COUNTY FEES HIT HARD IN POCKETBOOK

OROVILLE -- Starting in May, it is going to be more expensive --
sometimes much more expensive -- to deal with Butte County.

At their last meeting in March, county supervisors voted to scrap all
of the county's existing fees for everything from public health lab
tests, to fingerprinting, to use permits, to replacing lost library
cards.

Supervisors then adopted a new countywide overall fee
schedule.

Sean Farrell, with the county's administrative office, told this
newspaper the new fees are based on a study presented to supervisors
in February.

The study, according to Farrell, determined the vast majority of fees
charged by the county didn't cover the cost of service. The new fees
are meant to more accurately reflect the true costs.

He said the fee changes will go into effect May 23.

In some departments, such as public health, the county decided to
continue to subsidize services that provide wider public benefit, such
as immunizations.

Elsewhere, the fees have climbed sharply.

For example, the Sheriff's Office used to charge $61.40 for the
initial setup for in-home incarceration.

Sheriff Perry Reniff said the setup involves fitting an electronic
ankle bracelet to the person who is going to be on house arrest and
then setting up the radio base station in the home to facilitate
monitoring. All of that took time, and the new $209 fee will more
accurately reflect the cost of the operation.

Reniff said his department is also mandated to review the sites of
medical marijuana gardens.

Up until this change the review process, which requires a visit to and
an inspection of the prospective garden location, was free.

As of May, the review will cost the prospective grower
$532.

Pete Calarco, deputy director of the Department of Development
Services, said that in the past, many departmental fees were charged
as a flat rate, but the new schedule will mainly be billed on an
hourly rate.

The dollar value of a shift from flat rate to hourly can be
dynamic.

Until the new fees go into effect, an individual can appeal a planning
decision to the Board of Supervisors for $50. After May, the person
filing the appeal will have to post a $3,500 deposit on what Calarco
said is predicted to be 20 hours of staff work at $175 an hour.

Calarco said the new fee might have a chilling effect on people
considering an appeal.

He also said he anticipates some of the charge changes might be
"revisited" by supervisors for potential revisions.

In other cases, some of the new prices will be lower than under the
previous schedule.

Calarco said a permit to operate some home businesses will drop from
$650.50 to $525.

"We realize the dollar amount, in some cases, is a big amount, and
that is not without an effect," he said.

Farrell said, since in many cases the old fees had to be underwritten
with General Fund money, the new fees should have a positive effect on
the county's bottom line.

He said if these fees had been in place for the last year, it would
have brought in about $1 million in additional revenue to the county.

He said there is no way to predict how much, if any, additional
revenue will be generated in the coming year because that will be
dependent on how many times the fee is imposed, as well as the dollar
value of the fee.