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Committee sends correcting ordinance on elevating-device fees to formal; city to credit or reimburse overcharges
Summary
The Budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee voted to send an amendment to the city—s elevating-devices fee schedule to formal consideration after department staff acknowledged a per-story fee was miscalculated and said customers will be credited or reimbursed retroactively.
The Detroit City Council—s Budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee voted March 19 to send a resolution to formal with a recommendation to approve amending the city—s elevating-devices fee schedule to correct a per-story charge that officials said was set too high.
The correction matters because the Building, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department determined an added per-story charge of $59 was applied in error during a prior fee study; staff proposed reducing that per-story charge to $14.5 and adjusting base fees. The department said it will credit or reimburse customers who were overcharged.
Raymond Scott, deputy director for Building, Safety Engineering and Environmental (BC), and Randy Hargrave, the department—s chief of construction, told the committee the comprehensive fee study adopted in 2024 inadvertently added an excessive per-story charge to several elevating-device fees. Scott said the city had not increased many building-related fees in roughly 30 years before the 2024 comprehensive study and that the implementation produced an unexpectedly high per-floor supplement.
Hargrave said the study had calculated a base fee and then added $59 per story after the first five stories; an internal review found that $59 figure was too high and that $14.5 per story is consistent with the department—s resource needs and industry practice. Hargrave used dumbwaiter and elevator annual-license examples: the prior dumbwaiter charge was $135 and the implementation temporarily showed a higher amount; staff said the new implementation should set the base dumbwaiter fee at $200 without the $59-per-story add-on. Officials said the previous billing led the department to collect roughly two-thirds more than intended in some cases.
Committee members asked staff for an estimate of the total refunds that will be required. Scott and Hargrave said staff have not calculated a citywide refund total yet. Scott said refunds will be computed per renewal application and that many customers had not yet paid bills, which reduces immediate cashflow impact; for customers who already paid, staff said they would be offered credits or reimbursements. The committee asked the department to provide a more detailed estimate before the next hearing.
After discussion the committee took the measure to formal consideration with a recommendation to approve. The committee record indicates the motion passed by unanimous consent: "Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken." The resolution text before the committee amends the elevating-devices fee schedule to align per-story charges with the corrected $14.5 figure and to authorize retroactive credits or reimbursements to affected licensees.
City staff said the adjustment is intended to restore fees to the level originally intended in the 2024 fee study and to avoid overcharging building owners while preserving the department—s cost-recovery obligations.
The committee will consider the formal resolution in a subsequent session; staff committed to returning with an estimate of the aggregate refunds and examples of how the correction affects large buildings.
