Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: PUBLIC HEARINGS (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Master Fee Schedule Update
Date: September 27, 2022
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council of the City of Cotati adopt a resolution updating the Master Fee Schedule and charges for City services and repealing previously adopted or conflicting fees and charges for such services.
Background
A user fee study determines the full cost of services offered by a governmental agency to ensure that not only are the fees and charges reasonable and equitable, but that they also meet industry standards and uphold the statutory requirements of the State of California.
The City of Cotati has historically maintained a policy of recovering the cost of providing miscellaneous City services and regulatory activities so that the costs are borne by the direct beneficiaries of the services and regulatory activities, rather than by the City's General Fund. A comprehensive user fee study was conducted by NBS to establish appropriately calculated fees, the minimum staff time required for each service, multiplied by the current billing rate of the position processing the request. This resulted in a comprehensive update to the user fee schedule in 2021, adopted with Resolution 2021-37.
Notice of the Council's consideration of the updated Master Fee Schedule and fee changes has been provided in compliance with applicable law. As also required by the Mitigation Fee Act, the City's information and cost data supporting the fee increases has been made available to the public at the City Clerk's office ten days in advance of this meeting.
Analysis/Discussion
Following the comprehensive update to the fee schedule in 2021, in practice, staff have found some areas of the fee schedule need updates to improve clarity. These changes have been shown in the updated fee study, shown in tracked changes. In summary, the changes are as follows:
• In-house building plan check. This was changed from a flat fee to a percentage of the building permit costs, as this is more in line with the regional norm. Based on the value of the building permit and staff time needed, this is likely less than 100% cost recovery but more reasonable for lower value permits.
• Water Heater, HVAC, Panel Upgrades. This update is proposed to bring it closer to cost recovery, align it with regional norms for simple single purpose permits. • Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing (MEP) Permits. A new category of fee was added to allow a simple percentage to calculate the fee when this work is included as part of other work under a building permit, while retaining the fee schedule for MEP work only. • Impact Fees. The Traffic Impact Fee category for Hotel is removed, as this is included under Commercial Uses, and was analyzed as such in the Traffic Impact Fee study. • Water Meters. Given the continually changing cost of materials, this change sets the meter cost at actual cost, rather a fixed cost in the fee schedule. • Cannabis Permit Fees. The fees are changed to be consistent with the same fees listed elsewhere in the Fee Schedule, which were set by the comprehensive fee study in 2021. • Concealed Weapon Permit. The current fee schedule only includes a renewal fee. The revision adds a fee for issuance of a new permit.
• Cancellation Fee for Facility Rentals. The cancellation fee is updated from a flat fee to a fee that allows no cancellation fee with 7 days notice, but adds fees when the cancellation is short notice making it difficult for the City to rent to another customer. • Events in Parks. Updated to be consistent with the level of staff effort needed for permitting medium and large park events, as well as updating the security deposit for large events.
• Fee for Non-Contract Events in City Parks. Since COVID, there have been instructors that don’t want to rent a park for the day and are not affiliated with any City program.
This new category of fee provides a clear fee structure for non-affiliated instructors in City Parks.
Most proposed fees have a recovery level of 100% of the estimated reasonable cost of providing the related services; that is, full recovery. However, as noted above, staff recommends that several fees recover less than full cost because the underlying services provide a benefit to the public at large, or for other social, safety or welfare purposes.
The City’s updated Master Fee Schedule being recommended to council is intended to provide clarity and transparency to the public and staff. This schedule is to supersede the previously adopted fee schedules and is intended to be updated periodically for any identified missing fees.
Financial Considerations
The fiscal impact from the proposed fee schedules is difficult to determine and will be driven by utilization of the related services. However, the proposed fee schedule is intended improve overall the City’s recovery of costs incurred providing it the ability to stretch other resources further for the benefit of the public at-large.
Environmental Issues
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378.