Agenda - 03-06-1996 - X-A - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 At the Board' s direction, fees were established at a rate designed to make the fire inspection program self-supporting, with schools exempted from the cost of semi-annual inspections . The fire inspection program budget also absorbs the costs of inspecting County facilities such as office buildings, the jail, and courthouses. Staff calculated that full costs could be recovered on the basis of $30 per hour, to cover salary, benefits, supplies, equipment, vehicle, collection, administrative overhead, and indirect costs of program management . This led to the establishment of County fees of $90-$180, assuming inspection times of 3-6 hours. Facilities that fail the first inspection are reinspected within 30 days at no additional charge . If upon first reinspection, facilities remain out of compliance with uncorrected violations and with no good faith effort shown to make corrections, facilities are charged double the inspection fee for subsequent reinspections . In 1993-94, the County agreed to perform fire inspections on behalf of the Town of Hillsborough according to the State ' s periodic schedule. The County bills the Town for each inspection performed in accordance with the County fee schedule. It is my understanding that the Town has in turn billed the inspected facilities for the cost of the inspection paid to the County, plus an administrative overhead charge of 1016 . Initial Review of Current Fee Schedule Concerns have been raised recently that some inspections take significantly less time than the minimum three hours originally estimated when the program was initiated. It is important to note that for a full-cost recovery program to work as fairly as possible, time associated with travel to and from inspected facilities, for completion of inspection paperwork, and for billing and collection must be considered in addition to the time actually spent on site for the inspection itself . That notwithstanding, we believe that the County should consider revisions to the fee schedule that will establish some lower minimum cost of inspection to recognize those facilities that are comparatively quicker to inspect. There are a number of options for revisions, including consideration of the square footage of a facility as a factor in assessing fees, although square footage alone may not be a reliable indicator of the complexity or duration of required inspections . Another factor that could be considered in helping to maintain a full-cost recovery program would be to consider the additional costs associated with inspecting and permitting hazardous materials storage. We do believe that the most important factor in establishing a revised fee schedule should be the approximate time required to accomplish various categories of inspections . As with a visit to the doctor, dentist, or mechanic, services should be billed based on an average time of completion, recognizing there will be some variation in actual time spent from inspection to inspection.