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Supervisor Turnboo, Supervisor Parlin, the Sheriff, and the Auditor-Controller recommending the Board of Supervisors authorize the Auditor to refund Public Safety Development Impact Fees totaling approximately $445,000 plus interest for fees collected from 2007 through 2016 and order the Auditor-Controller to refund these fees as soon as is practical.
FUNDING: N/A
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DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
On February 27, 2007, the Board of Supervisors adopted a public safety impact fee for the purpose of partially financing a public safety facility in the El Dorado Hills area. This fee was adopted pursuant to the California Mitigation Fee Act. Sometime between 2007 and 2015, the County dropped the near term goal to build a public safety facility (Sheriff’s Substation) in El Dorado Hills. Accordingly, the Sheriff and the Auditor-Controller clearly communicated to the then County Counsel, the then CAO, and certain County Supervisors the need to stop collecting the fee and requested advice related to refunding the fee to the affected property owners. The attached email dated April 2, 2015, clearly documents a portion of this communication.
The Mitigation Fee Act requires that a reexamination of the need for each impact fee levied be made every five years and that certain specific findings be made related to the fees and unexpended fees every five years. The Mitigation Fee Act, Government Code Section 66001, subdivision (d)(2) states, “If the findings are not made as required by this subdivision, the local agency SHALL REFUND THE MONEYS in the account or fund.” The Mitigation Fee Act does not require property owners to ask for refunds. A simple read of the Mitigation Fee Act indicates that the County has a statutorily duty to make refunds. The mandated findings were not made in 2012 as required and further have never been made.
In 2015, the Austins, an El Dorado Hills couple, petitioned the Superior Court seeking a writ of Mandate to order the County to, ...
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