REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Annual Review of Proposed Fees and Charges for Fiscal Year 2017/18
Report
REPORT IN BRIEF
The fees and charges of the City are reviewed and adjusted each year in accordance with Council Policy 7.1.1 Fiscal -Long Range Goals and Financial Policies. This annual evaluation ensures that all fees and charges of the City are aligned with the cost to provide fee-related services, except for those fees that are legally limited, market based, or subsidized per Council direction.
After a detailed staff review of fees, necessary adjustments have been made to the proposed Fee Schedule. Fees that are legally limited remain unchanged. Periodically, staff reviews various fees in detail and adjusts them for cost of service, usually once every three to five years. In the intervening periods, fees are adjusted by a general inflation factor or annual personnel cost increases, whichever is higher. Those fees that did not receive a detailed cost of service review are proposed to be increased 5.27% based on City's year-over-year personnel cost increases due to negotiated memoranda of understanding with the various bargaining units or salary resolution and increases in other benefits and retirement. Fees related to construction and materials prices are proposed to increase in accordance with the annual Construction Cost Index (CCI), which increased 3.7% for May 2017.
The Recommended FY 2017/18 Fee Schedule (Attachment 1) details all proposed fees. Most fees become effective at the start of the new fiscal year, with exception of development processing and mitigation fees, which become effective 60 days after adoption per State law. In addition, the fees for Fire Prevention and Hazardous Materials Permit & Inspection Fees were updated in this fee schedule to align with the recommendations from a recently completed cost of service study. These fees, in most cases, have increased significantly and include the funding of additional staffing to improve in...
Click here for full text