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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, November 15, 2010 Page 5 with the Department's current record management system to break out residential and commercial calls; and whether fees should be higher to recoup the City's ac- tual cost for frequent and repeated call outs to those addresses due to false alarms. Chief Mathwig advised that staff continued to reduce false alarm calls by making people more alert and encouraging them to use more care. Councilmember Pust opined that fees should be increased enough to provide fi- nancial incentives to improve habits and discourage wasting officer time, particu- larly when government is so strapped for resources. Councilmember Pust sug- gested that generating money for preventable things should be a higher figure, and not below average, allowing fees to be high enough for larger businesses to take false alarms seriously and not just write those fees off as a cost of doing business. City Manager Malinen advised that staff would review the fees as part of the pro- posed 2011 Fee Schedule and adjust them accordingly. Councilmember Ihlan questioned if there was historical data available on false alarms to determine any patterns for repeat calls. Chief Mathwig advised that the last review of that data was in 2006, with some larger businesses having a large number of false alarms. Lt. Rosand advised that when he performed a survey of false alarms completed as recently as 30 days ago, he found 72 businesses and residents having three false alarms or more. Lt. Rosand noted that the department attempted to educate resi- dents and business owners when they install their alarms, and advised that many really tried, but that larger businesses considered it a cost of doing business, with invoices forwarded to their corporate offices. Lt. Rosand reiterated that staff was unable to provide a breakdown of the calls between residential and businesses at this time without substantial staff time in reviewing over 1,200 alarm calls an- nually. At the request of Councilmember Roe, Chief Mathwig clarified that the time pe- riod for alarms was based on a calendar year. Councilmember Roe requested that ordinance language capture that clarification, with Chief Mathwig noting inclu- sion of the language in Attachment B of the RCA, indicating single calendar year. Councilmember Johnson summarized his personal experience with his home alarm system; and spoke in support of the 12 month period as being fair and rea- sonable, as well as supporting Councilmember Pust's suggestion to consider higher fees. Mayor Klausing focused discussion on the issue currently before the City Coun- cil, whether to change the ordinance language to reflect a reduction from four to