SUPERVISORS HOLD

By Geisel

A proposed fee hike didn’t fly so high with a majority of Mono County’s Board of Supervisors during a public hearing Tuesday afternoon.
County Finance Director Brian Muir presented a staff report to the Board, part of a resolution supervisors were to consider that sought to adopt $126,353 of new or increased fees for construction, certain County permits and other services.
In comparison to rates charged in Mammoth Lakes even after the Town’s recent DIF (Development Impact Fee) reductions, Muir and staff from the County’s Building Department opined that in terms of fee rates and fairness, they consider the County’s rates “pretty fair.” Walker, for instance, has an average permit cost of roughly $6,000 to build a single-family residence.
Even though some of the new fee structure would only amount to an average increase from $255 to $384 for small businesses, some supervisors cited the current economy as reason enough to table any hikes. “These are people who are already having trouble paying their bills,” Supervisor Vikki Bauer pointed out. County staff replied the new fee only amounts to little more than $1 a day. “It’s just that it’s all those [fees] piled up on top of each other,” Bauer said.
Permit increases related to business were expected to generate $40,000 annually.
Board Chairman Bill Reid had problems with the hikes, such as $2,186 for one type of use-permit. “That just seems pretty high for something like that.” County Planning Director Scott Burns explained that the process is somewhat subjective, and that some judgment is used when calculating cost.
Supervisor Byng Hunt said he was concerned that raising fees raises issues as to the efficiency of some of the County’s departments. “It may cost us more to do something, but we may not be doing it as efficiently as possible,” Hunt said. “We should be doing what’s best for the taxpayer.”
Building Department staff argued that higher fees are a result of increased workloads. They said efficiency is up 25%, but at the same time state-ordered regulations [and work involved in meeting them] have gone up 50%.
A staunch opponent to any increases was Supervisor Tom Farnetti. “[The County] seems to be in very good financial shape, but folks out in the community are suffering. Restaurants are closing 4, 6, 8 weeks to save money,” Farnetti said. “I can’t support any fee increase this year.”
Supervisor Hap Hazard apologized for his being “all over this subject,” but ended up being more inclined to support some kind of fee hike. “Last time we adjusted fees, we put caps on some of them. These are fees charged to an actual user, and if they’re not covered that way, the taxpayers pay for them. I know some taxpayers that consider them punitive,” Hazard said. “How do we balance this thing? Maybe we could consider making smaller adjustments annually.”
Hazard indicated it was the amount of increase he was looking at. “If the economy isn’t rosy in the coming year, we’ll have to make a bigger jump,” he said. “We have to find an acceptable cap on fees that people can live with.” The problem, as he sees it: “Some fees suggested for this increase should have gone up a little the last time, instead of a lot this time.”
Bauer said she was in favor of Hazard’s thoughts on caps, but nonetheless suggested that given the situation, the Board should “take the hit in the General Fund for right now.”
“There are dollars attached to it, but it’s also philosophical to me,” Reid said. “The economy is critical to the decision. $126,000 … at this time I’d call [not increasing fees] a contribution to the business community. We need to show the people that we’re cognizant of what they’re going through.” Reid went on to add he’d rather see a one-year moratorium on increases, saying he knows it means that may lead to some steeper fee increases later, but was betting on the economy improving in the next couple of years.
Hunt replied that he was concerned about the future as well, and urged a small increase of some kind to offset what he thought could be rough times ahead. Bauer said she took Hunt’s point, but ultimately agreed with Reid. “Now is not the time,” she stated.
Hazard was still not convinced that no increase was the way to go. “It may not be a significant amount of money given the shape we’re in,” said Hazard, “but what if we were $126,000 in the hole?”
The Board voted 3-2 to bring back the resolution to examine some fee reductions that were also included in the bill, but no fee increases. Hazard and Hunt dissented.