Ringing Denouncement Prompts Review of Charge for False Alarms : Safety: Long Beach business owners say the $300 penalty after the fourth incident is unfair.

A group of business owners who say they’re being unfairly charged for false burglar alarms at their stores won a small victory Tuesday when the City Council agreed to review the city’s false-alarm ordinance.

Enacted in 1989, the law charges $300 for every false alarm at a home or business after the fourth alarm at the site.

Some businesses and homes have been fined thousands of dollars. In the last fiscal year, the city collected $352,225 in charges for false alarms.

“Small businessmen have so many penalties--and this is just one more--that they’re being run out of Long Beach,” said the Rev. Len Bacon, an associate minister at two local wedding chapels who helped organize the campaign to reduce the charges.

Dick Leevers, owner of Rainbow Tire and Service, said he is reconsidering whether to renew his store’s lease next year after the city took him to Small Claims Court to force him to pay $4,500 for repeated alarms. He agreed to pay the bill in monthly installments after losing his case.

“I’m paying $150 a month for the rest of my life,” Leevers said, half-jokingly.

Long Beach imposed the charge to help recover the cost of police response to false alarms and to encourage business owners to keep their alarm systems properly maintained, said Bud McDonald, manager of the city’s commercial services bureau, which issues alarm permits.

“If those alarms aren’t serviced on a regular basis, they have a tendency to become overly sensitive,” McDonald said. “Then the police have to go out there all the time.”

Bacon, Leevers and others recently took their concerns to Councilwoman Jenny Oropeza. She asked the council to send the issue to the Economic Development and Finance Committee for review. Oropeza also asked the city to investigate charges imposed by other cities.

Both requests were approved unanimously.

Long Beach charges more than several nearby cities for responding to false alarms.

Lakewood, for example, imposes a fee if authorities have to respond to a third false alarm in a 30-day period. The charge would be based on the time deputies spend answering a false-alarm call, but the city has never imposed one, city spokesman Donald Waldie said.

Lakewood’s ordinance was also enacted in 1989.

Compton and Signal Hill impose charges after three false alarms per calendar year at a business or home. Signal Hill’s charges range from $25 to $200, based on the number of alarms. Compton charges $50 to $150.

Norwalk does not charge for false alarms.

Long Beach business owners such as Morris Roberts say they hope the city will look at those numbers and reduce the charges.

“They should know that when a business is socked with exorbitant fines like that, we have to pass that cost on to the customer in higher prices,” said Roberts, who owns Rio Junior Market and Liquor Store on Anaheim Street.

“Everybody loses, but that’s the way the retail business works,” Roberts said. “It worries me. How is this city going to survive and thrive with all these fees?”