During the July 28 meeting, the Board discussed the need to provide additional policy guidance on significant fee increases that attempted to recoup full cost recovery over an extended period of time. As a result of this discussion, staff revised its cost recovery and fees policy (Attachment C). To assist departments and to ensure that the direction and intent of the Board is accurately implemented, the Department of Financial Services developed a supporting procedure document that will be distributed to staff once this policy is approved.
Below is a summary of proposed fee changes by department.
Agriculture Department
Each year the agriculture department issues Phytosanitary Certificates for commodities to enter both domestic and foreign commerce. These certificates (through inspection of the proposed shipment “lot”) attest to the freedom of pathogens, weeds and insects, which may be detrimental to agriculture, are not shipped to areas, regions and countries where they do not occur. Certificates for shipments within the United States are issued under the authority of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and foreign shipments under a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The fee increase is proposed to recover costs, based on the revised department hourly rate, associated with the issuance of the certificates. Analysis of data shows our department expends $30.82 per certificate and our current fee is $22.00 per certificate. The proposed increase would bring the cost to $30 per certificate. The increase in revenue will vary from year to year based on exports (fiscal 14/15 issuance of 6530 certificates would equate to $52,240 in additional revenue to recover costs). The last increase for the certificates was July, 2014.
Another component of phytosanitary certification is inspection of crops during the growing period. Each year the department inspects seed fields for numerous companies that request certification. Each field is walked on a statistical inspection protocol adopted by CDFA. The sites are inspected, depending on commodity, two to three times during the season at the prescribed growth stage. Currently, our fee for inspection is $7.00/acre (one acre minimum) for the season. The proposed fee would increase the amount to $10.00/acre (one acre minimum). An analysis of fiscal year 14/15 showed that the actual cost per acre for inspection was $10.52/acre. Based on fiscal 14/15 acreage (22,568), the department anticipates a revenue increase of $67,704. Revenues would vary as requests for inspection and acres are not static. The last revision for the field inspection fee was done in July 2014.
The department has sent an outreach letter to clients that will be impacted by these proposed fee changes.
The overall annual revenue expected for these updates is $119,944.
Planning, Public Works and Environmental Services (PPWES)
Integrated Waste Management Division
The division operates as a self-supporting enterprise fund and depends on revenue from disposal and recycling services, and permit fees to fund most of its programs, including operating the Yolo County Central Landfill (landfill), and Esparto Convenience Center (transfer station). The division staff provides some landfill services; however, we also contract with outside companies to operate some of the facilities which provide the varied services provided to the division’s landfill, transfer station and curbside collection customers.
Since April 2015, when the division last revised its fees, economic forces out of PPWES’s control have dramatically reduced the value of recycled commodities. Revenue from the sale of these commodities is required by the division, as well as many of our contractors to cover operating expenses. The division’s construction and demolition facility contractor is requesting an increase to their payment rate for mixed construction and demolition (C&D) debris due to the significant drop in the rate received for wood debris, which in turn requires the division to raise its tip fees for commercial loads for this material.
The division’s payment rates for recycling metal appliances, such as refrigerators, washers and dryers has also decreased significantly (from $50 to $10 per ton), requiring a tip fee increase from $5.00 to $9.00 per appliance at both the landfill and Esparto transfer station.
In addition, new legislation (AB 1826), which mandates businesses to recycle their organic waste on and after April 1, 2016, requires the division to expand our yard waste diversion program to include food waste. This law requires that on and after January 1, 2016, all local jurisdictions implement an organic waste recycling program to divert organic waste generated by businesses, including multifamily residential dwellings that consist of five or more units. Organic waste means food waste, green waste, landscape and pruning waste, nonhazardous wood waste, and food-soiled paper waste that is mixed in with food waste. Implementing this expanded organics program will require an increase in the tip fees for yard waste, plus two new fees, one for yard waste mixed with food waste and a second for food waste only. The division proposes to increase yard waste fees from $36 to $39 per ton for commercial vehicles (8%), and set the new fees at $53 for mixed food/yard waste and $62.75 for food waste. Food waste is currently disposed in the landfill at a tip fee of $49 per ton, which equates to a fee increase of 28%.
The passage of the California Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act aims to reduce illegal dumping, increase recycling, and substantially reduce public agency costs for the end-of-use management of used mattresses and box springs. The legislation established an industry-run, statewide program to increase the recovery and recycling of mattresses and box springs at their end-of-use. Consumers pay a fee when they purchase a mattress and/or box spring; a portion of the prepaid recycling fee is used to reimburse landfills for recycling the mattresses and box springs from these facilities. Therefore, division proposes to eliminate the $5.00 fee on each mattress/box spring and accept them for free at both the landfill and transfer station. If approved, this fee change will simply exclude mattresses from the existing bulky waste – household furnishing fee item in our master fee schedule. The other new mattresses fees listed at no charge establishes a master fee schedule place holder and allows the landfill division to utilize the state’s prepaid recycling fee program.
The proposed landfill fees will increase landfill revenue by approximately $233,000. This is an average fee change of 10%, and represents 2.3% of the landfill fee revenue for FY 2015-16. However, approximately $226,000 is a pass through to the landfill’s contractor.
Adoption of the proposed fees will allow the division to:
- Increase the tip fees for commercial loads of C&D and organic materials including food waste as well as household metal appliances to fully recover costs for these services; and
- Remove the fees for mattresses and box springs to encourage recycling of these items.
The Integrated Waste Management Division outreach effort included discussing landfill and transfer station fee changes with the Waste Advisory Committee (including its Industry, City and UCD representatives), explaining how the proposed higher rates are due to new regulatory requirements and revenue losses from lower market rates.
The department’s proposed fee changes are expected to generate $233,162 in annual revenue.
Probation Department
The department’s Global Positioning System (GPS)/Electronic Monitoring Fee recovers the cost of monitoring probationers through a third-party GPS unit as part of terms and conditions of probation or in-lieu of being placed in the Juvenile Detention Facility. Specifically, this fee update includes the cost of setting up the GPS unit, monitoring the probationer’s whereabouts, making contact with probationers when needed, the time associated with violations and the removal/recovery of the GPS unit.
In preparing this fee update, Probation conducted a month-long time study of the GPS program and developed a new approach in determining the cost of this service, which resulted in a $30 per day to $18 per day fee reduction. Actual revenue collected by Probation varies based on the population on GPS monitoring and the probationer’s ability to pay the fees.
The department estimates a revenue decline of $2,089 per fiscal year, which is expected to be offset by unanticipated increases in state juvenile justice revenue appropriations.
Effective Date
With the exception of the Probation fee, which will take effect immediately, all other fees will take effect on January 1, 2016. |