City Departments collect a wide variety of fees for permits, services, fines and other charges that are all part of everyday operations of municipal government. Since September 2008, the fees have been incorporated into a single fee schedule. Ordinance 08-M-43 established the consolidated fee schedule and allows for the modification of existing fees to be done by resolution while new fees are established or added to the Fee Schedule by ordinance.
The Fee Schedule ordinance provides a single document with all City fees that directly affect the users. The changes to the fees ensure the continued operation of public utilities, provides for essential services to the community and to adequately maintain the investment in existing infrastructure. All changes to the fee schedule will have a 45-day period before the new fees take effect. This allows staff to update and advise citizens on the upcoming changes. The recommended effective date of these fee changes will be October 1, 2019.
The City Secretary's Office will lower the local cartage license fee from $15 to $10. With this change our schedule will match the state's maximum charge.
The Schertz Magazine is proposing to add a Special Ad Placement fee of $100 which will let advertisers request a specific location in the magazine for their ad and a Artwork Ownership fee of $95 which allows advertisers to request copies of their ad created by city staff so they can use them in other publications. Both of these fees are standard industry practice.
The magazine is also proposing to lower the fees for the back cover ad placement from $2,500 to $1,800 for 6 month spans and $2,200 to $1,500 for 12 month spans to try generate more ads on this space than today. The rate decrease is proportional to the amount of increased ads the City hopes to generate.
The Event Facilities is proposing to increase their late fee from $75 to $200 as a deterrent to customers staying past their designated time. This fee matches the 1 hour overage in New Braunfels who charges $200 per extra hour. Staff is also proposing to add fees for use of beverage linens at $5, use of cocktail tables at $50 for up to 5 tables, use of pipe and drape for backdrop at $25, and use of drapes at $2 per linear foot. These additional service fees are for items the City currently has the ability to let renters use but have no established fee to do so. By charging for these services, the City can recoup replacement costs associated with continued use by renters.
In addition, the Event Facilities is proposing to increase the use of audio/visual panel access from $75 to $100 for the addition of a laptop for use with the A/V system by the renter. This change will also be reflected in the banquet packages for the rooms.
The large stage rental fee will be removed since we no longer have that stage to be rented out.
The Bluebonnet Hall Banquet package fees are proposed to be adjusted to match the price of the amenities available for that hall.
Community and North Center facilities are our self-service facilities and in order to continue offering affordable options to our resident’s staff would like to move to an hourly rate in those facilities. Going to an hourly rate gives renters the flexibility to choose how long they need the facility and more control over the price they pay. There will be a minimum number of rental hours associated with event, so staff does not anticipate revenues to be negatively impacted by this change. Similar facilities in the area have hourly rates applied to their buildings. Garden Ridge charges between $50-$100/hour, Olympia Hills charges $150 per hour over 4 hours, Seguin charges between $70-$100 per hour, and Windcrest charges between $50 and $250 per hour. Staff is proposing to charge between $25 and $75 per hour. Overall fees should be comparable to current charges in revenue generation.
Fees for the Daddy Daughter Dances, Moving on Main, Kickball, and Dodgeball events have been added to the fee schedule. The Jubilee food vendor registration fee has been decreased from $500 to $300 and the ticket fees for the Sweetheart coronation have been removed.
The Fire Permit After Hours fee is proposed to increase from $60 to $75 per hour. This fee has been at $60 for over 10 years and needs to be adjusted due to increases in wage costs over that time period.
The Planning & Zoning appeals and amendment requests fee is proposed to decrease from $750 to $500. Staff feels this fee should be consistent with other similar type fees currently being charged like the variance fee, which is $500. Instead of raising the variance fee, staff feels lowering the appeals fee made more sense as its not intended to be an impediment to the either process.
The Inspection's residential building permit fee for above ground pools will be broken out and listed separately from in ground pools. The above ground pool permit will be $200 which is less than the in ground pools. After the recent legislative update that prevents City's from using cost of construction as a basis for charging a residential building permit fee, staff had set a single rate for swimming pool permits. Since above ground pools are typically lower cost than in ground pools, residents that wanted to pull an above ground pool permit would be payment much more. To remedy this, staff is proposing to break it out and charge the pool types separately.
Inspections will also remove the fees for gutters, lead solder tests, street name changes on permits, and address corrections. When gutters are required with the construction of structures, they will be reviewed as part of the building permit and not as a separate permit or fee. The other fees are seldom used and will now be provided at no cost as needed.
The general contractor registration initial fee will be lowered from $150 to $100 which is the same as the renewal fee. In staff's review of the process both new registrations and renewals are not dissimilar enough to warrant a higher fee at initial registration.
The Utility Rate forecast was updated by Dan Jackson of Willdan services, who's firm has been reviewing the City's utility rates since 2013. The new rate forecast recommends sewer rate increases of 8% for the next 2 years before dropping to 5% increases for 2 years. This is a slight increase over last year's recommendation of 7% for the next 2 years before dropping to 5% and will raise sewer rates by $1.70 instead of $1.50.
In the new rate forecast, water rates are recommended to not increase this coming year but will have 3% increases in the following years. Good financial performance above estimations and lower overall debt issuances are the driving factors in the reduced water rate assumptions |