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INDOT proposes phased fee increases to fund new inspectors, operations staff
Summary
Diana Alarcon, director of INDOT, told the Budget & Finance committee INDOT completed a fee study and proposes a three‑year, tiered fee increase to fund roughly $88 million in expenditures and new staff positions. Council approval of the fee ordinance is required before positions tied to the fee revenue can be hired.
Diana Alarcon, director of the Department of Transportation Multimodal Infrastructure (INDOT), told the Budget & Finance committee that INDOT will ask the council for a tiered fee increase over three years to pay for additional staff and services.
Alarcon said the department “actually went out and did a fee study,” noting the last comprehensive update to many permit fees dated to 02/2003. She told members that fees under review include lane‑closure permits, special‑event permits and right‑of‑way excavation permits — categories INDOT says have not covered their full costs for two decades.
The proposed operating and transfer totals discussed at the hearing were roughly $88,000,000. INDOT presented a package of staffing requests that it says are tied directly to the fee changes: additional finance and capital management support, traffic‑signal maintenance technicians, right‑of‑way inspectors, enforcement/compliance inspectors, and positions to staff the transportation management/traffic operations center. The department also described parallel staffing tied to the Chime fiber and systems project.
Alarcon said the department will phase the fee increases so that they do not jump in a single year. “We actually will be bringing an ordinance to you to do a tier. So we're looking to do the fee increase over 3 years,” she told the committee.
Deputy Director Brad Fries and others told the committee INDOT is trying to shift recurring work now done by contractors into city staff. Fries said the department currently spends “around…4,000,000 a year” on labor to install traffic‑calming and related field elements and that bringing work in‑house could produce savings over time.
Committee members pressed for detail on timing and risk. One council member asked whether INDOT was funding positions based on revenue the council has not yet approved. Alarcon answered that the council must still vote on any fee ordinance and that hiring for positions tied to fee revenue would not proceed if the council did not approve the increases: “If we pass it, you're able to hire the positions that you need. If we don't pass it, then you just cannot hire the positions, and that money would then not be in the budget.”
Discussion — not action — covered how many positions would be ongoing operating roles versus capital‑funded consultant replacements; council members asked staff and finance to return with a clearer plan showing how operating and capital budgets would be adjusted if work is brought in‑house. No ordinance or motion to adopt fees or to add positions was taken at the hearing.
The committee directed follow‑up questions to INDOT and to the finance office; staff said they will return with detailed line‑item costs, timelines for proposed hires, and comparisons of contractor versus in‑house costs.
Speakers quoted and cited in this article are limited to those who spoke at the hearing and are listed in the speakers section below.
