New Ordinances Still on Woods Council Table

The council informally discussed the addition of two new ordinances for the city Monday in an effort to recover costs in specific situations. 

The first possible ordinance under consideration stems from police and firefighters' responses to false alarms. In three years, the public safety department has responded to 2,350 false alarms, City Administrator Al Fincham said. 

Under the proposed ordinance, alarm holders would be required to register their alarms with the city for a nominal fee. A sliding scale of fines is likely to be developed by council during its next committee of the whole meeting after Fincham submits additional information for the council members to review. 

Fincham said many other municipalities have such ordinances as tools to recover costs from repeat offenders. The ordinance, agreed by council, would include one or two uncharged responses to false alarms and then a fine schedule would be imposed. 

The ordinance is really aimed at targeting repeat offenders, Fincham said, using the example of realtors who are showing homes and set off false alarms.

The council is also discussing an ordinance in which the expenses for emergency response would be reimbursed by nonresidents found at fault in vehicle crashes. 

Fincham told council the ordinance does not aim to add further costs to residents but to target nonresidents who cause crashes that merit emergency response, whether it's officers who handle the crash investigation, an ambulance or fire truck response. 

He told council members this is an ordinance used by other jurisdictions as a tool to help the community recover its costs. It would not apply to residents who are already feeding into the tax base who are involved and found at fault in a crash, according to the preliminary discussion by council Monday. 

Council asked Fincham to gather a bit more information concerning both proposals before their next committee of the whole meeting so they can discuss them further.