County Of Sonoma Agenda Item Summary Report

Transcription

1 County Of Sonoma Agenda Item Summary Report Department: County Administrator Contact: Peter Rumble Phone: (707) Board Date: 4/20/2010 4/5 Vote Required Deadline for Board Action: 4/20/2010 AGENDA SHORT TITLE: Consolidated Fee Hearing. REQUESTED BOARD ACTION: Adopt the proposed adjustments to County fees. CURRENT FISCAL YEAR FINANCIAL IMPACT - None. Explanation (if required): None. Prior Board Action: Annual consolidated fee hearings. Alternatives Results of Non-Approval: Non-approval: Departmental fees would not be adjusted to recover costs of providing services. Alternatives: The Board may direct staff to phase in or adjust fees to recover less than full costs.

2 Background: Every year, the County Administrator brings forward two fee items to your Board, one in April and one in June. These items are a consolidation of various departmental requests for changes to individual fees. The changes typically request increases in fees to offset increasing departmental expenditures associated with the cost of doing business or request, as a policy matter, the establishment of new fees to help recover operational costs. Your Board has set a policy to recover 100% of costs through fees when appropriate. The April fee hearing is used, although not exclusively, for fees that must be set with a longer lead time before they can be effective. In some cases these fees must be set 60 days before they can be effective and by doing so in late April, departments can begin collecting the appropriate fees with the start of the next fiscal year. Generally, costs for providing fee supported services include direct salary, benefit, and supplies or other services costs as well as overhead costs. Overhead costs can include: supervision; departmental administration; internal county services allocated under the state approved cost plan (A87 costs) including any adjustments to the cost plan rolled forward from prior years; training costs for mandatory certifications; equipment replacement contributions and the like. In total, the proposed changes to fees will generate an estimated $4,722,465. The proposed changes reflect a combination of policy increases and establishment of new fees, as well as standard increases to account for inflationary pressures on the cost of providing services. Departments and the anticipated revenue for each department included in this package are: the Agricultural Commission/Sealer ($52,600), Board of Supervisors/County Administrator ($75,000), Fire and Emergency Services ($258,665), Health Services ($202,382), Probation ($145,679), Public Defender ($25,000), Regional Parks ($195,810), Sheriff-Coroner ($137,646), and the Water Agency s water transmission and sewer rates ($3,629,684). Departments have included adoption of these fees in their budgetary requests. Because these requested fees offset departmental and county operational expenditures, or the cost of providing county services, any fee adjustment not adopted by your Board may have an impact on the level of services the departments are able to provide due to a possible need to reduce expenditures by a commensurate amount, or the need for the departments to identify an alternate funding source. Because of limited General Fund and State/other revenues, non-adoption of these fees would effectively mean service level cuts beyond what departments are incorporating to balance their budget. Because the County is in process of balancing its budget, there may be additional expenditure and revenue changes not considered in the calculation of these fee proposals. Once the budget is finalized, staff (including assistance from the County Administrator s office, County Counsel and the County Auditor-Controller- Treasurer-Tax Collector as needed) will review all fees to be certain that they recover all the costs but do not exceed such costs. In the event that some fees would recover more than the costs of the services, staff will return to your Board to request any necessary adjustments via a simple consent calendar resolution. In the event that the final decisions affecting some of the underlying costs are not made until after the new fiscal year begins, staff will make provisions to refund any over-collections after final Board action. Attachments: Consolidated Fee Hearing Package. On File With Clerk: None.

3 AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONER Ag Commissioner Division Direct Marketing; Phytosanitary Certificates; Pest Control; Grading and Drainage; Project Review Advisory Referral Cost of business increases of 4.6% %, with larger increases due to rounding the fee charged up to the nearest whole dollar ($7,130). Policy establishment of new fees for Grower Workshop ($4,500), for Brown Garden Snail Master Permit ($150), Destination Point Inspection ($75). $11,855 Animal Care and Control Division Impound; Quarantine; License; Surrender; Vaccination, testing, microchiping; Dangerous/Vicious dog; Kennel/Pet shop license; Adoption Cost of business increases of 3% %, with fees kept to the nearest $.25 for ease of processing. $40,745 Agricultural Commissioner Subtotal: $52,600 BOARD OF SUPERVISORS/ COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Clerk of the Board Assessment Appeals Application Policy establishment of an assessment appeals board application fee of $30 to offset increasing staff costs to process assessment appeals and bring the county in line with comparable jusrisdictions. $75,000 Board of Supervisors/County Administrator Subtotal: $75,000 FIRE AND EMERGENCY Certified S C Unified S Program Agency (CUPA) Fire Services Small Quantity Generator; Large Quantity Generator; Treatment; Waste Oil; HazMat Business Plans; Accidental Release; Agricultural Facilities; Underground Storage Tank; Emergency Response; and Administrative fees; Above Ground Petroleum Storage Tanks Plan Review and Inspection; Fire Permit fees Cost of business increases of 3.2% %, with larger increases due to setting fees to more closely align with the true cost of providing services ($96,784). Policy restructuring of the Aboveground Petroleum Storage Tank program fees to align fees with type and size of site rather than apply a flat fee for all sites ($42,370). Cost of business increases of 3%-24%, with larger increases due to setting fees to more closely align with the true cost of providing services. $139,154 $119,511 Emergency Services Subtotal: $258,665 HEALTH SERVICES Environmental Health Food Program; Stormwater; Housing; Swim/Bath; Milk and Dairy; Softserve; Water Systems; Septage Haulers; Solid Waste Facility; Medical Waste; Environmental Drilling Cost of business increases averaging 3.5% with larger increases adjusted based on time/motion studies to recover true cost of providing services ($92,978). Policy changes for several fees include: Swim and Bath Recreation Program based on recently enacted State Legislation allowing a maximum $6 inspection charge ($747), Market Milk Program to continue providing a General Fund subsidy of $20,412 to offset permit costs for dairies, establishment of a $25 Sampling Fee under the Semi-Frozen Product program to offset costs ($10,650), and the establishment of a new Small Quantities fee of $277 along with the restructuring of the Medical Waste Program into a tiered structure based on business size ($32,094). $136,469

4 Public Health Laboratory; Emergency Medical Cost of business increases from 5.26% % with larger increases due to rising medical/laboratory equipment costs. Several fees have been renamed to more accurately reflect the service provided ($24,508). $65,913 Policy establishment of new fees include Microbial Disease to recover costs for tracking and reporting instances of diseases such as salmonella and e.coli ($3,900), an exam fee of $40 to offset the costs of screening for two recently-identified tick-borne diseases ($4,000), and General RT-PCR fee to help offset costs for rapidly setting up new tests and screening for public health concerns such as Pandemic Influenza ($1,580). Policy establishment of new fees associated with Emergency Medical include: First responder certification of $80 to cover the majority of cost associated with providing the certification ($4,000), EMT/EMT Advanced initial certification fee ($13,125), and EMT/EMT Advanced recertification fee ($14,800). Health Services Subtotal: $202,382 PROBATION Adult Probation Pre-Sentence Reports; Supervision; Chemical Testing; Jurisdictional Transfer; Expungement; Collection; Installment Payment Cost of business increase of 2.9%-3.3%. $102,068 Juvenile Probation Record Sealing Cost of business increase of 3.3%. $600 Jail Programs Work Release; Supervised Electronic Confinement Cost of business increase of 3.2%. $7,202 Supervised Adult Work Release Cost of business increase of 3.2%. $5,325 Crews Institutions Cost of Care Cost of business increase of 2.5%. $30,485 Probation subtotal: $145,679

5 PUBLIC DEFENDER Registration Policy increase to set fee at State Maximum of $50 (Based on Penal Code as amended by SB 676) $25,000 Public Defender subtotal: $25,000 REGIONAL PARKS Regional Parks Fees Recreation and Cultural Services Regional Parks Fees; Day Cost of business increase of 3.2% - 7.1%. Increases are moderated by rates Use; Film and Photo; Spring in comparative jurisdictions and market tolerance. Some larger increases Lake Park; Staff Hourly due to restructuring of existing fees ($143,184). Rates; and other fees Policy establishment of new fees including Festival Admission for the Tolay Festival ($15,000), Volume Rate for Regular Day-Use Parking ($5,315), Replacement Access Card for Tolay Park ($400), and Document Processing for park use agreements ($1,200). Room Rental; Parking; and other fees Cost of business increase of 2.2% % with larger increases due to fees being set at the nearest whole dollar amount ($26,622). Policy establishment of new fees including Theatrical Seating Systems ($3,700), Floor Cord Cover Rental ($0), and Late Processing ($0). $165,488 $30,322 Regional Parks subtotal: $195,810 SHERIFF - CORONER Central Information Patrol Gaming; Picture Arcade; Secondhand Dealer; Gun Dealers; Copies; Concealed Weapons; Verification; Fingerprinting Decreases of -.5% % due to departmental cost decreases (-$1,000). Cost of business increase of 102.5% for Fingerprinting fee. Large increase due to the removal of the state allowable maximum fee of $10, with proposed fee set at $20.25 to capture actual cost of providing service ($3,423.50). Bomb Squad; Security Cost of business changes of -7.7% - 9.3% (-$22,720.50). Services; Subsequent Response; Towed Vehicles; Policy establishment of a new per-call fee for County Bomb Squad DUI ($158,430). $2,423 $135,710 Coroner Morgue Use; Body Removal Decreases of -.1% % due to departmental cost decreases. ($487) WATER AGENCY Water Transmission System Water Rates Cost of business increases of 7.4% to 10.3% including ongoing and anticipated capital projects. Sheriff - Coroner Subtotal: $137,646 $2,407,500 Geyserville San Zone Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 7% $18,656 Penngrove San Zone Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 9% $44,718 Sea Ranch San Zone Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 6.5% $30,996 Airport - L-W San Zone Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 8% $161,348 Occidental CSD Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 9% $36,162 Russian River CSD Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 6% $197,284 Sonoma Valley CSD Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 6% $672,750 South Park CSD Sewer Rates Cost of business increase of 2% $60,270 Water Agency Subtotal: $3,629,684 Grand Total $4,722,465