 361 are from
Woodlands, 150 from Woodmont and 50 are miscellaneous. He said the
previous Ordinances required a users' fee that was collected by the
City and inspection of new systems, which was never done. He said
before the Council agrees to move the board from the Police
Department, he questioned why they do not start to inspect the
systems to eliminate false alarms and faulty installations. He said
in 1983, there were 2,715 false alarms and the City collected
approximately $84,000. Mr. Henning asked Mr. Brumberger if those
figures include the annual fees and penalties and he said yes.
Leo Isaacson, resident, said he is a Professor of Political Science
at Nova University and has experience with this type of problem. He
said after the last Workshop Meeting on this subject, there was a 7-
day test period during which there were 49 activated alarms, 15 were
testing attempts by the company and of the remaining 34 alarms, 7
were cancelled when the owner of the system reached the protective
agency and this left 34. He said out of this remaining number, all
but 3 could have been avoided if the Police had called the owner of
the alarm system with a code number prompting no response. He urged
Council to have a 6-month test during which time the board would
remain in the Police Department.
Harry Katz, resident, said he called the Police Department to report
a false alarm and he asked if this would be called a false alarm.
Capt. Roche of the Police Department, said the present Ordinance
states that when an alarm is activated without reaching the
dispatcher, a Police car is dispatched and may not be turned back
for liability purposes. He said presently they cannot just monitor
alarm calls.
Albert Young, Chairman of the Safety Committee of Tamarac Presidents
Council and Woodlands Homeowners Association, said the alarms should
be kept in the Police Department. He suggested volunteers could man
the board for 12 hours with professional people covering the board
the remaining 12 hours.
Al Robbins said the response time is the same whether a call is sent
to the Police Department board or a private agency because the
dispatcher must still call 911. Capt. Roche said this is true, an
alarm sent to the Police Department requires the dispatcher to dial
911 to go through the Sheriff's Office.
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City Manager Johnson said he has approximately 16-1/2 years exper-
ience in this area. He said about 2 years ago the City he worked
for was having 99.98% false alarms with a lot of expense for the
City. He said after testing it was found that there is better
response time and service with fewer false alarms when a City goes
to a reputable company. He said they are required to have at least
2 people on duty 24 hours a day and they monitor and have call-back
signals to the owner to determine the cause. He said with a private
agency, the City he worked for had virtually no false alarms.
Steve Popick, member of the Burglar Alarm Committee, said he is also
a member of a nationwide burglar alarm company. He said any reput-
able alarm company that installs alarms will pull a permit from the
City. He said the alarm board in Tamarac is good and he offered to
help in any way he can. Nick Camerano said Mr. Popick should not be
a member of the committee but act only as an advisor. Mr. Popick
said he does not have any ties with the burglar alarm company in
Broward County as of last year.
Lillian Feldman, President of the Woodlands Homeowners Association,
said she resents the media referring to the burglar alarm board as
only belonging to the Woodlands. She thanked Council for this'
Workshop Meeting to enlighten people on this. Paul Saltzman, resi-
dent, said burglar alarms discourage crime, thereby saving the City
money and the more alarms installed, the more benefit to the City.
Tape 2 Mr. Isaacson urged Council to give consideration to a G-month test
period with the Police Department monitoring the calls.
Vickie Beech, resident, said she feels it is wrong to put this
responsibility on the Police Department. Mr. Rekuc said the City
Manager and the Chairman had some good suggestions. Mr. Young said
he would like to be able to cancel a dispatched police car and in
return he would give a notarized statement to hold the City harm-
less. Mayor Kravitz said it was already explained that this cannot
be done legally.
Mr. Camerano said there has not been enough information regarding
costs and he feels the Burglar Alarm Committee is biased since they
all seem to have an interest in burglar alarms. He said this should
be part of a referendum for the people.
C/M Bernstein said as liaison to the Burglar Alarm Committee, he
feels the only recommendation by the Committee that seems to be in
question today is removal of the board from the Police Department.
He said the recommendations that concern having the Building Depart-
ment train an inspector to adequately perform inspections seems to
be a necessary goal. He said the intention was to have inspections
confined to two areas: new systems and troubled systems. He said it
is essential to have incoming alarms screened. He said the committee
felt that the Burglar Alarm Ordinance was not the place to spell out
detailed technical requirements for systems but rather, to state
that systems must conform to standards established by the Building
Department. He said the Building Department, with its trained
inspector, would then establish those standards with the help of the
Burglar Alarm Committee so that it could be revised without
requiring revision of the Ordinance.
C/M Bernstein said allegations were made as to the possible bias of
a committee made up of burglar alarm users. He said that committee
weighed appeals against fines and the record will show that an
abnormally low percentage of those appeals were allowed. He said in
almost every case, the action of the Police Department was sustain-
ed. He said the purpose of a Burglar Alarm Ordinance is to allow
the Police Department to operate efficiently by minimizing the
number of times they must respond to a false alarm.
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C/M Bernstein said he does not accept the position that the City
cannot call an officer back when he has been dispatched after they
are satisfied that it is not a false alarm. He said a well -trained
inspector and a good set of standards will keep the amateurs out of
the City. He said there is no justification for the claim that the
City has subsidized the burglar alarm system but the decision on
whether the board belongs in the Police Department or in a private
agency, should be settled on merit. He said the income from fines
and fees has always exceeded the costs of the Police Department. He
said the suggestion of a test, if it can be operated without
interfering with the normal work of the Police Department, could
dispel the question of whether to continue to have the board in the
Police Department or not.
C/M Stelzer said the only extra expense the City has with the burg-
lar alarms is the two clerks that work on them. He said there are
1,100 alarms at a $50.00 annual fee bringing in between $50,000 and
$60,000 which would pay for the two clerks working in the Police
Department. He asked how much it will cost to install a new board
in the proposed Police facility and Mr. Israel said the equipment
alone could cost between $7,000 and $15,000. He said it costs his
alarm company $57000 per year for one person to monitor the board
for 365 days, 24 hours per day. He said this is without other
benefits. He said for commercial monitoring, they charge from $40
to $60 per month and for residential they charge $15 to $25 per
month. He said he cannot see why the City Police Department should
have this service for nothing.
C/M Stelzer questioned whether the subscribers would pay for the new
installation of a board in the new City Hall and he questioned who
would pay for the mileage charge for the telephone lines that are
connected to this. C/M Bernstein said the mileage charge exists
only on those systems that are tied in by a dedicated line
exclusively for that purpose. He said that is limited almost ex-
clusively to banks or a jewelry exchange but in all other cases
there are no special telephone lines involved. C/M Stelzer said he
understands there is a commercial firm that would charge $5.00 per
month per subscriber to have the board connected into this
commercial agency. C/M Bernstein said there has been one offer of
that type and he would suggest;
1. Having this agency take over the job of monitoring the calls.
2. There would still be at least one clerk in the Police
Department.
3. A $10.00 appeal charge should be maintained.
4. There should be trained burglar alarm system inspectors in the
Building Department.
5. Installers should submit a bond that they will maintain their
systems.
Mr. Henning said he is available to work with Council to assist in
writing an Ordinance. He said he has worked with the Police Depart-
ment concerning burglar alarms and virtually no day passes without
at least one burglar alarm. He said statistics have shown that no
criminal has ever been apprehended as a result of an alarm going
off. He said the false alarms are more of a problem and expense to
the Police Department and the fees are for the service, if the
Police Department does continue this service, the $50.00 fee
probably cannot be reduced. He said he does not feel that legally,
the burglar alarm business is a municipal responsibility. He said
the public pays for all other services and this should be equally
understood.
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Mr. Henning said there is one alternative that if the City strength-
ens the inspections in the beginning, they could do away with the
annual fees and dwell, on the people with the false alarms. He said
other cities have used this procedure as well.
Mayor Kravitz thanked everyone for their participation and adjourned
the meeting at 11:20 A.M.
ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
This public document was promulgated at a cost of $98.10 or $2.72
per copy, to inform the general public and public officers and
employees about recent opinions and considerations by the City
Council of the City of Tamarac.
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