City fire marshal may charge for business inspections

The Colorado Springs Fire Marshal's Office wants the City Council to require a business license to fund 14 new employees who would inspect the city's roughly 20,000 businesses and other places where people gather.

How much each business would pay hasn't been decided, but if the $2.1 million program's cost was shared equally, each would pay $92 a year after the program was phased in over three to six years. The proposal calls for the vast majority of buildings to be inspected every five years.

"I'm simply asking the question, ‘Do we want to do this as a community or not?'" Fire Marshal Brett Lacey said Wednesday at what was supposed to be the first of two meetings for public input.

"It's a way to fund inspectors, but is it the right way to fund inspectors?" he said. "It's an issue that needs to be debated and discussed."

That's yet to happen because no one showed up at the initial meeting.

Lacey said the community has been lucky so far, but without more fire inspectors that luck could run out.

He said an emergency at a local nightclub triggered an inspection that found 27 fire code violations, "all of which are potentially life-threatening."

But when the department consulted 60 to 80 business owners in recent years about beefing up inspections, all favored inspections but none wanted to pay, Lacey said. Fire inspections aren't required of existing buildings, only new ones.

Lacey noted 95 cents of every dollar spent on fire service is used to put out blazes, while only 5 percent is spent on fire prevention, inspections and public education.

With only five inspectors, only 2,000 businesses are inspected annually, he said. Because there's no business license required in the city, the Fire Department doesn't know where all the businesses are located.

Even blending databases from Colorado Springs Utilities, the Better Business Bureau and the El Paso County assessor hasn't provided a comprehensive list, he said.

As a result, some businesses may never be inspected, and firefighters might walk into sure disaster if they're unaware a business contains hazardous materials or some other risk, Lacey said.

Under Lacey's proposal, which could become part of the 2009 city budget proposal that would require council approval, a general occupancy license would be required of all businesses.

Annual inspections would be done for the estimated 1,749 bars, storage facilities and schools and educational buildings in the city.

The city's estimated 1,115 movie theaters, large performance venues such as the World Arena, jails, nursing homes and some apartment buildings would be inspected every other year.

The roughly 959 art galleries, exhibition halls, libraries, group homes and extended stay hotels would be on a three-year cycle, and inspectors would visit the city's estimated 15,052 businesses, amusement parks, stadiums, mercantile, grocery stores and bigbox stores every five years.

The next meeting about the proposal will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Fire Station 19, 2490 Research Parkway.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazette.com