1. Meet with staff and conduct interviews as needed to gain an understanding of the County’s process and operations in the DEAPR, Planning, and Emergency Services departments. 2. Met with budgetary and finance staff to determine programmatic expenses and review county’s existing direct and indirect cost methodology. 3. Compare cost of providing the services with existing recovery levels. This should include any service are where the County is currently charging for services as well as areas where perhaps the County should charge, considering the County’s practices or the practices of similar or neighboring counties. 4. Recommend potential new fees and charges for services the County currently provides but does not have fees/charges established for. Recommendations should be based on practices by similar or neighboring counties, industry best practices, or the consultant’s professional opinion. 5. Recommend combining, simplifying or rewriting existing fees to improve the legibility and navigability of the fee schedule by members of the public. 6. Recommend appropriate fees and charges based on analysis where full cost recovery may be unrealistic. This includes areas that may have negative impact on lowest income residents. Include information on County subsidy expectations based on practices by similar or neighboring counties, industry best practices, or the consultant’s professional opinion. 7. Review collection methods for each fee type and recommend changes for most efficient collection methods in a manner consistent with all applicable laws, statutes, rules and regulations governing the collection of fees. 8. Prepare a report that identifies each fee service, its full cost, recommended and current cost recovery levels. The report should also identify the direct cost, the indirect cost, and the overhead cost for each service. 9. Prepare a report that identifies the present fees, recommended fees, percentage change, cost recovery percentage, revenue impact and fee comparison with other similar or neighboring counties. 10. Report on other matters that come to the attention of the Consultant’s attention during this evaluation. 11. Prepare a final report of the Department User Fee Study in PDF that can be made available to County Leadership, Staff, and Commissioners. Include final version in editable format in excel for models, tables, and graphs. 12. Prepare and deliver presentation to the Board of County Commissioners to facilitate their understanding of the analysis and recommendations as requested.
