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County scales back fee increase proposal
| Saturday, Jul 5 2008 12:00 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Jul 5 2008 7:23 PM
A deal has been struck between county staffers and local business leaders over major fee increases that would have made industry pay the full cost of many services.
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The fees would still go up sharply, but not by the larger margins originally proposed by Kern planning and engineering officials.
For example, the $765 cost of filing a zone change request with the Planning Department would go up to $900 instead of $1,200.
The business community said the old plan would have hurt them and the economy; county officials say the new one would make them scale back some projects.
The fee plan goes to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
ORIGINAL PLAN
Supervisors had originally directed the planning and engineering departments plus the Environmental Health Services Department to develop a plan to recover 100 percent of the cost of providing myriad services to businesses in general and the land development industry in particular.
But business leaders and lobbyists rebelled when the numbers were released.
On June 3, supervisors retreated and asked staff to meet with the business community and rethink the numbers.
The result was an unhappy compromise.
County Planning Director Ted James said the deal would increase fees 26 percent on average and leave his department with a “status quo” budget.
James’ original proposal would have generated $1.2 million in revenue for his department. Under the compromise, that would shrink to $800,000.
Industry officials have promised, he said, to lobby supervisors to give his department general fund revenue to balance the loss.
But the county budget, released Thursday, is painfully lean.
James said without general fund or fee money, there would be no cash to conduct a raft of special projects supervisors want — from specific planning efforts in Tehachapi, Rosamond and the Kern River Valley to a countywide plan to combat global warming.
Engineering and Survey Services Director Chuck Lackey said his office would just have to adjust its level of service to the land development industry.
“We reduced the fees — we’re not recovering as much as we thought we need to,” Lackey said. “Our processing time will increase some amount.”
There may also be some service cuts, he said. Exactly what those cuts would need to be must be discussed with the Board of Supervisors.
In the recommended Kern County budget, two of Lackey’s engineering technicians are scheduled to be laid off.
BUSINESSES' TAKE
Michael Turnipseed, executive director of the Kern County Taxpayers Association, has sided with business groups in Board of Supervisors hearings and backs the new deal.
“Fees are taxes,” Turnipseed said. “Our position is government should live within some spending limits.”
Debbie Moreno, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce, said dropping a huge fee increase on businesses in the middle of a bad economy would hurt the economy.
Why shouldn’t a businesses pay the full costs of public services benefiting them?
“If you haven’t done it before now, don’t do it at hard (financial) times,” she said.
Supervisor Michael Rubio, however, thinks this economic downturn is exactly the right time to talk about major changes in how the county operates.
“Whenever we have economic downturn, it is not a crisis but an opportunity,” he said. “How can we do more with less?”
Rubio questioned delaying the original fee increases on June 3 and said he still doesn’t understand why his fellow supervisors made an about-face when confronted by business leaders’ distaste for the 100 percent cost recovery plan.
“From my recollection, we gave marching orders to Dave Price (who oversees the planning and engineering departments) and he came back, and there was a complete change in philosophy (on the board),” Rubio said.
The other four supervisors, on vacation last week, did not respond to repeated attempts to contact them for this story.
COUNTY HURTING, TOO
James doesn’t disagree that some levels of service — not to mention countywide planning projects not tied directly to a specific business owner — should be funded with general taxpayer money.
“I have always thought we could never go to 100 percent cost recovery,” he said. “We always need to have some funds available in the planning department so we don’t have to charge people the moment they come in the door.”
But the fact is, the amount of county money without state and federal strings attached faces the same financial trauma as private businesses, James said.
“This theme for less reliance on the general fund has come out of the county administrative office,” he said. “This year we had to take a 20 percent step down in general fund monies.”
The supervisors also postponed action on an Environmental Health Services Department fee increase proposal.
That plan is proposed to return to supervisors with only minor alterations.
Without the fee increase, the county budget indicates, five environmental health services trainees would lose their jobs.
Environmental Health Director Matt Constantine said his office will be able to start new, annual inspections of businesses with chemicals that, in the case of a catastrophic release, would kill or injure people within a 25-mile radius.
Constantine and Les Clark of the Independent Oil Producers’ Agency said they reached a deal whereby businesses with a clean inspection and safety record would be rewarded with fewer inspections and lower fees.