ENFIELD TOWN COUNCIL

MINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010

A Public Hearing was called to order by Chairman Kaupin in the Council Chamber of the Enfield Town Hall, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:58 p.m.

ROLL-CALL – Present were Councilmen Bosco, Dumont, Edgar, Hall, Kaupin, Keller, Kiner, Lee and Nelson. Councilman Crowley entered at 7:01 p.m. Councilman Mangini was absent.  Also present were Town Manager, Matthew Coppler; Assistant Town Manager, Daniel Vindigni; Town Attorney, Kevin Deneen

Chairman Kaupin read the notice of Public Hearing, which was published in the Hartford Courant on Friday, February 5, 2010 as follows:

TOWN OF ENFIELD

LEGAL NOTICE - PUBLIC HEARING

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010

The Enfield Town Council will hold a Public Hearing in the Enfield Town Hall Council Chambers, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:50 p.m. to allow interested citizens an opportunity to express their opinions regarding the proposed amendments to Chapter 34, Emergency Services, Article II – Alarm Systems.

Chairman Kaupin announced the ground rules for the Public Hearing.

Attorney Deneen stated changes were proposed because of the inability to deal with reoccurring false alarms at various locations.  He noted there were some shortcomings within the ordinance that developed over time. He highlighted the most significant changes as follows:

• Within 90 days of the effective date of the adoption of this ordinance, anyone with an alarm within their residence or place of business needs to register with the town
• There’s a fine or penalty associated with false alarms for unregistered alarms
• Registered alarms are allowed three false alarms per year.  People will be notified when there has been a false alarm

Attorney Deneen stated there’s a high incidence of false alarms, and this takes officers off the street to respond to false alarms. 

Councilman Lee questioned whether the EMS Department has a register of the alarm companies that are currently allowed to dial in alarms on behalf of residents.  Chief Sferrazza responded that he did not believe so.

Councilman Lee questioned how this will be promoted.  Mr. Coppler stated announcements and a press release will go out.  He suggested perhaps they could send a letter to all the alarm companies requesting the names and addresses of people who have alarms. 

Councilman Lee questioned the process for the appeal process.  Mr. Coppler stated they’ll probably require a second person for the appeal process.

Councilman Kiner questioned whether people have to register dormant alarm systems, and Attorney Deneen responded if an alarm system isn’t operable, it’s not going to go off.  Councilman Kiner stated a person can still dial 911 on a cell phone if it isn’t operable.  He questioned if there’s a type of panic button on non-activated alarms that could be pushed.  Attorney Deneen indicated he did not know. He added there are monitored alarm systems in which a person pays a private company, and there are passive alarms that don’t connect to a central dispatch system. 

Councilman Nelson questioned the registration fee, and Attorney Deneen responded there’s an initial fee of $15.00 and a $10 annual fee, which is waived if there are no false alarms in the preceding year. 

Councilman Crowley questioned the number of false alarms, and Chief Sferrazza noted he can get those numbers.  He added 98% are false alarms.  He pointed out that for each alarm that comes in, police officers respond as though it’s a real alarm.

Councilman Hall stated her belief false alarms are a detriment to residents and officers.  She pointed out officers have to speed across town to respond to alarms.  She noted this is a good remedy for this problem.

As no one else wished to speak, Chairman Kaupin closed the Public Hearing at 7:20 p.m.