Title
Proposed Revisions to the Lake County Health Department Environmental Health Fees Schedule (as authorized in Lake County Code of Ordinances Chapter 178) - Mackey
Body
The Water Well program is proposing revisions to fees associated with non-community water systems annual permits. These fee revisions are being proposed to relieve facilities from having to pay potentially high lab costs for repeat samples, reduce the time and cost of billing for repeat and monthly samples for health department staff, and to eliminate the need for monthly-sampled facilities to pay monthly invoices during the year. The proposal, if approved, will be implemented for the FY21 permit year, and will be revenue neutral.
Lake County currently has 422 non-community well systems that receive an invoice every December for their annual permit fee for the coming year. For 2020 the permit fee was $214. Included in the cost of the permit is the collection and lab analysis of a required routine sample. If the routine sample fails the test, repeat samples must be collected immediately, and then again at specified dates. Each year, approximately 5% of the 422 facilities receive a failed result on a routine sample.
Each time staff collects repeat samples, program staff need to review the report to confirm it needs to be billed, and then business office staff prepare and send an invoice to the facility. At times, depending on the number of samples required, the fees can get into the hundreds of dollars. This proposal would eliminate charging and invoicing for repeat sample fees and would offset the revenue by slightly increasing the annual permit fee for all facilities. As no facility can be assured they will never get a failed result on a routine sample, the slight increase in the annual fee would essentially act as insurance against potential costs in the hundreds of dollars.
With a projected 2% CPI for FY21, the cost of an annual permit in 2021 would be $218.00 without this change. This proposal is to increase the FY21 fee by $22.00 to $240.00, or around 10%. No facility, with the exception of those who have neglected to take documented, mandated actions to correct a system deficiency, would ever be responsible for additional collection and analysis fees.
The second part of the proposal affects four of the 422 non-community well systems required to be sampled every month. These facilities are invoiced monthly for the associated fees. The Water Well program is proposing to create two new fees that would allow the option for these monthly-sampled facilities to pay for the samples in one payment at the start of the year, along with their permit fee. Because we would eliminate the clerical and billing work associated with monthly invoicing, we can offer the facilities a slight reduction in the fee they are currently required to pay. These facilities have been contacted and are in favor of this proposal.
These proposed revisions to the Lake County Health Department Environmental Health Fees Schedule were reviewed and approved by the Environmental Health Advisory Committee at their November 18, 2019 meeting. A public hearing was held on January 27, 2020 to receive comments on the proposed changes, and no comments were received.
Suggested Motion
To approve the revisions to Lake County Health Department Environmental Health Fees Schedule as proposed.