Ordinance - 1762ORDINANCE NO. 1762
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WEST COVINA,
CALIFORNIA, AMENDING SECTIONS 4.5-7, 4.5-8, AND 4.5-9 OF THE
WEST COVINA MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO FALSE ALARM PREVENTION,
REINSTATEMENT OF POLICE RESPONSE, AND APPEAL.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WEST COVINA DOES ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Sections 4.5-7, 4.5-8, and 4.5-9 of the West Covina Munic-
ipal Code are hereby amended to read as follows:
"Sec. 4.5-7 False Alarm Prevention and Cessation of Police Response
Whenever the city's Communications Center receives an excessive number
of false alarms from any one source, a service fee shall be assessed.
A. The first through fourth false alarm in any consecutive 365-day
period shall not be considered excessive, and no service fee shall
be assessed.
B. Upon receipt of the fifth and any subsequent false alarm within
any 365-day period, the alarm owner or lessee shall pay a service
fee of $35.00 for each false alarm to which the police respond.
C. Upon receipt of the eighth false alarm within the 365-day period
mentioned above, in addition to the service fee, the alarm system
shall be considered a public nuisance and the alarm owner notified
that police response to further activations of that system will
be discontinued for a period of thirty (30) days for each successive
false alarm received.
D. Failure to pay an assessed service fee within thirty (30) days
of the billing date shall result in the automatic cessation of
police response to further activations of said alarm system until
such fee is paid.
E. Public schools, as well as all city, county, state, and Federal
facilities are exempt from the provisions of this section.
Sec. 4.5-8 Reinstatement of Police Response
"In those cases where police response is to be discontinued as set
forth in Sec. 4.5-7 of this chapter, a written notice of such action
shall be mailed to the alarm owner or lessee at least fifteen (15)
days prior to the actual cutoff. The alarm owner or lessee may, within
ten (10) days after such notice is mailed, request a meeting with
the Communications Director or his designee to present material to
rebut the basis of the discontinuance. Based on the information pre-
sented, the Communications Director, or his designee, may determine
that either police response to the alarm system should continue to
Pe denied, be reinstated_, or direct other corrective measures be imple-
mented. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Communications Director,
or his designee, shall verbally advise the alarm owner or lessee of
his decision in the matter and provide a written response within five
(5) working days thereafter.
Sec. 4.5-9 Appeal
"An alarm system owner or lessee who has received a notice from the
police department that police response will not be reinstated as pro-
vided by Sec. 4.5-8 of this chapter may appeal said determination
to the Chief of Police. Said appeal shall be made to the Chief of
Police in writing within fifteen (15) days after receipt of the notice
of determination from the Communications Director, or his designee,
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and shall state the basis for the appeal. The Chief of Police shall
set the matter for an informal hearing before him, or his designee,
as soon as is practicable and shall give the appealing party advance
notice of the time and place of such hearing. At the hearing the
Chief of Police, or his designee, shall give the appealing party and
any other interested party a reasonable opportunity to be heard.
In all such cases the burden of proof to show that the action of the
Communications Director, or his designee, was arbitrary, shall be
upon the appealing party. The determination of the Chief of Police,
or his designee, shall be final and conclusive."
SECTION 2. The Mayor
to the passage and adoption
to be published in the manner
PASSED AND APPROVED THIS
ATTEST:
,
shall sign and the City Clerk shall certify
of this Ordinance and shall cause the same
prescribed by law.
21st,, day of December, , 1987.
IN "LUX - EMMr.
I, HELENE MOONEY, City Clerk of the City of West Covina, California, do
hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance No. 1762 was regularly intro-
duced and placed upon its first reading at a regular meeting of the City
Council on the 23rd day of November , 1987. That thereafter said
Ordinance was duly adopted and passed at a regular meeting of the City
Council on the 21st day of December , 1987, by the following vote,
to wit:
AYES: Councilmembers:
NOES: Councilmembers:
ABSENT: Councilmembers:
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
City Attorney
Tennant, Bacon, Shearer, Banners
None
Chappell
CI _ CLERK
CERTIFICATION
I, JANET BERRY, Deputy City Clerk of the City of West Covina, State
of California, do hereby certify that a true and accurate copy of
Ordinance No. l/ was published, pursuant to law, in the San
• Gabriel Valley Tribune, a newspaper of general circulation published
and circulated in the City of West Covina.
Janet Berry, City Clerk
City of West Covina, Ca ornia
DATED: