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In a misguided effort to
fund the City’s budget shortfall, the City council has implemented an
alarm monitoring registration fee for all security and fire alarms in the
City of Seattle. The fee, under the cover of “cost recovery”, is due to
the large volume of false alarms the police have responded to. While, as
an industry, we acknowledge the false alarm concern, we disagree with
Seattle’s supposed fix for it. Unfortunately, we were unable to sway the
City council through the political process and the ordinance passed. Now
it is the alarm monitoring industry’s responsibility to comply.
The City imposed alarm
registration fee applies to all alarm monitoring companies. This includes
a base fee of $500.00 per year plus $40.00 per year (for security) and
$320.00 per year (for fire)
for each monitored alarm system. This ordinance also requires us
to manage the collection of false alarm fines of $125.00 per security
alarm incident. As a company, we are cost conscious and have strived to
maintain low monthly charges for you, our customer. Regretfully, the
costs associated with compliance in managing, billing, funding and
collections is too large for us to absorb.
As a result, we are forced
to pass these added costs on to you along with a modest markup to cover
the added B&O tax obligations and business carrying costs. The City of
Seattle alarm monitoring registration fee will be included in your
January 2004 billing. You will note that the cost is itemized separately
as “Seattle Burglar Registration” (security) or
“Seattle Fire Sys
Registration” (fire). This charge will be
incurred once per year and will be a recurring registration charge
as outlined in the Seattle ordinance. It is important that you pay this
fee promptly in order to avoid non-response by the authorities.
Further, security false
alarms, as determined by the responding officers, will result in a false
alarm fee. When incurred, this fee will no longer be charged to you by the
city, it will appear on a regular Pro-Comm invoice. Here again, we are
burdened with billing and collecting these fines and have a modest markup
to cover the B&O tax obligations and business carrying costs. We always
strive to work with you to minimize your exposure to false alarm fines.
Many ideas and resources are available on our "Avoiding
False Alarms" page. Of course, any false alarm fines caused by
faulty equipment during our warranty period or by one of our technicians
working on your system, will be covered by Pro-Comm.
More information about the
City ordinance is available on the Pro-Comm web site or the City of
Seattle’s site. Feel free to contact Lindy, in our office at extension
128, with your questions (Please don’t shoot the messenger).
The City of Seattle contacts are as follows:
Ordinance # 121332 available online at
www.seattle.gov/council/legdb.htm
Sponsor: Jim Compton Committee: Budget Vote: 8-1
(only dissenting vote was McIver)
Mayor: Greg Nickels 206-684-8484
Seattle Contact person: Michale Crooks
Dept of Executive Administration
Revenue & Consumer Affairs Division
PO Box 34214
Seattle, WA 98124-4214
Michale.crooks@seattle.gov
206-684-8871
We regret that the City
has chosen to assess a new tax in this manor but we thank you for your
understanding and cooperation as we work through the logistics and
expenses of compliance. As it has been said “Be thankful we don’t
get all the government we pay for.” |
