Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, January 04, 2022
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP INTRODUCTION: CITYWIDE COMPREHENSIVE USER FEE STUDY - METHODOLOGY, PURPOSE OF THE STUDY AND REVIEW OF FEE RECOMMENDATIONS.
Body
I. SUMMARY
The City of Carson charges user fees for a variety of specific services provided on behalf of private citizens or groups. The underlying assumption for the user fee is that costs of services benefiting individuals and not the entire community should be borne by the individuals receiving the services and that the user of the service should pay a fee that bears a relationship to the cost of the service. Therefore, setting user fees is equivalent to establishing prices for services. Unlike private organizations, making a profit in providing services to the public is not a legally allowable objective for local governments. The City may only set fees at a level to recover the full cost of providing the service. However, in certain circumstances it is reasonable for Council to set policies in establishing fees for certain services at a level that does not recover the full costs, resulting in a General Fund subsidy. At the direction of the City Council, staff-initiated a Fee Study to conduct a comprehensive cost of service analysis for the City's numerous fees and charges for services across various departments.
On February 4, 2020, the City Council approved a professional services agreement with Revenue and Cost Specialist, LLC, an independent financial consulting firm that specializes in government cost allocation, cost recovery, user fee study and overhead analysis. In addition, to work with City staff to identify services offered by each department, calculate the full cost of service including labor, benefits, materials, supplies and overhead expenditures and calculate subvention levels for each service. The comprehensive fee study for each department reports:
* The current fees compared to a proposed fee based on th...
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