Any person or business aggrieved by any determination of the Alarm System Coordinator or Alarm Officer, including determination of a public nuisance alarm, or false alarm(s), may, within ten days of such determination, appeal the same by requesting, in writing addressed to the Alarm System Coordinator, one of the following:
A. Administrative review by a Hearing Officer of the facts surrounding the determination. The Hearing Officer shall consider any written material or other evidence submitted, including any relevant City, police or fire reports or other documentation and within ten days thereafter shall render a written decision either denying the appeal, or reversing the determination with or without modification; or
B. A hearing before a Hearing Officer to contest the determination. Upon receipt of a timely appeal, notice of a hearing date to be conducted not more than twenty-one (21) days thereafter, shall be served by first class mail to the appellant at the address provided in the request for hearing. At the hearing the Hearing Officer shall consider all relevant written and oral evidence and, within ten days thereafter shall render a written decision either denying the appeal, or reversing the determination with or without modification.
C. The Hearing Officer shall be appointed by the City Manager and shall be an unbiased active or retired City or County of Los Angeles employee having no connection with the determination being appealed. The Hearing Officer may not be anyone who works under the supervision of the person making the determination being appealed. The Hearing Officer’s decision shall be final.
D. Because the determination that an alarm was a false alarm is based on the professional judgment of first responders employing all facts known to the responders at the time of the alarm, the burden of proof in the hearing shall be on the appellant. Furthermore, the appellant must establish with credible evidence that facts not considered by the Alarm Officer existed at the time of the incident, and reasonably lead to the conclusion that the alarm was not false.
(Ord. 649 § 2, 2012).