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City staff flag $250,000 in annual payment-processing fees absorbed by Imperial City
Summary
Finance staff told council the city currently absorbs about $250,000 a year in merchant and online payment fees — about $10,000 a month — and council discussed whether to pass fees to users or retain the subsidy as a public-service expense.
Victor, a city staff member, told the Imperial City Council that the city's annual bank and merchant charges for processing resident payments total about $250,000 and that the city currently absorbs those costs rather than passing them along to users.
"It's around $10,000 per month that we cover for residents to make payments," Victor said, noting that transaction fees vary by payment method (for example, $2.99 for certain third-party platforms vs. $0.99 for bank transfers). He said the city chose to absorb some fees to encourage alternative payment methods such as autopay.
Council members raised resident-affordability concerns and said some residents feel fees are already high. Staff suggested the council consider whether to recover some processing costs in the future, but no direction to change the policy was taken at the work study.
