COSTA MESA, Calif. -- Motels that have an "excessive" number of calls for police service will be charged $360 for each call over a set amount, the City Council voted Tuesday night.
The council already passed an ordinance to bill motels for service calls due to recurring nuisances, such as drug use, noise and underage drinking. Tuesday's vote set the cost for each of those calls.
The council passed the fee 3 to 1, with Genis voting no. Councilwoman Wendy Leece was absent.
Councilwoman Sandy Genis questioned how city staff arrived at the fee amount. Assistant CEO Rick Francis said the amount is based on the police department budget divided by the annual number of service calls and excludes certain calls and services, such as those that aren't attributed to motels.
The amount, while not "scientific," is the city's "best effort at arriving at something that's fair," Francis said.
Mike Lin, a motel operator in the city, told the council that the fee is too expensive for a service call.
"This is not reasonable. This is wrong," Lin said. "You're not going to get service calls from now on as (you) used to because it's too expensive."
Motel operators will think twice before calling, he said.
Also, council members approved the creation of 12 new positions, including four police officers, a second assistant CEO position, two senior maintenance workers and a fire department battalion chief. The vote was 4-0.
The additional jobs will add $600,000 to the budget for the remainder of the current fiscal year. The additions will bring the total authorized positions in the city to 466, said CEO Tom Hatch.
With the expectations of the City Council and the community for quality city services, "it's difficult to continue meeting those high levels of expectations without some additional resources," Hatch said.
"We need some additional help in a variety of areas," he added.
Councilman Steve Mensinger cautioned against adding too many positions and reaching a level of more than 600 positions, as the city had four years ago.
Hatch said when any fulltime positions come open, city staff would evaluate whether they actually needed to be filled.
Copyright 2014 - The Orange County Register
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