TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH: Krishna Namburi, City Manager
FROM: Josh Eggleston, Chief Financial Officer
SUBJECT:
title
Proposed FY 2027 Fee Schedule
Ward(s): All Wards
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): All Neighborhoods
Result Area(s): Good Governance.
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SUMMARY:
summary
Each fiscal year, to provide the community with easy accessibility and transparency, the City of Salem’s Finance Department in partnership with all City departments produces a fee schedule which displays most City fees in one document. The fee schedule is adopted annually prior to the new fiscal year.
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ISSUE:
Shall the City Council adopt Resolution No. 2026-18, setting fees and charges for the City of Salem as set forth in Exhibit A to Resolutions No. 2026-18?
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Adopt Resolution No. 2026-18, setting fees and charges for the City of Salem as set forth in Exhibit A to Resolution No. 2026-18.
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FACTS AND FINDINGS:
The City of Salem offers and performs certain services where all or some of the cost is borne by those receiving the service. The FY 2027 recommended budget estimates $227.8 million from 68 revenue types and over 1,500 individual fees. In the upcoming fiscal year, expected revenue generated from fees and charges represents over 20 percent of budgeted City revenues across all funds.
Fees and charges support the direct provision of a variety of City services, including lien searches, zoning, site and dwelling plan review, multi-generational recreation opportunities, rights-of-way access, code enforcement, ambulance contracting and fire safety, airport badging, water and sewer accounts, building permitting and inspections, parking rent, apartment licensing, and more. Annually, unless otherwise noted, fees are typically increased based on a market adjustment rate, Consumer Price Index - Urban (CPI-U) All Items West Region rate (December to December change), or Engineering News Record (ENR) rate (December to December change). The rates for CPI-U and ENR are 2.90 percent and 1.02 percent respectively. Compared to the rates used for the FY 2026 Fee Schedule, the CPI-U increased by 0.5 percent and the ENR has decreased by 0.96 percent.
Below is a summary of some of the FY 2027 proposed fee changes, organized by section in the attached fee schedule (Attachment 2) for reference. Please look at this document to see all changes.
Section 1 - Non Departmental
• Per SRC 40.020(b), the City Operations Fee is proposed to increase on January 1, 2027. This increase is based on the CPI-U December to December year-over-year change which is consistent with prior years' methodology. The City Operations Fee supports the City's General Fund services such as internal services, code compliance, planning, police, fire, and more. The City Operations Fee is estimated to generate approximately $15.6 million in the FY 2027 Budget.
Section 2 - Finance and Municipal Court
• Electronic and manual lien search fees will increase by $1 and $3 respectively. Increases achieve cost recovery and are receipted in the General Fund.
• Increases of $1-$3 for printed copies of City financial documents such as the City and URA budget books.
Section 3 - Community Planning and Development
• Most fees are increased by the CPI-U rate with a lower fee for small, non-illuminated signs. New fees for subdivision modification, temporary signs, and two types of pre-application conferences. were added. Permits issued by Building and Safety are not increasing.
• Compliance Services includes some fee increases for sound permits, racetrack events, and multifamily inspections.
• Parking permit fees increase between $1 and $2 for the Pringle (receipted into the General Fund), Liberty, Chemeketa, and Marion (receipted into the Downtown Parking Fund) parkades. The parking permits related to downtown employees at the Marion and Chemeketa parkades remain in place at their FY 2026 rates and requirements.
• The Dining Platform Program is being reevaluated with the implementation of paid-on street parking downtown. There is a desire to move closer to cost recovery for the revenue lost from parking spaces occupied by dining platforms. The proposed updated fee for the Parking Space License is $1,960 per parking space, which reflects 50% of a 70% utilization rate. In addition, a new refundable deposit for removal of abandoned platforms is being proposed to help incentivize platform owners to remove structures once they are no longer in use.
Section 4 - Fire
• Most ambulance fees increase by 6.24% percent based on the CPI for Medical. Additionally, ambulance fees have been adjusted to show a split between work performed within the service area and work performed outside the service area. These fees are deposited into the Emergency Medical Services Fund.
• The Hazardous Use Permit has been renamed to the Operational Use Permit and increased. A new fee for the re-inspection related to fire prevention code violations and increases to the false alarm fees are included. Revenue from these fees is deposited into the General Fund.
Section 5 - Legal
• The burden rates for staff research have been adjusted to reflect updated employee costs for FY 2027 in an effort to achieve cost recovery.
Section 6 - Police
• No proposed changes.
Section 7 - Community Planning and Development, Development Services
• Most Development Services fees are increased by either ENR or CPI-U. Most of these fees are receipted to the Utility Fund or Transportation Fund. Two new fees have been added related to traffic signal shutdown.
Section 7 - Public Works, Utility
• Fees are mostly adjusted based on either the CPI-U or the ENR rate and are receipted to the Utility, Extra Capacity Facilities (SDC), Streetlight, or Transportation funds.
Section 7 - Airport, Public Works
• Most fees will remain flat with some market adjustments for vehicle parking and fee adjustments based on the CPI. Revenues from these fees are receipted into the Airport Fund.
Section 8 - Community Services
• Community Services completed a fee study in FY 2026. After input from the Finance Committee on the methodology and results of the fee study, a mid-year rate adjustment to some Community Services fees occurred. Fees for FY 2027 use the mid-year adjusted amounts as a base and apply the methodology identified in the study to determine updated fee amounts.
• As in prior years, to avoid mid-season adjustments, most youth recreation and softball fees are proposed to effective January 1, 2027, except when noted as being effective July 1, 2026. Park Facility and Special Event fees are effective July 1, 2026.
• The Court-Ordered Community Service Fee is being removed from the schedule.
• Some Recreation fees have increased by the CPI-U rate.
• New facility / space rental fees in Recreation include the distinction based on the number of people for the planned event (50 people or less and more than 50 people). Fees related to site-specific shelters and picnic locations have been consolidated
• New fees related to farmer’s markets based on the number of planned vendors.
• Center50+ life long learning fees are mostly flat, with an increase by the CPI for some fitness classes and room rentals. There are also some new fees due to changes in units along with new fees related to fitness room rentals based on the day of the week.
• The Salem Public Library has a new fee for color photocopying and has increased fees for non-resident card holders and room rentals by the CPI.
BACKGROUND:
Many City departments have a schedule of fees or charges to support services provided to the community. In the past, departments would present individual staff reports and recommendations of a fee resolution to City Council. In preparation for FY 2027, similar to the past six years, this action is managed through a single resolution with a combined presentation of fees and charges.
Kelli Blechschmidt
Management Analyst II
Attachments:
1. Resolution No. 2026-18
2. Resolution No. 2026-18, Exhibit A