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Norwalk to schedule public hearing on updated user and regulatory fees after cost-recovery study
Summary
A consultant'led fee study recommended fee updates to better match service costs; the council directed staff to schedule a public hearing and asked staff to add an annual index and transaction-fee details to the adoption packet.
City staff and a consultant presented the results of a user and regulatory fee study to the Norwalk City Council on March 4, 2025, recommending a series of fee updates to better align permit, development and service charges with the city's cost of providing those services and to capture recurring administrative costs.
Jennifer Hernandez, senior analyst in the finance department, told the council the city had not completed a comprehensive user-fee review since February 2007 and described the study as a cross-departmental effort. "Typically, these studies are conducted every 3 to 5 years," Hernandez said, explaining the purpose is to update fees to reflect current labor, software and operating costs.
Brian Brown of ClearSource Consulting walked council through the fundamentals of cost-recovery policy and the study's outcomes, saying the proposed adjustments would scale development-related fees to project complexity and consolidate some minor permit fees to simplify administration. Brown said Norwalk's proposed fees would remain competitive in the region and that the city could expect approximately $1,400,000 in additional annual cost recovery if the council adopts the recommendations.
On payment processing, staff reported the city processed roughly $5,000,000 in credit-card transactions last fiscal year and paid about $122,000 in processing fees; finance staff said the city currently absorbs those card fees. Council members discussed a proposed passthrough credit-card processing fee that would apply only to card payments and requested staff include the expected per-transaction charge in the adoption packet.
Council members asked for an automatic annual inflation adjustment to reduce the need for frequent full studies; Brown and staff recommended codifying an annual indexing approach tied to a labor or CPI measure and suggested a full study every three to five years. Several council members also asked that punitive fines and code-violation fees be reviewed in a subsequent study because those adjustments can require municipal code changes and coordination with the city attorney.
Mayor Tony Ayala asked staff to schedule a public hearing on the fee changes. City Manager Jesus Gomez confirmed staff would do so; the council provided direction to set notice and a public hearing date and to return with a draft resolution and additional details on the credit-card passthrough fee and any recommended annual indexing.
Ending: The council did not adopt fee changes at the March 4 meeting but agreed to schedule a public hearing to consider the consultant's recommendations and asked staff to return with more detail, including projected revenue impacts, implementation timing and the proposed credit-card processing charge.
