Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 06-24-03 regular Council agenda — reading text

APPROVED: MAYOR: I ATTEST: CITY CLERK R,.._.__~_____.__.____.___.-__.__.._.__.__~_....._.. CITY COUNCIL MEETING June 24, 2003 Second Reading of Ordinance 1559 Relating to Annual Fire Safety Inspection Fees See Related Agenda Item #7) Agenda Item No.- PH 2  1 ORDINANCE NO. 1559 2 3 AN ORDINANCE OF OF FORT WALTON BEACH THE CITY 4 FLORIDA, RELATING TO ANNUAL FIRE SAFETY INSPECTION 5 FEES; PROVIDING FOR ANNUAL FIRE SAFETY INSPECTIONS BY 6 THE FIRE DEPARTMENT; PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT 7 OF AN ANNUAL FIRE SAFETY INSPECTION FEE; PROVIDING THAT 8 THE AMOUNT OF SUCH FEE SHALL BE SET BY RESOLUTION; 9 PROVIDING FOR PENALTY; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABnJTY; AND 10 PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE 11 12 BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT 13 WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA, AS FOLLOWS: 14 15 SECflON 1. AUTHORITY, The authority for enactment of this Ordinance is 16 Section 166.021, Florida Statutes ( 2002). 17 18 SECTION 2. ANNUAL FIRE SAFETY INSPECTION. 19 20 The Fire Department of the City of Fort Walton Beach (" Fire Department") shall 21 be responsible for providing annual fire safety inspections for all commercial, industrial, 22 public assembly, home occupations and private schools to ensure such structures are in 23 compliance with the City Code and applicable state statutes. 24 25 SECTION 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ANNUAL FIRE SAFETY 26 INPECTION FEE. 27 28 To cover the administrative cost of these annual inspections, an annual fire safety 29 inspection fee is hereby established. The amount of such fee shall be established and set 30 by resolution. 31 32 Owners of properties which undergo an annual fire safety inspection from the Fire 33 Department shall pay such fee to the City within twenty (20) days of the inspection. 34 35 SECTION 4. PENALTY 36 37 A property owner' s failure to pay the annual fire safety inspection fee within the 38 time permitted pursuant to this Ordinance shall be a violation of the City Code and such 39 violation shall be enforced by the Code Enforcement Board. 40 41 SECTION 5. SEVERABILITY. 42 43 The sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of the Ordinance are 44 severable. If any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this ordinance shall be 45 declared invalid, unconstitutional or unenforceable by the valid judgment or decree of the 46 court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity, unconstitutionality or unenforceability Page 1  1 shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections 2 of this ordinance. 3 4 SECTION 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. This ordinance shall take effect 5 immediately upon approval by council and signature of the Mayor. 6 7 8 PASSED AND ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT 9 WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA ON THE DAY OF , 2003 10 11 12 13 14 GLENDA GOVER 15 MAYOR 16 17 18 ATfEST: 19 20 21 22 23 HELEN A. SPENCER 24 CITY CLERK 25 The form and legal sufficiency of 26 the foregoing has been reviewed 27 and approved by the City 28 Attorney. 29 30 31 J. JEROMEMlT.T. ER 32 CITY ATIORNEY 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Page 2 CITY COUNCIL MEETING June 24, 2003 First Reading of Ordinance 1557 Amending Chapter 38, Wrecker, of the City Code AgendaItem No.- PH 3  FORTWALTONBEACHPOUCEDEPARTMENT MEMORANDUM DATE: 06/ 16/ 03 TO: Reid Silverboard, City Manager ~ S FROM: Steve Hogue, Chief of Police SUBJECf: WRECKER ORDINANCE 1557 BACKGROUND: to respond to police The Police Department has numerous occasions to request a wrecker company calls are to the scene of traffic crashes. Many times scenes for removal of vehicles. The most prevalent to tow their the involved individuals have no preference regarding which wrecker company responds the Police Department's vehicle and request the officer to provide a wrecker for them. Due to that responds, charges involvement, it is incumbent upon the City to make certain the wrecker company To insure fairness and established costs, the Police Department maintains a an established fair fee. within the City limits of Fort rotation wrecker program with a list of wrecker companies with businesses Walton Beach that have requested and qualified to be a participant in the program. Each wrecker standards delineated in the current ordinance. These wrecker company must meet the mandated and immediately respond at the request companies are required to be available twenty four hours per day etc. The current of the Police Department to tow vehicles from crash scenes, abandoned vehicles, rotation wrecker ordinance was enacted in 1990, thirteen years ago. At that time, a fee schedule was for various services the wrecker companies adopted establishing the charges that could be assessed These fees have not been since the ordinance was originally adopted in 1990, nor adjusted performed. has the wrecker ordinance been updated during that time frame. DISCUSSION: needs of the Staff proposes the current ordinance and fee schedule be updated to reflect the changing for Police Department and the associated fees be increased for the wrecker companies to compensate the following major the increased costs of mainrnining a business. The revised ordinance reflects changes: lot for storage 1. Abandon vehicles will no longer be removed by a pull- in wrecker to the City impound lot. Most and processing but will, now, be removed by a rotation wrecker to their company' storage s abandoned vehicles are never claimed their owners. Currently, the Police Department has the by responsibility to convert ownership of abandoned vehicles to the City (State Statute mandates procedure) lot. Abandoned in order to authorize a wrecker company to remove them from the City's impound are stored in the City's vehicles are generally in a condition of disrepair, and further deteriorate while they difficult to fmd a towing company that will impound yard. For this reason, it has become increasingly remove them for their value as salvage. The processing is cumbersome for City government and,under the revised ordinance, will transfer this responsibility to companies tl1at participate in the rotation to 159 Calls for Service involving abandoned vehicles in program. The Police Department responded the Police 2002 ~ ast complete statistical year). These calls resulted in 10 vehicles being impounded by 11 wrecker companies on the rotation list. It is Department as abandoned vehicles. There are currently readily apparent that the number of actual tows of abandoned vehicles per company during a year should not be a significant burden to the wrecker companies. 2 The revised ordinance limits its scope and control to only the rotation wrecker program. The current wrecker that engages in business in the City of ordinance has been interpreted, in the past,to require any Fort Watton Beach to obt2in a permit prior to oomg b1JSiness in om ~ n. Under the current Fort Walton a vehicle in ordinance, a Pensacola wrecker company is required to have a permit to pickup Beach to be transported back to Pensacola. The Police Department does not wish to regulate private wrecker business between individuals and wrecker companies unless the Department is involved in requesting they respond to provide service. As a condition of the revised ordinance, participating rotation wrecker companies are required to 3. dean debris and vehicle parts dislodged during a traffic crash so the roadway is void of all