Agenda 02-10-2026; 2 - Presentation of Fee Study for Emergency Services, Planning & Inspections, and Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR)

Browse Search

1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: February 10, 2026 Action Agenda Item No. 2 SUBJECT: Presentation of Fee Study for Emergency Services, Planning & Inspections, and Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR) DEPARTMENT: County Manager ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Attachment A. Orange County Kirk Vaughn, (919) 245-2153 Comprehensive User Fee Study Attachment B. Fee Study Report Presentation PURPOSE: To receive a presentation reviewing the fees and cost recovery for the programs in Emergency Services, Planning & Inspections, and Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR) by MGT Consulting. BACKGROUND: In recent years, the strain of inflation has had a significant impact on the County's annual operating budget. For many fee-based activities particularly, the County had two (2) options through the budget. First, the budget could either absorb those cost increases and increase the tax impact of providing these services. Alternatively, the County could pass on fee increases to the users of these programs through fee increases. As a result, the County Manager authorized the Budget Office to conduct a fee study of major fee generating departments. The Budget Office conducted a request for proposals (RFP) and selected MGT Consulting to provide a detailed model of the cost drivers for three (3) County departments. The consultant worked closely with staff in Planning & Inspections, DEAPR, and Emergency Services. MGT collected data around the costs of operating programs, the fee level and volume of collections, the organization of the departments and the indirect costs of supporting each department. The costs were then aligned to different fees to determine the total cost of each fee activity and each fee division overall. In the attached MGT report, the total cost to the County of operating fee based programs in these three departments is $21 .7 million dollars. The County generates fees in these programs of $7.6 million or 35% of the cost of the programs. This leaves $14.1 million in County subsidy to operate these programs. This unique methodology of analyzing the total cost of the fee is different than the typical County or departmental review of fee operations. Typically, the budget document reviews cost recovery at the division or cost center level. Which totals all costs and revenues in the division. This review does not include any costs outside of the division, including indirect support costs or supervisory costs of department administration. Due to this difference of calculation, the percentages in this report will be different and lower than are normally detailed in the annual budget document. The MGT report also puts the County fee schedule in context of selected peer comparisons.