Memorandum
Date: August 4, 2020
To: The Honorable Moke Simon, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Carol J Huchingson, County Administrative Officer
Subject: 9:30 A.M. - Consideration of a Resolution amending the Master Fee Schedule for departmental services rendered by the County
Executive Summary: (include fiscal and staffing impact narrative):
The Master Fee Schedule established by your Board provides the public with a convenient and transparent single source document that reflects all County service fees. In adopting the initial Master Fee Schedule, your Board expressed intent that it be routinely updated, and established the authority and procedures to accomplish such updates. Consequently, in accordance with Article XXVIII in Chapter 2 of the County Code, a Resolution adopting updates to the Master Fee Schedule is presented for your consideration.
The attached Resolution and exhibit reflect staff’s recommendation to amend fees related to the Agricultural and Weights and Measures Department, Building & Safety Division, Environmental Health Department, Planning Division and Support Services, Public Services Department, Public Works Department, Sheriff Department, and Water Resources Department.
The Agricultural and Weights and Measures Department is requesting to add an Industrial Hemp County Registration Fee of $50, Industrial Hemp Pre Site Inspection Fee of $150, and Industrial Hemp Pre-harvest Sampling Area Fee of $250 to more accurately reflect the work being done by the county.
The Building & Safety Division is requesting the following:
• Add a Request for Permit Extension Fee of $50 and Expired Permits fees with three sub categories (Less than One Year: 25% of Current Permit Fee, One Year to Five Years: 50% of Current Permit Fee, and Five Years and Over: A new permit is required) to cover the frequent requests to re-instate expired permits; Add a Chief Building Official Review Fee of $150 to cover CBO time to review alterations, new conditions, updates, etc. to existing permits and projects.
• Revise the description of Yard Piping/Trenching to a 3 hour minimum inspection with no other permit in play, and additional 1 hour for every 150 feet thereafter and increase the fee from $90 to $95/hour.
• Revise the Work Commencing before Permit Issuance fee title description to read as “Work Commencing before Permit Issuance (This penalty is in addition to other required permit fees as detailed on this schedule, and is dependent on the number of offenses). The fee Effective description is to read as “1st Offense - Equal to Amount of Permit Fee; 2nd & 3rd Offense - Equal to Double the Amount of Permit Fee; 4+ Offenses - Triple the Amount of Permit Fees”.
The Environmental Health Department is increasing the majority of their fees with CPI and requesting the following:
• Add a $3.50 Large Scale Prints Fee. EH obtained a new large scale printer which will increase the services EH provides to its customers without increasing department costs. Large scale prints are similar in size (and larger) to building blue prints. Fee is based on cost of toner, colored ink, paper, and staff time per copy.
• Add a $128 Property Searches Fee which must allow 24 business hours and must provide APN & physical address. EH is currently providing searches to real estate agents along with private homeowners and is looking at recovering actual costs. Fee is based on hourly rate of $128 in 15 minute increments.
• Include an easily accessible and understandable description of Septic Permits to the fee ordinance for customer reference.
• Add a $248 Well Repair Permit Fee and a $128 Well Hourly Rate In Excess of Two Hours on New Permit or Repair Permit. EH’s current well permit is based on an hourly rate with a two hour minimum.
• Add $188 Employee Housing (Annual Farm Labor Camp) Kitchen (per permit) Fee. EH is currently not receiving reimbursement of time from Farm Labor Housing Kitchen Permits. Fee is based on twice the fee for seasonal farm labor camps which operate six months out of the year. This line item is needed because EH currently have annual farm labor camps in operation and have had to use and override the fee for seasonal farm labor camps.
• Reduce Body Art Practitioner Annual Registration Fee (Per Practitioner) to $101 and Increase the Body Art Facility Permit (per facility) to $201. EH would like to switch Body Art Practitioner Fees based on the county’s fee ordinance. Fees were erroneously switched when initially added to the schedule and EH routinely received complaints within the Body Art Community.
• Add a $64 Appeal to the BOS under General Plan Amendment Map Initial Fee and a $64 Voluntary Merger Fee. Currently the Planning Department is collecting these fees of incoming requests on EH’s behalf. There has been an error and it has not been reported on EH’s fee ordinance in at least the past 10 years. EH would like to include these fees on the current ordinance. Fees are also being reviewed based on Requests for review that are received from the planning department. The average amount of time that is spent on each type of review is being audited to determine an appropriate fee based on the cost of living increases over the past 10 + years. An appropriate fee adjustment will be requested on the next proposed fee ordinance. Until then fees are being kept as is with an increase of 1 year CPI rate increase.
The Planning Division and Support Services is requesting increases for the following fees (Multiple fees collected by Planning Division & Support Services being updated (CDD) :
• Zoning Clearance Multi/Comm Initial Fee $95 (Increase to 1 hour for more time to review a commercial permit due to more guidelines and conditions to consider).
• Public Works increased some surveyor fees collected by CDD. Those fee increases are incorporated within this fee schedule (Permits: Minor Use Permit: $39, SUBDIVIONS: Certificate of Compliance $355, Certificate of Compliance-Conditional $741, Lot Line Adjustment $495, Final Parcel Map $1380, Final Subdivision Map $2205, and Voluntary Merger $165).
• Remove the word “Basic” from CEQA Initial Study Fee of $95/hr to avoid confusion. Nowhere in existing documentation is the word “basic” used in conjunction with an initial study.
• Delineate the Grading Permit Initial Fee to break out Planning ($190) and Building ($1330). Planning currently splits the fees in this way, however it is not stated in the Master Fee Schedule.
• Increase the Pre-Application Conference/Site Visit Fee to 2.5 hours ($237.50). Fee study shows it consistently takes more time to address applicant questions during the conference/site visits.
• Remove "and Photocopying” from Advertising, Postage Fees. Separate copy fees to cover size breakdown ($0.10/ea per copy up to 11 X 17, $4.00 per sheet for large format)
Public Services is requesting to increase the Solid Waste Tipping Fees by CPI, adjust the title only to Private Groups (per day) under Middletown Community Room/Lower Lake Community Room Fee, and add a Cleaning Fee (as necessary) of $20 to cover staff cleaning costs (time and supplies) if PS rents out facilities that then require additional cleaning be it for COVID19 sanitizing or as a result of the users not cleaning up themselves. The $20 fee is one hour extra help janitor plus supplies.
Public Works is increasing fees with CPI and requesting to add a Minor Use Permit Fee half the Surveyor’s hourly rate. The Surveyor’s hourly rate, increase to $78.
The Sheriff Department is requesting to remove the Drug Test Fee and update the Home Detention Application Fee. The new $244.34 fee includes 6.5 hours of actual staff time and drug testing.
Water Resources is requesting to increase fees for CPI plus Lakebed Encroachment Leases for additional square footage.
Staff is recommending this annual update to the Master Fee Schedule to reflect the actual costs associated with providing the specified services. All fees set forth in this Master Fee Schedule adjustment shall become effective 07/21/2020 unless governed by Government Code 66017 in which case the fees will become effective 09/21/2020.
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Estimated Cost: ________ Amount Budgeted: ________ Additional Requested: ________ Future Annual Cost: ________
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Recommended Action: Adopt Resolution amending the Master Fee Schedule for departmental services rendered by the County