Report to Mayor and City Council
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
COMMUNITY SERVICES USER FEE STUDY UPDATE - FEE RECOMMENDATIONS
Body
I. SUMMARY
This is the second user fee study workshop presented to the City Council; however, this workshop solely focuses on Community Services (Leisure & Cultural Services) and Transportation. Since the City charges fees for services, it's recommended that the City Council reviews and analyzes the consultant's proposal for fees on City wide programs. The City has a long history of charging fees for various City services and routinely those fees are paid by the person or group that directly benefits from the service. Local government is legally allowed to charge a fee for a service; however, the charge may only recover the full cost of providing that service. In certain circumstances the City Council can set a policy where adopted fees for certain services are at a level that are not recovered by the paid fee, thus resulting in a General Fund subsidy.
The City's contracted consulting firm, Revenue & Cost Specialists, LLC, ("RCS"), is an independent financial consulting firm that specializes in government cost allocation, cost recovery, user fee study and overhead cost analysis. RCS worked with City staff in identifying Community Services and Transportation services offered to the community and RCS calculated the full cost of each service including labor, benefits, materials, supplies, overhead expenditures, and calculating subvention levels for each service.
The focus of the fee study is to determine the amount of revenue required to fully fund the costs of providing the identified services at the level the community has come to expect and enjoy. The calculation of the full cost of service is a measure for the City Council to use when analyzing and determining the appropriate level of cost recovery.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
1. PROVIDE direction to staff on any fee analysis line it...
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