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Council advances ordinance to collect unpaid false‑alarm fees by placing them on tax duplicate
Summary
Council introduced Ordinance 2025‑30 to allow the village to collect unpaid false‑alarm fees (proposed $50 per alarm after the third), citing businesses with 25 and 40 alarms in a year; staff will refine cost‑based fee calculations and council discussed a suspension so the rule could take effect Jan. 1.
The Orange Village Police Department asked the council to add a codified procedure allowing unpaid false‑alarm fees to be placed on the tax duplicate, a step staff said is authorized under state law for townships and would avoid expensive small‑claims litigation.
Chief Genova said most alarm users are cooperative but the village has encountered chronic nonpaying accounts, including a business with 25 false alarms and another with 40 in the year. Under the draft ordinance (Section 9.37.09), the village would charge $50 for each alarm after the third occurrence in a calendar year and could place unpaid fees on the tax duplicate the following September.
Council members debated whether the fee should scale upward after repeated offenses and emphasized that fees should be tied to actual response costs. One member said fees should be designed to recoup the cost of a police response and avoid punishing residents unfairly; another urged establishing a sliding scale for continuous abuse. Chief Genova confirmed residential false alarms occur but are managed through cooperative outreach.
Council directed staff to calculate actual per‑response costs and return with fee‑structure options, and several members supported suspending rules to make the ordinance effective Jan. 1 if a final version is ready.
The item was introduced on first reading with discussion; no final numeric schedule beyond the $50 per alarm after three was adopted at the meeting.
