Council approves increase in fees

Jose Paul Corona

While City Council members are still trying to decide what

programs to cut in order to balance the city’s budget, they did

decide to increase fees for some city services at a Monday meeting.

Council members unanimously approved a resolution Monday to

increase the fees residents pay for fire and medical emergency

services.

Residents who are taken to a local hospital by an ambulance will

soon have to pay $466 for that service rather than the current fee of

$292.50. The increase coincides with rates authorized by the county

and will pay for the cost of the ambulance program, said City

Administrator Ray Silver.

Unfortunately, that rate hike won’t even help the city’s depleted

coffers, said Councilman Peter Green

“Those fees all pay for the cost of service,” he said. “They have

increased primarily because there is more of a demand for service.”

Even with the hike, city ambulance fees are still below the county

standard, Green added, who said those fees were last raised in 1997.

The council also approved a fee increase for building, safety and

fire department licensing services, to help offset the annual

maintenance of a new city-wide permit system.

The cost of fire clearance and company safety inspections will

also go up, and a fee for fire extinguisher training will be imposed.

The service had previously been provided free of charge.

Silver also presented the council with a preliminary budget

overview and a list of proposed budget cuts that would help save the

city money.

On the table for consideration would be the elimination of HBTV-3

except for coverage of council meetings, the Senior Outreach Program,

one or all of the library branches and one lifeguard position.

The biggest potential cut, at $533,000, is slicing the police

helicopter program by a third, a suggestion that has been highly

controversial in the past. Not on Monday’s list, but not out of the

woods, were the Shipley Nature Center and the Drug Abuse Resistance

Education program. Decisions about the nature center were put off

until Aug. 26.

While none of the council members are happy about the cuts that

have to be made, they commend the city staff for giving them options,

said council member Ralph Bauer.

“We don’t like to cut, but we now know in some rational way how to

cut,” he said.