The Board adopted the 2019-20 Master Fee resolution on June 26, 2019. Since that time, departments have identified the need for new fees and certain fee revisions. In total, 114 existing fees are proposed for revision, eight new fees are proposed to be added to the Master Fee schedule, and one fee is proposed to be deleted. The sections below describe the proposed fee changes and rationale for each department.
Agriculture
The Yolo County Department of Agriculture is proposing new fees to cover anticipated costs to monitor and inspect Industrial Hemp. Current law (FAC 81006) and regulation (CCR 4940, 4941, 4950) designate the Agricultural Commissioner as the office responsible for reviewing documents and plans and conducting site inspections in relation to the registration, sampling and crop destruction of Industrial Hemp. The department hourly rate of $123/hour is being proposed for this work and because this is a new program the total revenue impact cannot be determined at this time.
In addition, the Department of Agriculture is proposing an increase in our hourly fees to conduct annual Organic inspections and review associated documentation to assure clients meet NOP (National Organic Program) certification requirements. The increase from $118.00/hour to $123.00/hour is simply an adjustment to our current department hourly rate. Based on current clientele (68) no significant impact is anticipated as revenue from this increase will be less than $1,500.00/year.
The Department of Agriculture is also proposing to adjust the commercial device testing fees to be consistent with the Schedule of Uniform Fees that went into effect on June 1, 2018. Currently, the California Business and Professions Code 12210.5 requires that charges for testing commercial devices be based upon a uniform schedule of fees established by the California Department of Food & Agriculture and be comparable with rates charged by a Registered Service Agency. Since these types of inspections are rare the proposed fee adjustment will not have a significant impact (increased revenue) to the department budget. Also, to remain consistent with changes in Business and Professions Code 12240 the Department of Agriculture is proposing a new fee for devices classified as Class II Weighing devices (new device category) and a separate fee for Computing devices. These changes went into effect January 1, 2019 and are not expected to have a significant impact on the department budget.
Community Services
Environmental Health Services Division
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. In order 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 some fees higher to achieve full cost recovery.
At this time EHD is proposing changes to the Consumer Protection, Land Use and Hazardous Materials fees. Part of this analysis was looking at a potential new fee structure for the Hazardous Materials Business Plan (HMBP) fees. More outreach and analysis is needed before moving forward with this new fee structure. The EHD plans to bring this the proposed fee structure for the HMBP fees to the Board during the next Master Fee update in May/June 2020.
The EHD continues to experience increases in costs with each fiscal year, mainly due to an increase in employee costs such as Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA), “Other Post-Employment Benefits” (OPEB), and insurance costs. EHD estimates $90,165 in additional fee revenue should the proposed fee increases be approved. The revenue generated will be used to sustain mandated services and reduce reliance on the County’s general fund.
Reasonable efforts have been made to reduce or retain costs within the Division, including using special non-fee funds to purchase replacement vehicles. Also, additional revenues have been secured with contract services and grants.
Notwithstanding, some of the Environmental Health programs remain underfunded because the current fees in some program 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 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 $50.00 which represents a reasonable incremental increase. An exemption to this is for fees that are one time fees such as plan check fees for new food facilities. These onetime fees are being increased to full cost.
Although the current year’s budget will remain balanced if the fees being requested are approved, it is important to note that in order to reach a point of full-cost recovery, additional fee increases will be required in the future. For the current fiscal year, a combination of salary savings, prior year fund balance, 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. The overall cost recovery is now at about 95% and the range of cost recovery is between 31% to 100% of 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, prior year fund balance, and general fund.
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. Many of the fees that are increasing this year were noted last year as needing to have future fee increases.
Health & Human Services Agency
The Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA) is proposing increases to a number of Mental Health, Public Health and Public Guardian fees.
On an annual basis, the County submits a mental health cost report in order to receive Medi-Cal reimbursement for services provided by the County. The Department of Health Care Services reimburses the County based the published rates that have been approved by the Board. The proposed mental health fees are based on the actual per-unit cost of outpatient services calculated in the most recent mental health cost report from fiscal year 2017-18.
HHSA is also proposing several fee changes related to Emergency Medical Services (EMS), including yearly ambulance permits and application review for the operation of various emergency response training programs. The costs for the application review were calculated by determining the total cost of productive staff time in reviewing applications, divided by the quantity of applications historically received. Proposed fee rates for each application type were then determined by comparing the cost calculations with the fees assessed by other EMS county agencies of similar size, and making reductions to remain competitive. While some of the proposed fee increases are substantial, they are in line with the fee rates charged by comparable counties. In addition, an existing fee for EMT Optional Scope Accreditation is proposed to be deleted, as the County does not provide this service. The proposed EMS fee changes are estimated to generate an additional $3,400 per year for the Emergency Medical Services Fund.
Finally, HHSA is proposing to increase the hourly rate for Public Guardian conservator management services. The hourly rate for Public Guardian has not been increased in several years, and is well below the full cost of service. The proposed increase begins to increase the fee toward the full cost of service, and is estimated to generate approximately $32,000 per year for the general fund. |