Hold a public hearing to adopt the 2022-23 Master Fee Resolution and approve changes to the Yolo County Master Fee Schedule for the Agriculture, Assessor Clerk Recorder Elections, Board of Supervisors, Community Service, and Sheriff departments. (General fund revenue impact: $124,469) (Haynes/Estrada)

This item presents the proposed update to the Master Fee Resolution for fiscal year 2022-23, incorporating fee changes for the Agriculture, Assessor Clerk Recorder Elections, Board of Supervisors, Community Services, and Sheriff's departments.
 
The Master Fee Resolution, first adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1991, includes an estimated 1,300 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 28, 2022.  The sections below describe in further detail the proposed fee changes in the 2022-23 Master Fee Resolution. 
 
Agriculture

The Yolo County Department of Agriculture is proposing a fee increase to the Phytosanitary field certification fee.  These fees are to recover costs for staff to certify commodities that are slated for foreign export. Each year the department inspects seed fields for numerous companies that request certification and each field is walked on a statistical inspection protocol adopted by CDFA.  Currently, the fee for inspection is $13.00/acre and the proposed fee would increase the fee to $17.00/acre with a 1 acre minimum.  Based on data from 2019-2021, the department anticipates a revenue increase of approximately $56,000 with these changes.  With this revision, the department is also proposing to eliminate the fee for the Phytosanitary Inspection/Observation for less than 1 acre.  The last revision for Phytosanitary field certification fees occurred in December of 2018. It should be noted that the proposed fee increase does not achieve full cost recovery, so additional fee increases are anticipated in the future to increase the cost recovery percentage.

Business and Professions Code 12240 allows for the County to collect device registration fees and, under subparts of the statute, set a maximum fee limit for commercial devices under the authority of the County Sealer.  To better mirror Business and Professions Code 12240, the department is proposing elimination of the commercial device fee for Class II Scales and instead combine the Class II device fee with the section titled “Weighing devices 100 lbs. – 2,000 lbs.” This change will allow the department to better mirror the maximum fee set for Class II devices; however, it will also result in a loss of revenue of approximately $1,000.

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:

 

The Planning Commission Appeal Fee under the Board of Supervisors section has been deleted from the Master Fee schedule. This appeal fee should have been deleted as this fee was replaced with the new fee study implemented on December 7, 2021 and added under the Planning division in the Community Services Department.

In 2019 the Environmental Health Services Division (EHD) engaged Wohlford Consulting to conduct an objective analysis of the full costs incurred by the County in support of the Consumer Protection, Hazardous Materials and Land Use programs. In order to ensure accuracy and establish a clear nexus between the cost of services and 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 some fees to achieve full cost recovery. Most of these fee increases were presented at that time as part of a multi-year plan to increases EHS fees to support the full cost of the EHD programs.

This year Wohlford Consulting was engaged to refresh the 2019 fee study utilizing costs presented in the fiscal year 22/23 approved budget.  As a result of this analysis, the department is proposing changes to the Consumer Protection, Land Use and Hazardous Materials fees. 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. The EHD estimates $284,594 in additional annual fee revenue should the proposed fee increases be approved.

Notwithstanding, some of the environmental health programs remain underfunded because the current fees in some areas are less than the full cost of service. Because Yolo County is committed to creating an environment where businesses can succeed, small incremental increases in annual permit fees are favored over large increases when it is determined the fees are below the full cost of service. Therefore, where 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.  For those fees which are one-time only, such as plan check review, fees are proposed to be increased directly to full cost recovery. Although the current year’s budget will be balanced if the fees being requested are approved, it is important to note that in order to reach a point of full cost recovery, many proposed fees are still less than the full cost of service and will require additional 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 cover the full cost recovery of fees.

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 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.

Notable fee changes include a 22.9% increase to the hourly rate from $174 to $214 per hour, an increase of 22% to change of ownership for public water system permits from $1,135 per permit to $1,386 per permit, a 22% increase to the fee to request a plan review for a water system from $2,139 to $2,612 per application and a 132% increase to the Water Permit amendment fee for Public Water Systems increasing the fee from $658 per permit to $1,528 per permit.

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.  As discussed above, the increases will be incremental to minimize the impact to businesses and will require many years to reach full cost recovery for this program. 

Notable fee increases include a 47% increase to Hazardous Waste Generators Inspection Fees for waste on a farm less than 5 tons from $106 per facility to $156 per facility, a 21% increase in the hourly rate from $190 to $230, and a 20% increase to the Recyclable Only Waste Generator fee from $238 per facility to $287 per facility. 

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.  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. 

Planning & Public Works

Wohlford Consulting was similarly utilized to conduct an objective analysis of the full costs incurred in support of the Planning and Engineering services for which the County charges user fees.  The fee revisions submitted for the December 6^th, 2022 Master Fee update is the Year 2 implementation. The Planning and Public Works divisions notified customers of the proposed fee changes with email distribution lists to customers who have used our services over the last 18 months, as well as posted printed copies at the front desk for potential customers. If approved, the proposed fee adjustment are estimated to generate an additional $64,375 per year for the General Fund. 

Both deposit and flat rate fees are currently far below the actual costs of service, requiring increases in all fees. There are generally two types of fees: deposit and flat rate. A multi-year fee increase plan is proposed, as described below. With deposit fees, applicants pay a deposit at the time of application, and costs (including staff time and consultant costs) are charged based on actual cost. If the amount on deposit gets depleted the applicant will be asked to submit additional funds on deposit. Any remaining funds will be refunded to the applicant after project approval or when the project is withdrawn. As a result, there is no real change in the cost to applicants beyond the hourly rate increase approved by the Board of Supervisors on December 7^th, 2021. 

Flat rate fees are fees that apply a single fixed fee for service. The Planning division’s actual cost of service are generally much higher than the current adopted fees for flat rate fees, necessitating an increase. However, the Yolo County procedure for Incremental Fee Increases which accompanies the County of Yolo Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual, Policy on Cost Recovery and Fees encourages a smoothing affect to make large fee increases over time, so the fee payor is not unduly burdened. Therefore, staff proposes a 3-year stepped increase plan for flat rates. In some cases, the percentage increase is quite high, however the actual dollar amount is reasonable.

The Lot Line Adjustment fees (3 in total) were changed back to deposit fee due to the wide range of variances after each project was completed. After FY21-22 year-end, the fiscal team analyzed the projects associated with this fee and realized this fee highly fluctuates because of additional time needed.

Notable fee increases include the Business License fee as it saw an increase of 38%, taking the Business License Fee from $212 per license to $294 per license.  Another increase worth noting is the increase to the Business License Renewal fee.  The fee increased approximately 32%, taking the fee per license from $62 to $82.  The division also proposed a 42% increase to the Zoning Clearance fee which updates the fee for zoning clearance from a $141 flat fee to $201.

During the fee analysis, several fee structures were analyzed and found that the fees being collected didn’t align well with the way in which the costs to administer them were accrued. For example, the County Surveyor’s Certificate of Compliance or Record of Survey take a substantial amount of review for the first sheet and significantly less for additional pages; therefore staff has restructured the fee to have a much higher fee for the first sheet and a much-reduced fee for each additional. This restructuring will continue to result in full cost recovery but apportions the fee more fairly across the permit applications.

A review of each permit and the professional standard of care necessary for oversight showed that fees needed to be increased by way of a 3-year phasing plan as recommended in the County Incremental Fee Increase procedure.

Notable increases in the Public Works Division include an increase of $90 to the Ministerial Public Works Review Fee.  This was an increase of 33%; updating the fee from $270 to $360.  Also, the fee for a Parade, Race and Assemblage permit increased from $134 to $218 resulting in an increase of approximately 63%.

Sheriff

The Sheriff’s Office is requesting to update the current Master Fee Schedule to reflect changes to the Fee Title language for Administering a Full Probate Estate, Administering a Small Estate, and Summary Administration of Estate as determined by the California Judicial Council Adjustment DE-300 and Senate Bill 928, Chapter 151.  Adjustment DE-300 increases the maximum dollar values of a decedent’s estate for determining eligibility for administration from $166,250 to $184,500, effective as of April 1, 2022.  The amount of the adjustment is based on the United States city average of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban consumers for the three-year period ending December 31, 2021.  Senate Bill 928, Chapter 151 amends Section 7666 of the Probate Code increasing the minimum compensation the public administrator is entitled to from $1,000 to $3,000 during the Administration of a Small Estate or Summary Administration of an Estate.

As a result of these updates, it is estimated that the Public Administrator will realize an increase of $10,000 in revenue per year.

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.