TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH: Keith Stahley, City Manager
FROM: Josh Eggleston, Chief Financial Officer
SUBJECT:
title
Proposed FY 2024 Fee Schedule
Ward(s): All Wards
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): All Neighborhoods
Result Area(s): Good Governance
end
SUMMARY:
summary
Every year, the City of Salem produces a fee schedule for easy accessibility to the community where various departmental fees are located in one document. Departments work with the Finance Department to produce this document and it is adopted annually in June prior to the new fiscal year.
end
ISSUE:
Shall the City Council adopt Resolution No. 2023-15, setting fees and charges for the City of Salem as set forth in Exhibit A to Resolution No. 2023-15?
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Adopt Resolution No. 2023-15, setting fees and charges for the City of Salem as set forth in Exhibit A to Resolution No. 2023-15.
body
FACTS AND FINDINGS:
The City of Salem offers and performs certain services where the cost is borne by those receiving the service. Fees and charges support the direct provision of services. The services include 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 usage, building permitting and inspections, parking rent, and apartment licensing.
The FY 2024 recommended budget estimates $182.5 million from 76 revenue types and over 1,500 individual fees. Revenues generated from fees and charges represent over 20 percent of budgeted City revenues across all funds anticipated in the upcoming fiscal year. Fees are typically increased based on a market adjustment, Consumer Price Index - Urban (CPI-U) all items west region rate (December to December change) or Engineering News Record rate (December to December change) unless otherwise noted. The rates for CPI-U and ENR are 6.25 percent and 7.19 percent respectively. Below is a summary of some of the proposed changes by document section.
Section 1 - Non - Departmental
• An increase to the City Operations Fee is proposed to occur two times next fiscal year: once on July 1, 2023 and again on January 1, 2024. In July, the fee would increase by $5.50 for residential utility accounts, $4.40 for multifamily and $26.51 for commercial/industrial/public and institutional accounts. This increase is based on the proposed Safe and Secure Community funding proposal. Then, in January 2024, a second increase would occur for inflation of 6.25% 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 which pays for on-going services such as police, fire, parks and recreation, library, land use planning and zoning, code enforcement, municipal court, and internal services like Information Technology, Legal, Finance, and Human Resources.
Section 2 - Finance
• An increase of $5 and $9 dollars to the electronic and manual lien search fees respectively. Increases are due to cost recovery efforts with increases to charges by third party vendors and additional staff expense.
Section 3 - Community and Urban Development
• Most fees increased by CPI-U with some new fees in the Planning Division including categories for building permit review when a site plan review is not required, a fee for time extensions when notice is required, and a fee for high quality digital prints from the City’s historic photo collection.
• Parking will see $2 increases to the Liberty, Chemeketa and Marion parkades daily parking permit.
Section 4 - Fire
• After a mid-year 2023 adjustment to pre-hospital and non-emergency medical services, the increase for the upcoming year is 4.14 percent based on the CPI-W December to December increase.
Section 5 - Legal
• The burden rates for staff research have been adjusted to reflect updated employee costs for FY 2024.
Section 6 - Police
• No proposed changes
Section 7 - Public Works, Development & Utility
• Fees are mostly adjusted based on either the CPI-U rate or the ENR rate.
• New fees include Expedited Plan Review, Fire Hydrant Installation, and Water Service Abandonment.
Section 7 - Public Works, Airport
• New fees related to Commercial Air Service including ground transportation fees and advertising space fees. Additional market increases to rental car parking fees and landing fees.
Section 8 - Community Services
• Most recreation fees have increased by CPI-U at 6.25 percent.
• New fees include an expedited Daily Concession Fee, Minto Island Conservation Area Use Impact fees, and new softball league length of 20 Week / 40 Game League.
BACKGROUND:
Many City departments have a schedule of fees or charges to support services provided to the community. In past years, departments would present individual staff reports and recommendation of a fee resolution. In preparation for FY 2024, similar to the last four years, this action is managed through a single resolution with a combined presentation of fees and charges.
Kelli Blechschmidt
Management Analyst I
Attachments:
1. Resolution No. 2023-15
2. Resolution No. 2023-15, Exhibit A Proposed FY 2024 Fee Schedule