CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: June 15, 2026
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILMEMBERS
TITLE: PROPOSED FISCAL YEAR 2026-2027 MASTER FEE SCHEDULE
SYNOPSIS
Staff is seeking City Council’s approval of proposed changes to the Fiscal Year 2026/2027 (FY 26/27) Master Fee Schedule (MFS), which would become effective September 1, 2026. The proposed MFS was reviewed by the Budget Committee at its meeting on May 28, 2026, at which time the Committee recommended City Council’s adoption of the proposed MFS.
DISCUSSION
Background
A user fee, or service fee, is a payment made by an individual for a service that primarily benefits that individual. By law, user fees may not exceed the reasonable cost of the service for which they are collected. The intent of user fees is to cover the costs of providing the service. Included in the costs of the service are three components:
Direct Labor. Employee hours spent directly on the fee-related service. This rate includes the employee’s salary and benefits.
Departmental Indirect Labor. Departmental employees not directly working on the feerelated service but are responsible for supervision and administrative activities. This cost layer includes administrative support staff and a portion of the department head’s time. Central Overhead. This component includes costs for those departments that provide support to other City departments (e.g. City Attorney, City Manager, Finance and Human Resources).
On June 17, 2024, the City Council approved a comprehensive fee study to update the City’s Master Fee Schedule. Staff, with the assistance of an outside consultant, examined if the City was receiving full cost recovery for services provided. Based on the analysis, fees were adjusted accordingly for full cost recovery, while continuing the adjustment for the Consumer Price Index (CPI), based on the CPI for the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metropolitan area, as adopted in the previous Comprehensive Fee Study in FY 03/04 (Resolution No. 51-03).
Analysis
The City has incorporated the major changes from the last comprehensive fee study, so there are relatively minimal changes proposed to the MFS for FY 26/27, which include the following:
Annual CPI Adjustment: 2.5% increase in permissible fees, which represents the change in CPI as of February 2026 over prior year for the same period. (For ease of administration, fees will be rounded to the nearest whole dollar whenever possible.). Revisions by Section:
Building Pre-Plan Review
Change in language to allow for a pre-plan review of all projects regardless of valuation; removed reference to “projects valued over $1M”
Engineering Sewer Lateral Repair
Base fee reduced from $330 to $168 (hourly inspection fee from prior years continues; set at $168 for this update) Swimming Pools
Fee structure change from $330 hourly inspection fee to a base fee of $168 + $168 hourly inspection fee
Traffic Impact Fee
“Traffic Mitigation” fee renamed to “Traffic Impact” fee Per-trip fee: from $325 to $529 (Engineering will be
presenting more information on this fee to City Council on June 1)
Single-family Residential Fee
Increase from $3,879 to $5,102 per unit
Multi-family Residential Fee
Increase from $3,110 to $3,872 per unit
Retail
“Commercial” fee renamed to “Retail” fee
Increase from $10.03 to $12.70 per square foot
Office Fee
Increase from $8.52 to $9.81 per square foot
Industrial Fee
Increase from $3.14 to $3.97 per square foot
FISCAL IMPACT
The impact on General Fund revenue will depend on the fee-related activity. The proposed changes to the MFS are designed to capture cost recovery for providing services to customers. Assuming similar levels of fee activity (using FY 2024/2025 audited actual amounts as a baseline) and approval of all fees, the estimated increase is approximately $50,000 when the CPI is applied.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public Contact was made through posting of the City Council agenda on the City’s official notice bulletin board, at the Pleasant Hill Senior Center, and at the Pleasant Hill Police Department. The agenda and staff report are posted on the City’s web page.
RECOMMENDED CITY COUNCIL ACTION
Move to adopt the proposed resolution authorizing the changes to the Master Fee Schedule, as recommended by the Budget Committee.
ALTERNATIVES TO RECOMMENDED ACTION
Provide staff with directions regarding revisions to the Master Fee Schedule.
ATTACHMENT(S)
Proposed Resolution
Exhibit 1 – Proposed Master Fee Schedule Effective September 1, 2026 Exhibit 1 - Proposed Master Fee Schedule Effective September 1, 2026 – Redline Version Notice of Public Hearing
State of California Consumer Price Index
Prepared by: Erick Cheung, Chief Financial Officer
Ross Yangwas, Administrative Analyst II
Approved by: Ethan Bindernagel, City Manager