A new false fire alarm fee was proposed in the Recommended FY 2003/2004 Budget as part of the Fee Schedule. This fee has been recommended in order to recover costs incurred by the Department of Public Safety when responding to false fire alarms. Also included in the Recommended Budget was a modification to the current False Burglar Alarm fee structure.

The purpose of this report is to modify the language in the Police Alarms Section of the City’s Municipal Code. Two modifications are proposed. The first modification will update the Code to cover false fire alarms as well as false burglar alarms. A second modification would change the condition under which a false alarm fee can be assessed. Staff recommends Council approve this proposal to modify Chapter 9.90 of the Sunnyvale Municipal Code relating to false alarms.

As part of the budget process a proposed schedule of fees is presented to Council in conjunction with the City Manager’s Recommended Budget. As part of the City Manager’s 6-Point Action Plan, staff further refined this year's review of fees and charges to ensure all fees were fully recovering costs. Further, City services were reviewed for potential cost recovery. Based on this review, staff has proposed a new False Fire Alarm be added to the city’s fee schedule and has further proposed to alter the structure of the city’s current false burglar alarm fee structure. Both of these actions require modifying the City’s Municipal Code.

This action is consistent with the City of Sunnyvale’s Fiscal Sub-element Action Statement 7.1A.1i: "Establish user charges and fees at a level closely related to the cost of providing those services."

A number of California cities have implemented a False Fire Alarm Fee to recover the considerable costs associated with responding to such occurrences. Currently, Sunnyvale assesses a fee for false burglar alarms, but not false fire alarms.

The City’s Public Safety staff responds to more than 1,200 false fire alarms every year. Responding to these alarms requires significant staff time and negatively influences the overall safety of the community by diverting public safety officers from actual emergencies. Although it is difficult to measure the full cost of responding to false fire alarms, e.g., any overtime generated, dispatching costs, level of staff response, wear and tear on the apparatus and equipment etc., a False Fire Alarm Fee can recover some of the costs, and most importantly, discourage unchecked false fire alarms.

Several cities in the Bay Area were surveyed to determine who charges a fee for false fire alarms. The results of this survey were presented to Council as Point 5 (Potential Fee, Charge, and Tax Increases) of the City Manager’s 6-Point Action Plan and in the Recommended Budget as part of the Fee Schedule Report to Council.

Staff proposes charging a flat fee of $150 on the third instance of a false fire alarm within a one-year period.

In conjunction with the proposed false fire alarm fee staff is proposing a modification to the current structure of the false burglar alarm fee. Currently, a fee is charged on the fourth instance of a false burglar alarm and has a progressive structure. This structure has required extensive staff time in order to track and measure repeat offenders. Therefore, staff has proposed that Council adopt an identical fee structure to that of the proposed false fire alarm.

It is anticipated that the ordinance will be adopted by Council on June 17, 2003 and become effective on July 17, 2003.

Staff estimates that the False Fire Alarm Fee will generate approximately $100,000 in fee income annually based on the current number of false fire alarms. The estimated new revenue has been included in the Recommended Budget beginning FY 2003/2004. The fiscal impact derived from the change in the False Burglar Alarm Fee will be minimal. However, by integrating these two fees into a single coherent structure, administrative costs associated with collecting and managing of the fee will be reduced.

Public contact was made through posting of the Council agenda on the City’s official notice bulletin board, posting of the agenda and report on the City’s web page, publication of the Council agenda in the San Jose Mercury News, and the availability of the report in the Library and the City Clerk’s Office.