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Meridian finance department outlines broad citywide fee update; council asks for details and timeline
Summary
City finance staff presented a citywide fee study showing many fees last updated years ago and recommending cost-recovery adjustments; council members pressed for clearer communication, net fiscal impacts by department, and requested follow-up by Sept. 30.
Ginny Fields, representing city finance staff, briefed the council on the fiscal year 2026 citywide fee update, describing a department-by-department cost analysis and the administration's preferred cost-recovery approach. "The results have been prepared and have been sent to Mayor for review and feedback," Fields said, and added that finance had calculated "full cost" amounts for each fee, then recommended recovery levels for council consideration.
Fields said that several departments had not updated fees in many years: the Clerk's Office last adjusted fees in 2017, police fees in 2017, fire fees in 2019, and the Planning Department had not had a comprehensive update in over a decade. She told council the packet includes a full list of proposed adjustments across departments and that some line items showed large percentage increases because they had not been revised in eight to 10 years.
Under the draft schedule, the Clerk's Office proposed changes to 34 fees, Fire 17 fees, Police 11 fees, and Planning 57 fees. Fields said there are 29 planning-related fees proposed to increase by more than 5 percent. She said the city aims to publish the proposed schedule for public notice, hold public hearings and make any adjustments prior to adopting rates for fiscal year 2026.
Council members questioned the long intervals between updates and pressed staff for more information. Council President Luke Cavanagh said the extended gap "feels like a complete failure on the city's part" given prior assurances that fee reviews would be annual. Director Lavoie said the delay was caused by time and resource constraints. Council members asked staff to calculate the net fiscal impact for each affected department if the proposals were adopted and to provide further detail by September 30.
Fields said the mayor had directed lower-than-full recovery on some items to remain consistent with regional comparables; for example a large temporary use permit (TUP) fee was reduced from a full-cost calculation to a proposed $250 fee to align with regional tolerance. Council members requested staff produce departmental revenue impact estimates and additional justification for recovery percentages before the public notice period.
