Service Fees

Sep 11, 2022
2 min

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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Jul 18, 2022
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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May 15, 2022
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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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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But Wait…There’s More! A Fee Study Gives You More Than Additional Revenues

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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