Committee refers ordinance to increase certain fire inspection fees to full Board

Malia Cohen, role not specified, presided over the Budget and Finance Committee as members considered an ordinance to raise certain San Francisco Fire Department fees and agreed without objection to refer the measure to the full Board with a positive recommendation.

The ordinance would amend the city’s fire code to increase fees for select Fire Department inspection and customer-requested services. Mark Corso, a Fire Department representative, told the committee the changes are intended to allow the department “to recover costs of providing these services given cost increase specifically, surrounding salary and benefit increases.” He said most of the affected fees are charged at the request of customers and that the increases would be approximately 4%. Corso added that, other than an overtime fee, the department has not raised those fees since February 2015.

Committee members asked for questions; none were raised. The chair opened public comment for the item, offered two-minute speaker slots, and recorded no public speakers. After discussion concluded, Malia Cohen moved to send the ordinance to the full Board with a positive recommendation and to place it on the Board agenda for July 11; Supervisor Yee seconded the motion and the committee adopted it without objection.

The referral means the full Board will next consider the ordinance; the committee record indicates the item is expected to appear on the July 11 supervisors’ agenda. No vote tally beyond "without objection" was recorded in the committee transcript, and the transcript does not list any amendments or budgetary breakdowns tied to the change.