Earlier today - Williams Lake Mayoralty Candidate Scott Nelson, on Welcome to Williams Lake, stated that if he was elected Mayor, he would repeal the alarm registration fee structure with regard to the False Alarm Bylaw and called it nothing more than a "fee tax-grab" - see more details here
For her part - current Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook defended the registration fees as follows (courtesy of the Rush):
The mayor of Williams Lake is encouraging city residents to register their alarms before October 30th.
Kerry Cook says 200 people have registered so far and says it's led to a 23% reduction in false alarms already. She also says a similar bylaw which passed in the central Okanagan led to a 60% drop in false alarms there.
The fee to register is $15 dollars for residential alarm systems and $20 dollars for commercial and other alarm systems.
After October 30th, an automatic $100 dollar fee will be charged for the RCMP or Fire Department to respond to a non registered alarm.
One Question:
1) If 200 people have registered and false alarms have dropped by 23% - why the continued need to impose a fee to register one's alarm system?
Again - people have said they don't object to registering their alarm system but do object to paying a fee to register. This is a money grab by Williams Lake City Hall, notwithstanding the protests by WL Mayor Kerry Cook. The best way to go is ditch the registration fee structure, require free registration and educate the public on how to reduce or completely eliminate false alarms
1 comment:
And if that is the route council, or Mayor Cook had taken (no registration fee) you would have said that with the costs to administer the registrations there should have been a fee.
One good thing... you are transparent.
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