[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
A. 
This Council hereby finds and determines that the City of Arnold strives to protect the health and safety of City residents and visitors to the City. This Council further finds and determines that 911 is the United States' universal emergency assistance line. This Council finds that many telephone systems for lodging establishments and businesses require that a user dial an additional number to obtain an outside line. This Council determines that persons unfamiliar with such a telephone system will be unable to reach emergency services in a crisis, which can lead to disastrous results.
B. 
This Council also finds that, on December 1, 2013, Kari Hunt was fatally attacked in a Texas hotel by her estranged husband. This Council further finds that Kari's nine-year-old daughter tried calling 911 during the struggle, but was unable to make a connection because she didn't realize she needed to first dial 9 for an outside line. This Council also determines that tragic stories like Kari's illustrate the necessity of having multi-line telephone systems that directly dial 911 without delay.
C. 
This Council further determines that experts on multi-line telephone systems state that direct-dial 911 services can be provided in most systems through updating of software. This Council further finds that the City should ensure that lodging establishments and businesses that are open to the general public allow for direct dialing of 911. This Council also finds that all businesses and schools should be encouraged to update their multi-line telephone systems to allow direct dialing of 911 to protect the health and safety of their employees.
Therefore, the purpose of this Article is to require all multi-line telephone systems operated by a lodging establishment or covered business within the City of Arnold to directly dial 911 without the use of access codes.
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
As used in this Article, the following terms shall have the meaning indicated:
COVERED BUSINESS
Any business establishment, professional or governmental office, hospital, school, private club, or religious institution facility, which is accessed or occupied by the general public, employees, or workers.
LODGING ESTABLISHMENT
Any building, group of buildings, structure, facility, place, or places of business where five (5) or more guest rooms are provided, which is owned, maintained, or operated by any person and which is kept, used, maintained, advertised or held out to the public for hire and which can be construed to be a hotel, motel, motor hotel, apartment hotel, tourist court, resort, tourist home, bunkhouse, dormitory, or other similar place by whatever name called, and includes all such accommodations operated for hire as lodging establishments.
MULTI-LINE TELEPHONE SYSTEM
Any system comprised of common control unit(s), telephone sets, control hardware and software, and adjunct systems which enables users to make and receive telephone calls using shared resources such as telephone network trunks or data link bandwidth. This term includes, but is not limited to, network- based and premises-based systems such as Centrex service, premises-based, hosted and cloud-based VoIP, as well as PBX, Hybrid and Key Telephone Systems, as classified by the FCC under Part 68 of its rules.
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
A. 
All lodging establishments and covered businesses which operate a multi-line telephone system in the City of Arnold shall configure said system to allow any call to 911 on the system to be directly connected to a public safety answering point without the use of an access code.
B. 
All lodging establishments and covered businesses which operate a multi-line telephone system in the City of Arnold shall ensure that the configuration of said system will also allow any call made on their system where the system's existing access code is dialed prior to dialing 911 to be directly connected to a public safety answering point.
C. 
When feasible, without improving system hardware, all lodging establishments and covered businesses shall configure their multi-line telephone system to provide notification of any 911 call made on its system to a centralized location on the same site as the system.
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
The requirements set forth in Section 260.030 of this Article shall not apply to any lodging establishment or covered business that would be required to upgrade the hardware of its telephone network to meet said requirements. However, these exempted entities shall be required to place an instructional sticker on or immediately adjacent to each telephone informing users of the phone's inability to directly dial 911 and the procedures to follow in case of an emergency. Each instructional sticker shall be printed in bold, easy-to-read font in a contrasting color with a minimum print size of sixteen-point font.
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
A. 
No lodging establishment or covered business, or any representative thereof, shall instruct, cajole, penalize, or otherwise prohibit employees or members of the public, including, but not limited to, guests and visitors from directly contacting emergency services via telephone systems operated by said lodging establishment or covered business nor shall they instruct, cajole, penalize, or otherwise prohibit employees or members of the public, including, but not limited to, guests and visitors from directly contacting emergency services via any other communication device, including, but not limited to, cellular telephones and radio appliances.
B. 
Every covered business and lodging establishment shall post, in a conspicuous place, in the office or public room, and in every guest room of said lodging establishment, a printed copy of Subsection (A) of this Section.
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
Police Officers of the City of Arnold shall have the authority to enforce the Sections of this Chapter.
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Section 100.140 of the Arnold Code, failure to satisfy any of the conditions of this Article shall be considered a separate violation and is punishable by a fine of one hundred dollars ($100.00) per violation without further warnings or notices being issued. Each day that the violation(s) shall continue shall be considered a separate violation. For purposes of clarification, each violation of this Article by a covered business or lodging establishment, which is in violation of this Article, shall be a separate violation, and each day that such violation continues shall be a separate violation, such that the fine of one hundred dollars ($100.00) shall apply per violation per day.
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
This Article shall apply to all actions occurring on or after the effective date of this ordinance (April 4, 2019).
[Ord. No. 6.36 (2730), 4-4-2019]
Due to the critical nature of the health and safety provisions contained herein, this Article shall take effect immediately subsequent to the adoption by the City Council. If a covered business or lodging establishment is not able to comply with this Article by its effective date then the City Council may, upon application of the covered business or lodging establishment's owner/operator, provide a thirty-day extension before enforcement action may proceed.