The City of Brea provides a wide range of services which are of general benefit to the public. Examples of these are the maintenance of streets and parks, and police, fire and paramedic response. The City also provides a number of services that benefit a specific user or users of those services.
When a service that is provided benefits a particular user of that service, it is appropriate to charge a fee to recover all or a portion of the cost of providing that service. When the full cost of providing that service is not recovered from the user, it is necessary to subsidize the cost of that service by using general tax dollars that would otherwise be available to support fundamental City-wide services. The application of user fees is not only an issue of equity in terms of who bears the financial burden for program and service costs, but is also good budget practice in that it better addresses the cost of conducting business in a changing environment.
During preparation of the FY 2020-21 Budget, all City user fees were evaluated based upon an analysis of the cost of providing the service, date of last review and/or update, and demand for the program or service relative to resources necessary to provide said program or service. Staff is recommending adding certain user fees for the applicable programs and services as delineated in Exhibit A to the proposed resolution. The addition of these fees was discussed with the City Council during the Budget Workshop conducted on June 2, 2020 and are summarized below:
Sidewalk Vendor Permit Fee
Per the City’s Sidewalk Vending Policy adopted on October 1, 2019 with Ordinance No. 1210, requires sidewalk vendors to comply with the policy as well as obtain a sidewalk vendor permit. The proposed fee amount of $20.00 reflects the estimated cost for an Account Technician l/ll position to process the permit. This includes explaining the requirements of the policy to customer, verifying permit for completeness, updating database, processing payment and mailing sidewalk vendor sticker(s) to customer. Implementing this fee would offset costs associated to processing the permit. The permit is currently be processed at no cost to the customer. Staff do not anticipate a high volume of permits at this time.
Current Fee: $0.00
Proposed Fee: $20.00
Parking Citation Payment Plan Implementation Fee
Assembly Bill 503 went into effect July 1, 2018 which allows for parking ticket recipients to pay for citation fines via an optional payment plan. The parking citation vendor, Turbo Data Systems, bills the Police Services Department processing fees for each approved payment plan, plus postage for mailing the notice. Implementing this new user fee would partially offset the costs billed to department for the payment plan processing and US postage. California law limits the processing fee to participate in a payment plan to $5.00 for indigent persons, as defined in Section 68632 of the Government Code. The ability to offer a payment plan option provides a greater opportunity to collect citation fees. The City anticipates that approximately 10-20 people may take advantage of this payment plan option annually.
Current Fee: $0.00
Proposed Fee: $10.50 (Standard plans); $5.00 (Indigent plans)
To maintain a sound fiscal plan, it is important that fees be reviewed and/or updated on a regular basis. The regular review process is currently applied for all City fees during each budget process to ensure that no fee goes unexamined for a long period of time. Doing so ensures that the City of Brea is keeping pace with internal and external changes that create a financial impact upon City programs and services.
All fee additions will be effective July 1, 2020. |