Council meeting with company to discuss service fee recovery program

Councilors question how such a city ordinance would be enforced

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — City councilors have scheduled an informal meeting to further discuss a proposed ordinance that would recover service fees for the deployment of public safety services. At the last meeting of the City Council the ordinance was not sent to first printing, but rather referred back to the council as a whole because several councilors said they needed more information. The proposed ordinance would call for the collaboration between the city and a private company to create a program aimed at recovering service fees for the deployment of public safety services for motor vehicle accidents that are outside the scope of basic crime prevention, investigation and fire prevention. According to Mayor Mark Hawke, who advocated that the ordinance be sent to first printing, said Regina Morin, the president of Cost Recovery Corp., and attorney John Flick will be in attendance to offer answers to some of the councilors’ concerns. “The councilors have some questions and we arranged this meetings so we could help them out,” said Mr. Hawke. “I asked councilors if they had legal questions to get them to John Flick as soon as possible so he could do the requisite research and provide some good answers.” Councilor James Minns said he was in favor of asking for additional time because he had several issues with the way the ordinance was written. “I am still not sure how we would determine the rates and the costs that apply to the city,” said Mr. Minns. “Do they base it on the time that the service vehicles are there, or how many gallons of water they would use? Do the costs start from the moment the vehicles respond to the scene or when they get the call? I still don’t understand that part of it.” Also in favor of reviewing the ordinance before sending it to first printing was Council President Neil Janssens, who said he too still had some concerns. “Legally, how can we enforce it?” said Mr. Janssens. “What if the person doesn’t have insurance? There are still many questions.” The meeting is open to the public, and has been scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 20 in City Council Chambers. oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 8/14/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 192)