City staff on Dec. 8 proposed changes to how Spokane updates development-services fees, recommending a different consumer-price index and a new rounding approach to limit disproportionate increases on small charges.

Tammy Palmquist outlined the recommendation to substitute the consultant’s original CPI U West measures with a localized CPI subset and to incorporate the Employment Cost Index "for government workers" so the yearly fee adjustments better reflect local wage trends. "We would like to propose to make that change in how we calculate that CPI," Palmquist said, adding that the revised indices would ‘‘level that curve off’’ and make yearly updates more predictable.

The presentation also addressed how the city rounds new fee amounts. Palmquist noted that rounding small fees up to the next dollar can exceed the intended percentage increase: "when you're looking at a $4 fee, rounding up to the next dollar is then increasing that fee by more than the 3% that was capped." She proposed rounding amounts under $100 to the nearest 5¢ or 10¢ and rounding amounts over $100 to the nearest dollar.

Council members asked staff to model an upper-limit backstop — for example, enforcing a "not to exceed" percent so rounding would not push a fee above the cap — and Palmquist said she would run those scenarios for council review. Members also asked whether fee changes should take effect Jan. 1; Palmquist requested the effective date be tied to the new financial software rollout (currently planned for around Jan. 26) to avoid repetitive manual updates.

Palmquist said staff will work with council and bring a refined proposal back in January after running the backstop and rounding analyses and consulting with other departments. The committee offered feedback on moving to nickel/dime rounding and stressed the value of minimizing administrative burden while preserving percentage limits on fee increases.

The committee did not take a formal vote during the presentation; staff requested direction and further time to return with detailed scenarios.