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Central Point considers higher fees Some haven't seen increases for decades By BUFFY POLLOCK CENTRAL POINT - City Council members will consider raising building, planning and business license fees to offset operating costs and pay for accelerated growth over the past decade, they say. Their proposals - which would double some fees - come as a citizens group gathers signatures on a petition that, if approved by voters, would nullify the increases retroactively. The council will consider the increases at 7 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, 155 S. Second Ave. City Administrator Jim Bennett said the increases are necessary to provide services for a city that has grown an average of 5.5 percent per year since 1990. According to U.S. Census records, Central Point grew 66 percent in the last decade, from 7,509 in 1990 to 12,493 in 2000. Building official Lois DeBenedetti said her department has witnessed firsthand how much the city has grown through escalating numbers of inspections and building permits issued. Building permits more than doubled, from 404 in 1991 to 898 in 1999. DeBenedetti said building fees had not been changed substantially since 1979, and that increased development made it imperative that fees cover the costs of the services rendered. DeBenedetti will seek increased building, plumbing, electrical and manufactured dwelling permit fees. She said she also anticipates a need to expand her staff to accommodate workloads. "If we did a comparison between our staff and the amount of work we do, we're probably the most understaffed building department in the state. .... And most of our fees are too low to fund the work we're doing," she said. "We want to keep giving good customer service, but I can't keep stretching my people further and further for things we don't get paid enough for. If people want their inspections done, they have to be paid for." Finance Director Bill Brugger is requesting an increase in Central Point's business license fees, the lowest in Jackson County, to "cover the basic costs of providing those services." He said charges had not increased since the business license ordinance was adopted in 1965 except for minor changes. "That change would move Central Point, by a survey of other cities, to an equivalent of Gold Hill. It hadn't been touched for 20 years. It's all a matter of what things cost today," he said. "The amount of work we have to do doesn't justify those $25 fees where we have to go out, provide background profiles, go before the council, and on and on. � There's so much work involved and it's time-consuming. No one's getting paid $3 and $4 an hour to work anywhere these days. We've just been giving services away." Planning Director Tom Humphrey also will seek changes to planning fees Thursday. Humphrey said amendments to those fees were necessary because of increased workloads and to cover costs. Council member Donna Higginbotham said that while she does not want to see fees increase, the city "has to operate and it costs a certain amount to provide all the services people want and expect." "No one likes fee increases, least of all us (the City Council), but they're necessary when a city grows like ours has," she said. "And things just cost more these days." The city wants to raise fees covering a multitude of services. Homeowners would pay $400 instead of $200 for a fence permit, for example. Developers would pay $275 to change approved plans, up from no charge now. They would pay $500 instead of $325 to have the city work on annexation requests. An initiative petition filed last month would make all new fees and fee increases subject to voter approval if the initiative is passed by a simple majority of voters in March 2002. Signatures from at least 15 percent of Central Point registered voters - 1,060 people - are required for it to get on the ballot. "This amendment would go into effect retroactive to the date of filing, and any violations by the city will be repaid plus 10 percent," said Carol Fischer, a member of Citizens to Protect Voters Rights, which filed the petition May 24. "So anything they do between now and March would be undone if it gets voter approval. It's not that we're against anyone at City Hall. We just want them to be made more accountable," said Fisher, a former council member. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.