Second Read

The WayneWho staff was surprised to see the return of the 'Security Tax' ordinance return so quickly for a second reading which would be the final reading before the Alarm System Ordinance became a revenue generator. What really surprised us was the complete change in the ordinance from the first reading to the second, and we wondered how it could even be legal to make such drastic changes to an ordinance and not have to bring it back for a first reading so the public and businesses involved could be given time to voice their opinions. Of course our commission has a long standing tradition of finding ways to cut the public out of the process, so our surprise was a muted response.

We were happy to see that the new direction of the ordinance was to eliminate any yearly charges to individual homeowners and businesses for owning a security system, but they would still have to register the system by permit every year. Seems very reasonable.

Where the real change in the ordinance appears is in the fact that now the commission wants to charge alarm companies a yearly registration fee of $100.00 and provide the city with an updated list of the systems they operate. If they do not provide the information on an annual basis there will be a fine on the company. Our problem is not that this is up for discussion, it is that there will be no time for the companies to have any say before this is passed. They will believe that some sort of ordinance that resembles what was passed in the first reading is what will be voted on for the second reading. This will not be true in this case. Of course this gives the Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of commerce time to duck on the issue by saying 'We didn't know about it.' even though they have again chosen to be silent on another business related decision. Of course they are probably keeping their mouth shut on this issue because they are trying to hold on to their funding for the seldom used Small Business Development Center. The funding for this 'Chamber' program is also up for discussion tonight. We would hope that the Chamber would stand up for the businesses it takes money from every year, but that would not be the norm.

So what we are left with is a system of failures leading to an ordinance that will end up costing more money than leaving the current system in place. It will cost more money in trying to track down who provides alarm and/or monitoring services in the city. It will cost more in taking data from multiple sources and then trying to bring that into a single program that can bring it all together. It will cost more money in IT time and hardware because of course what the city already has will not be enough to do the job. All of this while doing very little to curb the number of false alarm calls to the Police Department.

While we believe that the merits of the ordinance should be debated, the problem is there will be no debate. From the first reading to the second, there is a completely different ordinance. Local impacted companies have probably not been contacted, and what is supposed to be the voice for local businesses will stay silent. We believe the new ordinance deserves a second reading.