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El Cajon considers charging congregate-care facilities for excessive 911 calls to curb misuse
Summary
City staff proposed charging congregate-care facilities for 911 responses above a bed-normalized threshold after finding 20 facilities generated about 2,700 calls last year and that education alone failed to reduce calls. Council directed staff to engage operators and returned with a preferred threshold (1.35× median) and a possible $486-per-call fee as a behavioral incentive.
City Manager Graham Mitchell told the El Cajon City Council that 20 licensed congregate-care facilities in the city generated more than 2,700 calls for service last fiscal year — roughly 15% of the fire department’s total responses. Staff analysis found variation across operators: some facilities had as few as 10% non-emergency calls while others reported up to 69% non-emergency calls in 2022.
Staff presented three fee-model options designed to shift facility behavior by tying costs to calls above a bed-count-normalized threshold. The city estimated a cost-to-respond of $486.83 per call and modeled options that would affect between 3 and 10 of the facilities depending on the threshold. Under one…
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