Official Notice: 911 Fee Refund

Read 911 Fee Question & Answers Page

911 Fee Claim Refund Form

Dear Resident or Business Owner:

The purpose of this letter is to tell you how to request a refund from the City of Union City for 911 fees you paid on your cellular or landline telephone bills over the past 12 months.  As an alternative , you may wish to consider the fees you have paid as a tax-deductible contribution to the City.

BACKGROUND:
In late 2003, the City of Union City was suffering from a severe budget crisis and our budget was out-of-balance by nearly $8,000,000 per year.   To deal with this crisis, the City Council approved a number of revenue increases and expenditure cuts to balance the budget.  One of the measures approved by City Council was the establishment of an Emergency Communications (or 911) Fee to be charged on all phone bills to pay for the costs of providing emergency police and fire dispatch communications.  This is the system that you access when you dial 9-1-1.  Similar fees had been charged in other California cities for years, most notably in the City of San Francisco. 
Sometime after the fee became effective, various cellular telephone companies filed a lawsuit against the City, claiming that the 911 fee was not a fee for service, that could be imposed by a city council, but rather a tax, that could only be imposed by 2/3 vote of the people.  Over the next four years, the lawsuit was heard in Superior Court and later in the Court of Appeals.  Ultimately, the courts sided with the telephone companies and concluded that the fee can no longer be imposed.

ACTIONS:
In response to that decision, the City sent a letter to all the telephone providers asking them to stop collecting the fee by September 1, 2008.  This should be reflected on your next phone bills.  The City will also refund any City-imposed 911 fees to those Union City residents and businesses who paid the fee over the past 12 months through August 31, 2008. This is in keeping with both the Union City Municipal Code and State law.

HOW DO YOU RECEIVE A REFUND?
Since the City required the telephone companies to charge the fee to their subscribers, the City has no records of who paid the fee, and how much they paid.  We have requested that information from each of the telephone service providers, but we also want to give you an opportunity to request your refund by providing the City with documentation that you have paid the fee.  To request a refund, please fill out the“911 FEE REFUND CLAIM” form. You may mail the form or bring it in to City Hall with required proof that you have paid the fee. You have until December 1, 2008 to claim your refund for the entire 12-month period (i.e., August 2008 back to September 2007).   If you have any questions about how to fill out the form, or what documentation is needed, please contact Richard Digre, Administrative Services Director at (510) 675-5431.

TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION ALTERNATIVE:
The Internal Revenue Service allows contributions to a city solely for public purposes to be treated as a tax deductible contribution. (See IRS Publication 526, Page 3, Section 5).  The purpose of the 911 Fee was to fund emergency Police and Fire Department dispatch services. Clearly, this is a public purpose.
Therefore, if you wish to have the 911 Fee you paid on your cellular or landline telephone bills over the past 12 months treated by the City as a contribution by you to fund emergency Police and Fire Department dispatch services, you should check the appropriate box located at the bottom of the attached 911 FEE REFUND CLAIM form. Once you submit a completed 911 FEE REFUND CLAIM form with the appropriate box checked and the necessary written proof of payment you will be sent a receipt stating that you have made a contribution in the amount of your payments, to help fund the City's emergency Police and Fire Department dispatch services.  The receipt may allow you to deduct the 911 Fees you paid from your income taxes (you may wish to consult a qualified tax advisor to confirm this for your tax situation).

EFFECTS OF LOSS OF REVENUE:
Since the 911 fee generates approximately $2.7 million dollars per year to fund emergency Police and Fire Department dispatch services, the loss of this revenue requires the City to make significant cuts in its operating budget in order to provide funds for these essential services.  The City Council will review a proposed budget reduction plan at its meeting of September 9, 2008.  Some of the dollars needed to provide refunds will come out of a 911 Fee capital reserve fund ($1.2 million), which had been set aside for upgrades to the 911 computer-aided dispatch center in the future.  Any additional refund costs will have to come from the City’s General Fund Undesignated Reserve.
In closing, the City of Union City will cheerfully refund the 911 fees to which you are entitled.  While we do not agree with the Courts’ decision on this matter, we respect it and will honor it.  We also will continue to provide the best and most complete municipal services we can with the resources available to us.
Sincerely,

Larry Cheeves
City Manager