Title
Surveyor’s Office recommending the Board receive a fee study report performed for the Surveyor's Office and provide direction on future fee increases, including recommendations for a Planning and Building surcharge and automatic annual cost index increase.
FUNDING: General Fund.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The County’s adopted Fiscal Year 2017-18 and 2018-19 budgets both indicate the intention for the County to conduct a review of Surveyor’s Office fees. An initial review was performed, resulting in fee increases being adopted February 6, 2018 (Legistar #17-1320, Resolution 013-2018). Prior to the increases in 2018, the Surveyor’s Fee schedule had not be updated since 2001. The 2018 increase were intended to close the gap between revenues and the actual cost of service, while a full fee study was conducted. On May 20, 2021, the County awarded a Request for proposals (RFP) 21-918-028 for a Multi-Department Fee and Nexus Study and report to NBS Government Finance Group Inc (“NBS”). The purpose of the study is to determine the County’s cost for providing services including, personnel indirect and overhead costs, supervision, equipment and reasonable fees to recover the cost of providing said services.
The current fee schedule represents a 37% cost recovery. The current fee schedule is a hybrid of flat fees and fees based on deposits and an hourly charge for projects that significantly exceed the estimated hours, with an hourly rate of $100 applied for activities that exceed standard processing times.
The report presents fees that are calculated based on an hourly rate, applied to the average time required for each activity. Most fees are shown as a deposit based on the estimated hours for various activities, plus an additional hourly charge, for 100% cost recovery. The deposits amounts listed are the estimated cost of a standard project of each type. As a result, the increase of any given fee may misrepresent the increase for any given applicant. Thi...
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