In 2013, I wrote an article looking at the big picture of contracting. I felt it made sense to contract if your agency was too small to...

Building & Safety fees for new construction have historically been charged based on the construction value of the work being done.  This...

There are many ways to charge fees to recover the costs of providing services.  The only requirement is that you broadly don’t charge...

What many readers think of as a “Fee Study” was created by RCS (née Management Services Institute) back in 1980. We called the “Study” a...

Building & Safety fees for new construction have historically been charged based on the construction value of the work being done.  This...

Before the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, I was a finance director in California. Annually, finance directors would calculate the...

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...

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...

So, you’ve just spent the last number of months developing a Cost of Services Study with recommendations to update your fees, and now...

The California Public Records Act (PRA), all the supplementary legislation, and numerous court decisions has made it clear and specific...

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...

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...

The common understanding is that a fee study is performed to increase city revenues (even though the conversation should be about...

In a recent article, I talked about Proposition 4, passed in 1979, as the godfather of voter initiatives that defined service fees and...

After calculating the full cost for a current development-related application, the RCS effort turns to the process of cost recovery by...

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...

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...

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...

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...

At about every other Council or town-hall meeting I attend there is the question about whether development fees (planning fees, permit...