The Nuts and Bolts of Getting Your Fees Approved
So, you’ve just spent the last number of months developing a Cost of Services Study with recommendations to update your fees, and now...
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Chu Thai
- Jul 18
- 6 min
Setting the Record Straight on PRA Fees
The California Public Records Act (PRA), all the supplementary legislation, and numerous court decisions has made it clear and specific...
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Eric Johnson
- May 15
- 2 min
How often is enough? When should you update your fees
As a fee consultant, the question that I get asked most often is, “How often should we be updating our fees?” Once I dispose of the...
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Eric Johnson
- Nov 14, 2021
- 2 min
Taxes already pay staff’s salaries, don’t they?
A question that I am often asked by City Council members is, “Aren’t taxes already paying staff’s salaries, so why do we need to worry...
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Chu Thai
- Sep 13, 2021
- 3 min
But Wait…There’s More! A Fee Study Gives You More Than Additional Revenues
The common understanding is that a fee study is performed to increase city revenues (even though the conversation should be about...
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Eric Johnson
- Jul 11, 2021
- 2 min
Another Look at Proposition 26
In a recent article, I talked about Proposition 4, passed in 1979, as the godfather of voter initiatives that defined service fees and...
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Rick Kermer
- Jun 14, 2021
- 3 min
Modified Deposit Fees to the Rescue
After calculating the full cost for a current development-related application, the RCS effort turns to the process of cost recovery by...
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Rick Kermer
- Feb 14, 2021
- 3 min
Evolution of the Hourly Rate
A recent question on the CSMFO website was from a finance director that wondered what to do when the fiscal year had twenty-seven pay...
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Eric Johnson
- Nov 15, 2020
- 2 min
Do You Need a Fee Audit?
After going through the process of doing a Fee Study and getting the fees approved by your Council, your thoughts turn to having a really...
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Chu Thai
- Mar 8, 2020
- 2 min
Just be yourself and don’t compare
In just about every project we work on our client city asks for a fee comparison to neighboring cities. And just about every time we...
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Eric Johnson
- Oct 14, 2019
- 2 min
Is it bad to show a profit?
We all know that government is not allowed to make a profit on the services that it provides. While there are exceptions with the rental...
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- Aug 12, 2019
- 2 min
Do Development Fees Affect Home Sales?
At about every other Council or town-hall meeting I attend there is the question about whether development fees (planning fees, permit...
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Eric Johnson
- Jun 7, 2019
- 3 min
Credit Card Processing Fees
Since there is a lot of interest in credit card processing and convenience fees recently, I thought this would be a great time to write...
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Rick Kermer
- May 12, 2019
- 3 min
Framing the Case for Fees
As the typical reader of the RCS blog articles, you are a technically skilled government finance professional and can make a strong...
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Chu Thai
- Apr 15, 2019
- 3 min
Services Limited by State Laws
While performing a fee update and going through the hundreds of different fees and fines which a city may have, we noticed some fees...
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Eric Johnson
- Feb 9, 2019
- 3 min
Costing Recreation Services
As part of a Cost of Services Study we are usually asked to provide the full cost of Recreation services and then make recommendations to...
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Eric Johnson
- Oct 23, 2018
- 2 min
Comprehensive or Targeted Fee Study
There are two different approaches to doing a Fee Study. You can either do a comprehensive study that involves the entire organization...
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Rick Kermer
- Jun 18, 2018
- 3 min
Cost Studies
The same person who is credited with inventing accounting, Luca Pacioli, an Italian mathematician from the 15th century, is also credited...
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Eric Johnson
- May 13, 2018
- 2 min
Government as a Business
When the authors of Proposition 4 in 1979 were writing the ballot measure it was based on the idea that government should act more like a...
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Eric Johnson
- Oct 28, 2017
- 2 min
Next Steps After a Fee Update
So you have just updated your fees and you are justifiably proud of this accomplishment. Now, what’s next? You could just rest on your...
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