HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY
There are thirty-two fees being deleted. These fees represent services that are no longer provided by the department and are being removed to bring the fee schedule into alignment with these changes.
The Yolo Emergency Medical Services Agency (YEMSA) continues to enhance service levels and improve compliance for emergency services within the county. The updated fees are based on a conservative time estimate of 15 minutes to process late fees or replacements cards along with related correspondence and mailings. Expenses have been updated to reflect current departmental operating expenses, overhead, and rising personnel costs.
The total general fund revenue projected for these updated fees is $480.
PLANNING, PUBLIC WORKS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
Environmental Health Services Division
The Nitrate Lab Fee is a Regional Lab pass through fee so there is no impact to county revenues. The price reduction from $30 to $27 allows the Yolo County Master Fee Schedule to become aligned with the Regional Lab adopted fee amount. The fee covers the cost of Nitrate water testing.
SHERIFF
The Sheriff’s Office will be updating the dog and cat licensing fees for its Animal Services Section. A fee study was completed by the Sheriff’s Finance Section in order to determine what indirect and direct costs the Sheriff’s Office incurs to provide licensing services, and if the income derived from the fee charged for said services is adequate to cover the office’s actual cost. An addition of $1.50 authorized by Health and Safety Code 121650 was included in this calculation to reflect the increasing costs associated with rabies control.
Animal Services provides various medical services, licensing, and regulatory activities for which charges can be levied on the actual user of the service, rather than on the general public through taxes. Whereas Penal or Food and Agriculture Codes set the fees for some services, Government Code §§ 54985-54987 gives the County Board of Supervisors the authority to revise fees not set by other provisions of law in order to “recover the cost of enforcing any regulation for which the fee or charge is levied. The fee or charge may reflect the average cost of providing any product or service enforcing any regulation.”
A time study was performed at the shelter to determine the typical time requirement for the complete processing of a dog or cat license. Staff salaries, services and supplies, and overhead were then calculated to a productive hourly rate. This hourly rate was then multiplied by the number of average minutes needed to perform the service to calculate the Office’s actual cost of providing the service. The actual cost was then compared to the current fee charged. In this instance, the licensing fee for an altered dog or cat will increase to $19.00 per year, which is adequate to recover costs and in line with the licensing fees charged by other local agencies. Per Food and Agricultural Code 30804.5, the fee for altered animals shall be “one half or less of the fee required for a dog, if a certificate is presented from a licensed veterinarian if the dog has been spayed or neutered.” Therefore, the licensing fee for unaltered animals shall increase to $38.00 per year.
Based on the recommendations, an increase of $94,812 in revenue is expected for the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
BACKGROUND OF INCREMENTAL FEE INCREASE STRATEGY
In 2007 Planning and Public Works hourly rate was $105 per hour; however, since planning fees had not increased since 2005 the department began to fall behind in recovering the actual hourly cost of providing services. An updated cost study analysis in 2008 estimated the department’s hourly planning rate to be $151 per hour. At the time staff determined that a 44 percent increase in the hourly rate would be too high an increase for clients to absorb. As a result, staff recommended to the Board an incremental fee increase approach. This strategy would allow the department to achieve full cost-recovery over a multi-year period, starting with a 20% increase in the first year. This Board-approved plan was implemented by the department until the great recession, when reduced staffing and overhead cost in 2009-10 caused the hourly rate to decrease to $120. Since then, the department has implemented an incremental approach to increasing its hourly rate, which has been guided by the Board's past preference to try and limit fee increases to 10% whenever feasible.
In 2014-15 the Environmental Health Services Division (EHS), which had recently been transferred from Public Health to Planning and Public Works, updated its Wohlford Consulting study to reflect the new projected costs for 2015-16. In addition to reflecting the new organizational structure, the fee study included cost increases associated with staffing and Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB). On February 24, 2015 the Board received a report from EHS on full cost versus reasonable cost recovery for fees. After extensive discussion the Board approved an EHS fee increase plan to achieve improved cost recovery over time. This incremental fee approach was based on the success of the planning fees noted previously, the Board preference to limit the impact associated with high fee increases from one year to the next, and a Cost and Fees Recovery Policy approved in 2011 (described below). On May 5, 2015 the Board approved EHS changes to the master fee schedule consistent with this incremental fee approach. A full listing of these fees with expected incremental ending dates and a projected revenue shortfall for 2015-16 that will be offset by the general fund is provided in Attachment C.
Although this incremental fee increase approach has been used informally by departments since its initial use in 2008, this strategy is consistent with the Cost and Fees Recovery Policy approved by the Board on June 7, 2011 which states, in part:
Except for fees, fines or penalties that are fixed by law, fee rates shall be set to sufficiently recover, in the long-run, all and only actual full costs incurred by the County, directly or indirectly, and consistent with long-term cost trends.
During the last master fee update the Board indicated an interest to revisit this issue to determine if a more formal incremental fee increase policy should be established. |