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Resident tells council appeals process for new surface-water drainage fee is not ready
Summary
At the April 8 Laramie City Council work session, resident Ryan Hershey said the new surface-water drainage fee scheduled for July 1 lacks an accessible appeals procedure and property data online, and urged the city to provide information and timely enforcement of downtown construction parking rules.
Ryan Hershey, a Laramie resident, told the Laramie City Council at its April 8 work session that he could not find an appeals process or property data online for the city’s new surface-water drainage fee and urged staff to publish the material before the fee takes effect.
Hershey said the city’s ordinance references an appeals procedure — “In 13.8 0.07 of that ordinance, it prescribes an order or a feature for an appeal for this tax” — but that the procedure was not accessible online. He added that the fee “is due to take effect on July 1” and said that, without published procedures and property data, thousands of residents would not have adequate time to file appeals before the fee takes effect. “I don't think that we should have to have to file an appeal after it takes place either, because then you're doing a refund,” Hershey said.
Hershey also raised a separate concern about downtown enforcement during ongoing construction, saying that business owners and vehicles have been parking on Second to Third/Grand Avenue and other blocks and that “we could really use multiple times daily enforcement with the construction currently going on.” He asked for more routine police routing to maintain parking and clear construction impacts.
Mayor (identified in the meeting transcript only as Mayor) acknowledged Hershey’s comments but there was no staff response recorded in the transcript that night describing any immediate changes to the appeals process, nor was a staff commitment recorded to publish property-specific data before July 1.
Why it matters: The surface-water drainage fee is scheduled to be implemented on July 1; an appeals procedure and the ability for property owners to review parcel-specific data are key to residents’ ability to challenge assessments in advance. Hershey said the absence of online information would leave residents needing refunds after the fee is charged — a process he said would be unacceptable.
The council did not take a vote or direct staff on a specific schedule during the public comment period recorded in the transcript. The transcript records Hershey’s requests but does not document an official reply, a timeline for posting appeal procedures, or a formal staff assignment relating to his concerns.
Ending: The surface-water drainage fee and the city’s appeals procedures were raised in public comment; council and staff discussion of the fee appears later in the meeting materials and future work sessions. No formal action or vote on the appeals procedure was recorded in the April 8 session’s public-comment portion of the transcript.
