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Consider adopting Ordinance No. 4010 amending portions of "Appendix A - Fee Schedule" of the Code of Ordinances relating to fees established pursuant to Chapter 66, "Solid Waste," and Chapter 86, "Utilities"; increasing the credit card processing fee from 2.5% to 3.5%; renaming the existing trash fee as the "Landfill Closure Fee"; and take appropriate action.
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REQUESTOR:
Finance Department
Mayor Terry Lynne
BACKGROUND:
Periodic review of the City's fee schedule is vital to ensure fees remain transparent, consistent, and appropriately aligned with the actual cost of providing services. The City periodically reviews its fees to ensure they are clearly identified and appropriately structured to recover costs associated with providing City services and processing customer transactions.
Currently, the City charges a 2.5% processing fee for credit card purchases related to certain utility-related payments. The City's current enterprise resource planning system does not have the functionality to apply the processing fee to customers enrolled in automatic payments. Consequently, the fee is not collected on all credit card transactions, although the City incurs processing costs for those payments.
Additionally, the City's current fee is identified as the "Trash Fee," which may create confusion regarding the purpose and intended use of the revenue collected. The fee is intended to fund the City's landfill closure and post-closure obligations associated with the eventual closure of the City-owned landfill. Maintaining adequate funding for these future obligations will help ensure the City is financially positioned to complete the required landfill closure, post-closure monitoring, and other related activities without placing an undue financial burden on future operating budgets.
As part of the annual fee review, staff has evaluated increasing the credit card processing fee to 3.5% to better allocate for the existing fees imposed on the City. Additionally,...
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