City votes to raise, lower fees

The Huntington Beach City Council passed a motion to raise and lower various fees across every city department in a 4-2 vote Monday night.

The motion will affect three categories of city fees: user fees, such as police fingerprinting; development fees, such as inspection fees; and rentals and recreation fees, such as park services. Fees will change beginning this year, and add anywhere between $0.5 million and $1 million to the city’s general fund.

Huntington Beach, however, would not necessarily profit from fee increases, as the city is not allowed to overcharge. Instead, these fee increases would cover city costs for the services.

“Most people would say whoever uses the service should pay the fee, and that’s what this fee schedule attempts to do, is to have people who use the service pay the fee as much as possible,” said Councilwoman Jill Hardy.

Of those 800 fees, about 14% will be reduced, 33% will remain static and 53% will increase. This year, the city aspires to achieve 80% cost recovery, which is expected to increase to 90% in 2010 and 100% in 2011.

The city hired MGT of America, a management research and consulting firm, to evaluate current fees and redetermine the appropriate amount for them.

But the motion didn’t pass without debate. Councilmen Devin Dwyer and Joe Carchio voted against it and expressed their concerns with the fee hikes, given the economy.

“I just can’t be in support of raising fees right now when the economy is in the business it’s in and the businesses are struggling,” Dwyer said. “You don’t boil a frog by turning the heat up immediately; you boil a frog by turning the heat up little by little.”

“We want to encourage building,” Carchio said. “We don’t want to discourage it right now.”

The rest of the council was more supportive of the fee alterations.

“I was shocked at how many things went down . . . in every department,” said Mayor Pro Tem Cathy Green, who added that the fees were raised “very judiciously.”