Loading...
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. 1 12/18/84 /pm 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. 4 12/18/84 /pm 'A 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. 97 12/18/84 /pm j 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. 4 12/18/84 i /pm J 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. 5 12/18/84 /pm