Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: ANNUAL CITY FEE SCHEDULE UPDATE AND ADOPTION
Date: June 9, 2026
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council 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
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.
Annually, City staff are directed to update the Fees in accordance with Cotati Municipal Code
3.42. 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 the meeting.
Analysis/Discussion
Following the update to the fee schedule in 2025, in practice, staff have found some areas of the fee schedule need updates beyond simple inflationary adjustments. However, most of the fees in the schedule have only been adjusted based on the San Francisco Bay Area CPI April index, in accordance with Cotati Municipal Code 3.42, which for 2026 was 3.8%. For development impact fees, the construction cost index (CCI) was used. Some fees, typically concerning document production and copying (public record requests), are set by statute and cannot be adjusted to recover actual costs.
To facilitate understanding of the changes made to the previous fee schedule, a tracked changes version of the schedule is attached. When the updated fee schedule goes into effect 60 days from adoption, the changes to the document will be accepted and formatting cleaned up.
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 to 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
Adoption of the fees and charges set forth in Exhibit "A" of the Resolution is intended to recover costs necessary to maintain such services within the City within existing service areas and is not a “project” within the meaning of the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") pursuant to 14 California Code of Regulations ("CEQA Guidelines") section 15378(b)(4) (the creation of government funding mechanisms or other government fiscal activities which do not involve any specific commitment to any specific project which may result in a potentially significant impact on the environment); and/or CEQA Guidelines section 15273 (statutory exemption for rates, tolls, fares and charges within an existing service area); and/or CEQA Guidelines section 15061(b)(3) (“common sense” general exemption where there is no possibility the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment).