A little over two years ago I got a call from Chu Thai, the Management Services Director with the City of Monterey Park.  He called to...

Every so often I’ll hear about Edison or the Gas Company telling a City that they cannot be charged an encroachment permit to plan check...

I was recently at a council meeting where, during public comments, several individuals targeted specific councilmembers with abusive...

Police management staff often discuss Levels of Service (LOS) staffing in terms of “officers per 1,000 residents.”    Since it is often a...

If the purpose of government is to take some of my money and pool it with some of your money in order to do something that we all benefit...

The calculation of Development Impact Fees (DIFs) sounds very technical and it can be, but the process is not insurmountable.  First off...

A major challenge in local government finance is finding sufficient monies to pay for all the wonderful things our citizens want and/or...

In the world of fees in California, there are a couple of ballot measures that get all of the love.  Everyone remembers Proposition 218...

The El Nino is a tropical weather pattern with consequences in the northern hemisphere. An El Nino (or more specifically the El Nino...

I started in local government when Planning, Programming, Budgeting (PPB) was introduced as a way to more effectively and efficiently use...

With the search for every spare drop of water due to the drought and the concurrent need to remove pollutants from stormwater, there is a...

I have undertaken a great number of development impact fee studies in the Southern California area and as a result I read a lot of...

As most of you are neck deep in your budget, we thought we would share some budgetary pitfalls that we have experienced over the years....

We have written much in the past about the need to identify and cost out your infrastructure, partly to insure that the adequate...

I suppose I should have paid greater attention in my Organizational Development classes during my BPA and MPA experiences, but frankly I...

The Commons Dilemma was first discussed in 1968. To set the stage, a society was envisioned where all members were able to use its common...

It seems that a number of cities have gotten letters from a law firm asking for the back-up detail for their interfund transfers from...

Last November I wrote the above titled topic about municipal asset replacement programs for the RCS monthly newsletter, and here is an...

Yes, we have a drought and it critical that we do something about it. But, we need to do something smart and the criminalization of water...

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...