Hermosa Beach council balks at fee increases
Hermosa Beach City Council on Tuesday tentatively rejected a call for $700,000 in increased fees charged to businesses and residents for inspections, permits, and a wide array of recreational and other services.
The increases were recommended by a private consultant who conducted the first Hermosa fee study in five years, aiming to determine what it costs the city to provide a service and how the costs can be covered.
Council members said they will reduce fees where the consultant determined they were set too high, and they would continue to discuss possible increases. But the idea of any significant fee increases received a cold reception.
Mayor Peter Tucker and Councilman Kit Bobko questioned whether it should cost the city as much as it does to provide the services. Tucker said some building-related fees were higher than those in neighboring cities.
Hermosa City Manager Steve Burrell said Hermosa has some “extra steps” for builders that were designed to “reflect the desires of the residents.” A builder might have to seek Planning Commission approval for some aspects of a project which could be approved with an over-the-counter permit elsewhere, he said.
“That ads to the cost,” Burrell said.
Bobko said it is not the time to raise fees.
“We’re going to have to have a clear-cut case made, at least to me, before any fees can be raised,” he said.
Burrell said the cost of a service, if it is not covered by a fee, is passed along to the residents. He said the question is whether the city should subsidize its services or require them to be paid for by the businesses and people who receive them.
Bobko disagreed, saying he had not seen proof that the city’s methods of providing the services are “correct or necessary.”
Councilmen Michael DiVirgilio and Howard Fishman said they want officials to further publicize any possible fee increases before another public hearing is held upon them.
DiVirgilio reiterated that he would prefer to wait to discuss any possible increases until the council has the next year’s budget proposal before it.
In a previous meeting, council members had balked at suggestions to charge the nonprofit Hermosa Arts Foundation and youth sports leagues undetermined amounts to use the municipal theaters and ball fields.
Council members agreed to discuss the funding situation with the foundation and sports leagues, and see whether their existing arrangements should be changed.
At Tuesday’s meeting Rick Koenig, president of the Hermosa Arts Foundation, said thousands of children and adults have been entertained and educated at the Hermosa Playhouse, with the foundation and its forerunner scheduling productions as “a buffer between the community and the municipality.”
“We have hospice on our speed dial if you take our hours away from us,” Koenig said.
Two representatives of nonprofit children’s theater groups spoke up for the foundation as well.
The consultant’s fee study initially recommended a $929,000 net increase, but the council had previously nixed some increases, bringing the figure down to about $700,000.
Among big ticket items with the largest proposed increases, the study recommended a 200 percent increase in the fee for a conditional use permit application, required for some businesses, to $4,800, and a 191 percent increase in the fee for a parking plan application for a business, to $5,100. ER