Allocating Administrative Functions in Other Departments
Allocating Administrative Functions in Other Departments
Mitigating the Impact of Accrued Benefit Payouts
You’re going into the fiscal year with a balanced budget and no clouds on the fiscal sky. Suddenly, in July, your police chief announces his retirement. The chief has been at the city his entire career. Beginning as a patrol officer, he rose through the ranks and is beloved by the community. You do a […]
Mandatory Approval of Accessory Dwelling Units
In July I wrote about the State Legislature requiring easier paths to increasing residential Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) construction (SB 1069). This action is no doubt a massive intrusion into local planning and is rife with problems, but it’s too late to debate those points. Now it’s time to deal with them and try to […]
Next Steps After a Fee Update
What should a City do after completing a Fee Study and before the next Fee Study
Fee Increases in Between Cost Studies
When I first started doing Cost Studies, cities were unlikely to know the cost of their services let alone charge what the services cost. The most common approach, when fee increases were considered necessary, was to compare the city’s fees with neighboring cities, which I called the “blind leading the blind” update. Later, as cost […]
Accessory Dwelling Units
Many of you have been wrestling with integrating the recently passed State legislation (AB 2299 and SB 1069) that requires most cities to accommodate second dwelling units, referred to as “accessory dwelling units,” within your development rules and regulations. Regardless of your own city ordinances on the issue, the new state law is probably more […]
Are Credit Card Processing Fees for You?
For many years the credit card industry vigorously fought against any effort to charge a processing fee to use a credit card. Credit card companies fought the same battles against processing fees charged by government as they did against private businesses. But as more and more government agencies started accepting credit cards for payment for […]
Available versus Billable Hours – Redux
Nine years ago, I wrote the following article. Since the concepts are just as relevant today, I’m reprinting it with some editorial changes to make it more current. Enjoy… On page 31 of the League of California Cities publication “Cost Accounting for California Cities (1981),” we (I was one of the authors) proposed an early […]
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