City budget staff used Monday’s work session to explain how the general fund recovers administrative costs from other city funds and departments through intergovernmental fees, public communication fees and facilities fees.

What staff told council
The largest of these receipts are G&A (general and administrative) fees, which staff said will total about $14 million in the FY26 budget. Those fees are charged to enterprise funds, utilities and other funds to recover centralized services the general fund provides — for example legal, finance, payroll and human resources support — so each fund pays its fair share of administrative overhead.

Staff gave examples: the airport pays for a police division called airport safety, and utilities pay portions of IT and finance costs because those services are operated out of the general fund. "For instance ... the electric fund would pay an intergovernmental fee for the IT work," a staff presenter said.

Separate fees and how they are calculated
Budget staff distinguished the G&A fees from two additional, separately calculated charges:
- Public communication fees: charged for creative services, marketing, website, social media and contact-center work; calculated based on each department's share of materials, supplies and service budgets or contact-center referral histories. The city’s in-house creative services unit produces the CitySource newsletter and other products that are then billed to departments that use them.
- Facilities fees: recover building maintenance, custodial time and utilities for city-owned buildings; hours and square footage are tracked and used to allocate costs to departments by square footage or averaged custodial-hours data.

Why it matters
Staff said these charges prevent cross-subsidization and keep revenue inside the fund where it was collected, which is a core principle of municipal fund accounting. "Revenue collected by a certain fund has to stay within that fund," a staff presenter explained.

Council requests
Council members asked for example calculations and handouts. Staff said detailed worksheets are available and that they will bring sample calculations for G&A, public communications and facilities fees at the Saturday follow-up so departments and board members can see how fees are computed and allocated.