| | | | | | | |  | CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA
CITY COUNCIL
Staff Report |
June 4, 2024
PUBLIC HEARINGS |
| | | | | | | | TO:
| Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
| SUBMITTED BY:
| Jane Hogan, Accountant
| APPROVED BY:
| Chip Rerig, City Administrator
| | SUBJECT: | Resolution 2024-048 adopting Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Fee schedule for Administrative Services, Community Planning and Building, Public Safety and Public Works Services |
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| | | | | | | | | RECOMMENDATION: | Adopt Resolution 2024-048 adopting the Fiscal Year 2024- 2025 Fee Schedule for Administrative Services, Community Planning and Building, Public Safety and Public Works Services.
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| | | | | | | | | BACKGROUND/SUMMARY: | The City provides a variety of services that benefit specific customers, such as the issuance of business licenses, planning and building permits, and tree removal permits. In accordance with State law, the City is legally allowed to charge a fee to the used of a specific service to recover the cost of providing the service. To help determine the cost of providing certain services, as well as to develop alternative and more equitable ways to finance some services, the City hired Revenue and Cost Specialists, LLC to complete a cost of services study in March 2023. The proposed Fiscal Year 2024-2025 fee schedule is based on this study, reflects previous direction from Council regarding subsidies of certain services like tree permits, and incorporates an inflationary adjustment of 2.6 percent to all existing fees, with the exception of fees set by the State or courts, parking violations, and the fees as noted below.
New Fee
Public Works: Dead Tree Removal Permit - $200. In an effort to encourage the removal of dangerous dead trees throughout the City, the City Forester recommends a new dead tree removal permit fee, which is less than the $682 charged for the City’s tree removal permit. This fee charged is representative of the staff time involved in the permit processing, communication with residents, and an in-person inspection by the City Forester to confirm if the tree is dead.
Summary
The purpose of this agenda item is to provide an update regarding fees and for Council to adopt the proposed master fee schedule for the upcoming fiscal year. Upon adoption of the resolution, the fees will become effective 60-days later on August 5, 2024. Since the prior fee schedules have been adjusted annually for inflation, overall the Proposed Fiscal Year 2024-2025 (“FY 24-25”) fees are fairly consistent with the current fee schedule.
The proposed fees associated with the charges for services are intended to recover as close to 100% of the City’s cost of providing the service from the user, or beneficiary, of the service, without going over. However, Council may determine that certain services have a community-wide benefit and choose to reduce fees associated with certain services. If fees are reduced to less than 100% of cost recovery, then the difference between the cost of the service and the fee charged to the user needs to be made up, or subsidized, by other General Fund revenues. This in turn means that there would be less General Fund revenue available for other community-wide services. Staff recommends that Council strive to achieve nearly full cost recovery for services. Historically, Council has subsidized tree permitting within the City and prior proposed tree permitting fees have not been approved with the adopted Fee Schedule. |
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| | | | | | | | | FISCAL IMPACT: | Consistent with financial policy C94-01, the proposed fee schedule includes an annual adjustment based upon the San Francisco-Oakland Consumer Price Index (CPI), which was calculated by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics at 2.6 percent for the year ending December 2023. The Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Proposed Budget includes a 2.6 percent increase on the revenues known as “charges for services”.
The revenue from fees allows the City to recover its costs for providing a service from the direct recipient, or user, like property, sales and use and transient occupancy taxes, are needed to help offset the cost of providing those services. This means that the overall General Fund revenues are not subsidizing user fees, therefore more of the General Fund is available to fund community-wide activities that have a public benefit, like libraries, public safety, and public works. |
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| | | | | | | | | PRIOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION: | | Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 fee schedule on July 11, 2023. |
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