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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/11/1987 Meeting M I NUT E S e Eugene City Council Lunch/Work Session McNutt Room--City Hall February 11, 1987 11 : 30 a. m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Debra Ehrman, Freeman Holmer, Ruth Bascom, Robert Bennett, Jeff Miller, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue, Cynthia Wooten. I. PROPOSED POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR USER FEES AND CHARGES The work session was called to order by His Honor Mayor Brian B. Obie. Finance Director Warren Wong presented the staff report. Mr. Wong said the proposed policy framework for user fees and charges described the responsibilities of the City Council and City Manager. He said the fees and charges would be established based on a cost-of-services study that included both direct and indirect costs. e Mr. Wong said the proposal would mean that most fees and charges would be set through the annual budget process. He said levels of property tax subsidy, if any, could be discussed and set during the budget process. Mr. Wong noted that special policies, such as low-income and senior-citizen deferrals or fees or charges regulated by law would come before the council. He also said the City Council at any time could request information from the City Manager on a specific user fee or charge. Mr. Wong said administrative implementation of the policy framework would occur as part of the cost-of-services study, and the resulting user fee/charge adjustments would appear in each yearl s budget. He reviewed agenda attachments and noted that financial management policies adopted last March had provided for recovery of full service costs wherever possible. Mayor Obie asked whether the City Council favored delegating responsibility for determining the level of public subsidy to the Budget Committee. City Manager Mike Gleason said some fees currently were presented to the City Council, while others were not. He said the policy framework would serve as a guide in fee decisions. Mr. Miller said he thought a work session was needed to decide the relationship between the Budget Committee and the City Council. He said involving the Budget Committee in decisions would require informing and educating Budget Committee members. Mr. Holmer said he favored allowing the Budget Committee to examine fee schedules and listening to the comments of 1 ay members. Mr. Bennett asked whether staff usually provided scenarios of different user fee levels. Mr. Gleason said the usual process was for an executive budget recommendat i on to be presented to a Budget Committee subcommittee, with e MINUTES--City Council Lunch/Work Session February 11, 1987 Page 1 e revenues in the recommendation based on proposed fees. He said the subcommittee could request additional scenarios during its examination of whether expenses were appropriate. Responding to questions from Mr. Bennett, Mr. Gleason said maximum building permit fees were established by State code, which the City then administered. Mr. Gleason added that most other permits were not regulated, and he said swimming pool fees usually allowed recovery of about 30 percent of costs, because of the marginal cost curve. Mayor Obie asked about the rationale for including fee adjustments in the annual budget process. Mr. Gleason said he thought an annual adjustment of fees when dealing with financial issues would be preferable to "catching up" by raising fees every few years. He said he wanted to establish policy guidelines for departments to use in setting fees. Members reviewed the council IS policy responsibilities in items A.1, 2, and 3. Mr. Rutan said he thought the responsibilities should include consideration of whether services should be provided by the public, as well as examining the extent and scope of services. Responding to Mr. Rutanls question, staff said a spay and neuter clinic was operated by the City. Mr. Rutan said he had received a comment from a citizen that the City was losing money on the clinic and that the service should be provided privately. Mr. Rutan said he thought such factors should be included in the policies. Mr. Gleason said the proposed policies would allow concerns about specific fees to be addressed as separate work items. e Mr. Bennett asked about the direction to be given the Budget Committee. Mr. Wong said the council could identify fees or categories of fees, and staff would present i nformat i on from the cost-of-servi ces study and management report for a determination of subsidies or exemptions. Mr. Miller asked about the degree of involvement expected from the Budget Committee and noted that more involvement would require efforts to inform Budget Committee members. Ms. Ehrman said she thought Budget Committee members were well-informed about decisions. Mr. Bennett asked how the levels of fees were determined. Mr. Gleason said a cost-of-services study and a comparative analysis was made, special characteristics and product quality and scope were considered, and a recommendation was made. He said efforts now were becoming more systematic than they had been in the past. Mr. Holmer said he favored a resolution as proposed by staff with one amendment in the area of administrative implementation. He suggested that the report of changes to be given to the council one month prior to fee or charge adjustments (Item B.1) also include the reasons for those changes. Mr. Rutan asked for councilors. thoughts about including in policies review of the appropriateness of some services and their scopes. Mr. Miller said he agreed with allowing review. Ms. Wooten said she thought it was inappropriate to review the function of services during discussions about fee levels. She said she thought service reviews should be part of departmentsl programming processes. Ms. Schue said she agreed that review might be appropriate, but she was not sure that review could be included in the policy framework. Ms. e MINUTES--City Council Lunch/Work Session February 11, 1987 Page 2 . e e Wooten suggested doing a program performance audit or review on a phased, quarterly basis. Mr. Bennett agreed with that suggestion. Mr. Gleason agreed to present the council with a resolution and a list of fees. He said the council could identify fees for which cost-of-services information would be provided, and other fees then would proceed through the budget process. Mayor Obie said he understood that any new major fees would be presented to the City Council. Mayor Obie announced that the City Council would reconvene in the Council Chamber at 12:15 p.m. The meeting was recessed at 12:10 p.m. R~!~ '/~ ~ Micheal Gleason City Manager ..;, (Recorded by Leslie Scales) mncc0211 MINUTES--City Council Lunch/Work Session February 11, 1987 Page 3