Livingston Council Shelves Alarm, Parking Ordinances

The Livingston Township Council agreed to put off their votes on the controversial Burglar/Fire Alarm Monitoring Systems ordinance and the Mayhew Drive Parking Prohibition ordinance until a later meeting. 

The continuances, motioned by Mayor Rudy Fernandez, came after over a dozen members of the public voiced their opposition to the Alarm ordinance and several more who questioned the necessity of the Mayhew Drive ordinance at Monday's meeting. 

The Alarm ordinance would require households to pay a $50 registration fee for each central station alarm they own. Township Manager Michele Meade said the recommendation came to the council from the police chief, who said the fee would be a good way to remediate the cost of false alarms to the police department, a burden which totals approximately $935,000 per year. 

Meade went on to say that fewer than half of Livingston residents have central station alarms and this fee was seen by the council as a way to ensure those residents without alarms do not have to continue paying for others’ false alarms. 

“There are limited tax services,” Meade said, “there are limited tax increases, so decisions are happening every day as far as how best to [continue providing services without increasing taxes]. [The alarm service] is a very large service that only benefits less than half the people. It’s a natural thing to cover that expense. Most individualized services that don’t apply to everyone have a fee associated with them. That’s why we are considering this [fee].” 

Members of the public railed against the fee, calling it an unfair penalty to those who protect their families with central station alarms and maintain the systems so they do not summon police erroneously. Alarm owner Mark Fusari told the council he understands false alarms are a burden to tax payers and he wouldn’t even be opposed to paying a fine on the first offense, as long as there is no registration fee. 

“It’s a double taxation,” he said. “This is not good for Livingston public safety.” 

Another alarm owner, Dr. Fred Friedman said, “Livingston has prided itself at keeping the taxes so low, this is another way of raising taxes [without saying they are raising taxes].” He said he has had a central station alarm for 10 years and it has never gone off, falsely or otherwise. 

“The Mayor’s motion for a continuance is government at its finest,” said Councilwoman Deborah Shapiro. “Thank you for coming out because participation is what [municipal government] is all about.” 

After hearing public comments regarding the Mayhew Drive parking prohibition ordinance, the council explained that they had previously been told enforcing hourly parking restrictions during times when the field was in use would be far too difficult for police. The council then reneged, led by Fernandez saying, “There has to be a way to do this.” 

Fernandez went on to say the council will discuss how they can make some changes to the two ordinances in question to make them more agreeable over the coming weeks. The hearings will be continued at the April 8 meeting and a vote is planned for that night. 

Approved at the Monday meeting was the Livingston Community Partnership Business Improvement District (BID) budget and the consent agenda.