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Environmental Health proposes multi‑year fee modernization, warns general fund currently subsidizes inspections
Summary
Director Jerry Oster told the Inyo County Board of Supervisors the environmental‑health fee schedule needs a comprehensive update to reflect modern costs and travel time, and proposed adopting a burdened hourly rate that would add vehicles, IT and county overhead to current salary‑based calculations.
Jerry Oster, director of Environmental Health, presented a proposal to modernize Chapter 7 (the department fee schedule) that the department says is 13 years old and contains outdated line items. Oster asked the board to authorize a process to: reclassify some facilities to risk‑based categories (low/medium/high risk instead of seat counts for restaurants), remove laboratory and public‑water items the county no longer performs, define environmental drilling and other new activities (e.g., lithium‑related permitting), and adopt a burdened hourly rate that includes vehicles, IT, county indirect costs and travel time.
Oster showed examples of how a partially burdened hourly rate would change common permits. He said an added 50% overhead on top of current wage‑based calculations would move the department hourly rate in his model to approximately $149 per hour and would raise some permit fees by as much as roughly 62% from current rates, though Inyo County fees would still remain below some neighboring counties (Mono County and Kern were cited for comparison). He also noted certain permit types—public pools, restaurants and hazardous materials oversight—would still be lower than neighboring counties even after an overhead adjustment.
Oster urged the board to allow staff to work with administration to decide a final overhead percentage, reassess time‑spent estimates per permit type, conduct stakeholder outreach to affected businesses, and return with an ordinance for next fiscal year (FY 2026–27). Assistant CAO said countywide fee‑policy work is underway and environmental health may be addressed as part of a broader effort or in a department‑by‑department approach.
Board members thanked staff for the detailed analysis and asked to be notified when public outreach begins. No formal vote was taken; the board directed staff to continue work and return with an ordinance and public outreach plan.
