To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Brian Cochran, Finance Director
Prepared By: Jessie Sauter, Finance Analyst
TITLE:
Title
Update to City Fees and Charges for Services
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
1. Approve the first reading and introduction of an ordinance amending Napa Municipal Code Sections 3.04.040, 3.04.050, and 3.20.090, regarding the definitions of, and procedures for appealing, City taxes, assessments, fees, fines, and charges.
2. Adopt a resolution establishing policies and procedures for the establishment, implementation, and enforcement of City fees, fines, and charges, and amending Policy Resolution No. 16.
3. Adopt a resolution updating City fees and charges related to City services, products, or regulations, and updating fines for violations of City codes and regulations.
Body
DISCUSSION:
City staff regularly reviews the costs of providing services to the community, and recommends that fees and charges be established in amounts that are based on an equitable allocation of those costs to those who benefit from those services. The last update to the City’s fees and charges went into effect November 1, 2015, and City staff has now identified the need to update those fees, as recommended in this report, to reflect the City’s current costs of providing services.
Attached to this report are three related recommended actions to implement the updated fees. First, the recommended ordinance is a procedural clarification, so that appeals of all fees and charges are administered in a consistent manner. Similarly, the update to what has historically been referred to as “Policy Resolution No. 16” is also an update to the processes by which the City establishes and implements fees and charges, for the primary purpose of providing consistency between the Policy Resolution and relevant provisions of the Napa Municipal Code.
The third recommended action is the adoption of the resolution that establishes the updated fee amounts. The proposed updates to the fee amounts are primarily due to changes in employee salaries, as well as the increased employer retirement contributions and other benefit costs for FY 2017/18. The attached “Summary of Fee Updates” (Attachment 2) is intended to identify for Council those fees that are being updated based on operational changes within the departments, including new proposed fees, or obsolete fees proposed to be eliminated.
In addition to changes to existing fees, this fee update also removes fees that are no longer relevant to the City and adds new fees. Parks and Recreation Service (PRS) fees were restructured and streamlined for clarity.
Development impact fees were not reviewed as part of this fee study.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
Enactment of the proposed fee changes will improve cost recovery for City services.
CEQA:
The Finance Director has determined that the recommended actions described in this agenda report are not subject to CEQA, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15060(c).
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
ATCH 1 - Ordinance amending Napa Municipal Code Sections 3.04.040, 3.04.050, and 3.20.090
ATCH 2 - Resolution establishing policies and procedures regarding City fees and amending Policy Resolution No. 16
EX A - Policies and Procedures for the Establishment, Implementation, and Enforcement of City Fees, Fines, and Charges
ATCH 3 - Resolution updating City fees and charges
EX A - Fee Changes and City Labor Rates
EX B - List of changes to fee type only
ATCH 4 - Summary of proposed fee changes
NOTIFICATION:
None