Hold a public hearing to adopt the 2023-24 Master Fee Resolution and approve changes to the Yolo County Master Fee Schedule for the Assessor Clerk Recorder Elections, Community Services, Financial Services, Library, and Sheriff departments. (General fund impact: $68,555) (Haynes/Estrada) (Est. Time: 10-12 min)

This item presents the proposed Master Fee Resolution for fiscal year 2023-24, incorporating fee changes for the Assessor/Clerk Recorder/Elections, Community Services, Financial Services, Library, and Sheriff departments.

The Master Fee Resolution, first adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1991, includes an estimated 1,350 fees and charges for services provided by County departments.  The use of a single resolution and integrated fee schedule provides for a systematic review of County fees and allows for necessary adjustments to reflect changing service delivery costs.  The Master Fee Schedule was last updated on June 27th, 2023.  The sections below describe in further detail the proposed fee changes in the 2023-24 Master Fee Resolution. 

Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Elections (ACE)
The Clerk Recorder is proposing fee increases due to an adjustment in the environmental filing fees for proposed projects requiring a Negative Declaration or Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act.  The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) imposes and collects an environmental document filing fee to defray the costs of managing and protecting California’s vast fish and wildlife resources, including but not limited to, consulting with other public agencies, reviewing environmental documents, recommending mitigation measures, and developing monitoring programs.  CDFW adjusts the filing fees annually based on changes to the implicit price deflator for State and Local Government purchases of goods and services as published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.  The proposed changes are summarized below:
 

Department of Financial Services (DFS)
The Department of Financial Services is proposing to increase the hourly rate for Internal Audit fees from its current rate of $112 per hour to the full cost recovery amount of $132 per hour.  Though this fee was updated last year, a phased increase over two years was decided due to the large impact of the potential increase.  This charge is associated with staff’s time spent conducting internal audit reviews as well as corresponding service costs. The fee increase is estimated to generate approximately $9,400 in additional revenue per year for the General Fund.


Community Services

Environmental Health Services Division
In 2019 the Environmental Health Services Division (EHD) engaged Wohlford Consulting, a fee consultant, to conduct an objective analysis of the full costs incurred by the County in support of the Consumer Protection, Hazardous Materials and Land Use services for which the County charges user fees. To ensure accuracy and establish a clear nexus between the cost of services and the fees, the study required a detailed analysis of time required for staff to provide each component of service delivery. The detailed unit cost analysis revealed a need to revise certain fees to achieve full cost recovery. This year, Wohlford Consulting refreshed the 2019 fee study utilizing costs presented in the fiscal year 2023-24 Adopted Budget.  The department is proposing changes to various Consumer Protection, Land Use and Hazardous Materials fees. 

The County continues to experience increases in costs with each fiscal year due to the recent salary increases to 100% of market, Cost of Living Allowances (COLA), “Other Post-Employment Benefits” (OPEB) and insurance costs.  EHD estimates $335,419 in additional annual fee revenue with the approval of the proposed fee increases. The revenue generated from these changes will be used to sustain minimal mandated services and reduce reliance on the County’s general fund and special non-fee funds.

Reasonable efforts have been made to reduce or retain costs within the Division, including using special non-fee funds from fines and penalties to purchase replacement vehicles.  Also, additional revenues have been secured with contract services and grants.

Notwithstanding, some of the Environmental Health programs remain underfunded due to fees in certain program areas being less than the full cost of service. Because Yolo County is committed to creating an environment where businesses can succeed, small incremental fee increases are favored over large increases until the full cost of service is recouped. Therefore, for recurring fees such as annual permits, where the full cost was determined to be greater than 10% as compared to the current fee, the proposed fee was capped at 10% or $50.00 (if the fee increase is less than $50), which represents a reasonable incremental increase. It is important to note that in order to reach a point of full cost recovery, proposed fees that remain lower than the full cost of service will require fee increases in the future.  For the current fiscal year, a combination of salary savings, available grant funds, a small amount of general fund and, where appropriate, use of fines and penalty funds are being used to offset the anticipated shortfall of revenue associated with not being able to increase fees to cover the full cost of services. For one-time fees, such as plan check fees, or fee categories for which we currently don’t have any facilities, the fees are proposed to be increased to full cost immediately.

Public Drinking Water Fees
The Public Drinking Water Program inspects and monitors public drinking water systems that have fewer than 200 connections. These systems typically serve small communities or businesses in the unincorporated area of the county. The drinking water standards require that the quality of the water provided to customers meets minimum chemical, radiological and bacteriological standards, assuring the water is safe to drink. In 2014, EHD changed the fee structure for this program. The 2014 fee revisions represented a cap of no more than a 10% fee increase for any one system.  However, it is important to note that many of these fees were significantly lower than full cost. Continued incremental increases will be required for many years in order to reach full cost recovery for this program.   To help offset this revenue shortfall, the Division utilizes cost savings and general fund.

Hazardous Materials Fees
Approximately half of the Hazardous Materials fees in the program do not currently cover the full cost of the program. To balance the budget for this program EHD has utilized funds from a restricted account which is funded by fines and penalties.  This account is restricted in that per State regulations it can only be used for Hazardous Materials Unit related costs. Due to concerns that this restricted fund will not be able to support this for much longer, those fees that are lower than full cost are proposed to be increased.  As discussed above, the increases will be incremental to minimize the impact to businesses.  As with the Public Drinking Water Fees, some of these fees will require many years to reach full cost recovery for this program. 

Other Environmental Health Programs
Based on the meticulous study of costs of services and to implement the County’s policy of full cost recovery, some fees are increasing in other environmental health programs. However, as noted earlier, to assure businesses are not unduly impacted with large fee increases, some of the fee increases were capped by EHD to an amount below full cost recovery. In these cases, the fee will need to undergo future increases while cost savings measures continue to be explored. 

Public Works Division & Planning Division:
In 2021, the Department of Community Services engaged Wohlford Consulting to conduct an objective analysis of the full costs incurred in support of the Planning and Public Works services for which the County charges user fees.  To ensure accuracy and establish a clear nexus between the cost of services and the fees, the study required a detailed analysis of time required for staff to provide each component of service delivery. The fee revisions submitted for the December 5th, 2023 Master Fee update is the Year 3 implementation.

The Planning and Public Works divisions notified customers of the proposed fee changes with email distribution lists to customers who have used these services over the last 18 months, as well posted printed copies at the front desk for potential customers.

For the Public Works Division, there are a total of fourteen (14) fee increases. Of these, five (5) of the fees will achieve full cost recovery with this year’s increase and the remaining fees will increase up to 10% or low dollar amounts.  These changes are summarized below:

For the Planning Division, most deposit and flat rate fees are currently far below the actual costs of service, requiring increases in fees. With this Year 3 implementation, there will be twelve (12) fees that achieve full cost recovery and twenty-eight (28) fees that are steadily increasing each year up to 10% until full cost recovery is achieved. These fees are summarized below:

The Major Use Permit Amendment, Major Zone Variance, Flood Variance fee used to be one combined fee on the schedule; however, with this update the department is requesting approval to split these fees into separate fees moving forward. The Proposed Fee Changes attachment will reflect this combined fee as “deleted”. However, the department worked with Innovation & Technology Services (ITS) Department to administratively separate this fee into separate fees which are also reflected in the Proposed Fee Changes attachment.  

Integrated Waste Management Division:
The Integrated Waste Management (IWM) Division is recommending a phased approach to increases in Tire Disposal fees to (1) minimize illegal dumping of tires and (2) to allow more time for IWM and CalRecycle to find alternative solutions to recycling tires on rims. Unfortunately, the current contract in place has stopped accepting tires on rims, unless the County pays significantly increased rates.  The only two options available right now are in Orland or Livermore which is significantly increasing transportation costs for everyone in the Sacramento region to accept tires on rims. To establish the phased rates, the division blended the current rate with the rate we need to recoup full costs. Although there are revenue increases projected on the Proposed Fee Changes attachment, these revenues are only slightly offsetting the costs to have a contract in place to accept tires on rims. Tire fee increases affect both the Yolo County Central Landfill and the Esparto Convenience Center.

In addition, IWM has added two new fees: RESIDENTIAL Recyclables and COMMERCIAL Recyclables to differentiate what the landfill can accept from each type of customer. The landfill is responsible for accepting residential recyclables free of charge; however, there is no responsibility to accept business recyclables. Recycling is costly so when businesses bring large loads (dump trucks, trailers, etc.) with recyclables, the landfill cannot absorb the costs to recycle these. These two fees will allow businesses to bring in large loads of recyclables while paying a low fee.

Library
In response to customer requests, the Library is proposing the addition of a fee for a tote bag branded with the Yolo County Library logo to be sold at library branches.  The proposed fees covers the full cost of the tote bag to be printed and delivered.

Sheriff
On June 29, 2023, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 564 which increased fees for the serving, executing, and processing of court documents by 25%.  These increases are scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2024.  The Sheriff’s Office is requesting to update the current Master Fee Schedule to reflect these changes. The Sheriff’s Office is required to serve civil process including wage garnishments, evictions, property levies, and other court orders, and collects the state mandated fee associated with each service. Fees collected are deposited in the Civil Process, Civil Automation Trust, and Civil Vehicle Trust Accounts, which are used to offset operating costs and purchase equipment such as vehicles and computers that are necessary for the Civil Section to function. The last major revision to these fees by the state occurred in 2015.  As a result of these updates, it is estimated that the Civil Section will realize an increase in revenue of $27,900.

The Department is also requesting to add fifteen fees for the Civil Section. While these fees are not new and are rarely used by the Sheriff’s Office, staff is requesting their addition so that the Master Fee Schedule is more accurately aligned with state law and the Fee Schedule published by the California State Sheriff’s Association for Civil fees. 

The Sheriff’s Office is requesting to add one new fee for the copying of electronically filed Civil documents. Assembly Bill 2791 requires that as of January 1, 2024, the Sheriff’s Office accept an electronic signature on a document requesting the service of court documents or other notice to be served, allowing for the public to electronically file Civil paperwork rather than in person at the Sheriff’s Office. Civil documents require one original and two copies be provided to the Sheriff’s Office at the time of filing. In the case of electronic filing, Sheriff’s Office staff will be required to make the two additional copies necessary. The $8.00 E-Filing Copy Fee adequately reflects the cost of producing these copies.

Proposed fee changes were developed and submitted by the requesting departments.  Fees were reviewed by the Department of Financial Services and County Counsel's Office.  County Counsel's Office has reviewed the Master Fee Resolution as to form.