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Pullman council updates fees, amends budget and frees $3.5M in capital funds for operations
Summary
Council updated multiple fee schedules (right-of-way disturbance permits, fire permits, community development fees), adopted 2025–2026 budget amendments, and uncommitted roughly $3.5 million from CIP reserves to cover 2026 operating needs.
At the Dec. 16 meeting, several staff-led items changed fees and budget allocations. Public Works proposed an updated right-of-way disturbance fee schedule (Resolution R-53-25) that would raise a typical base permit fee for simple projects from $15 to $50 and a base fee example from $45 to $130; staff said the previous schedule dated to 1981 and needed updating to reflect staff time and inspection costs.
Fire Marshal Darren Jones presented a fire fee schedule update (Resolution R-56-25) that used a 2.5% guideline increase and introduced a reduced permitting fee for mobile food vendors to encourage festival participation. Community Development presented a fee update under Titles 13, 16 and 17 (Resolution R-57-25) intended to increase fees roughly 10% with a minimum $10 increase; staff noted the new fees still do not fully recover internal costs.
Finance staff also presented ordinance 25-27 to amend the 2025–2026 biennial budget to account for additional revenue and expenditures (FAA grant passthroughs, downtown project grants, donations and CIP items) and moved to uncommit $3,504,673 from the capital improvement project/general fund reserve to provide operating cash for 2026, which the council approved. Staff said the uncommitment maintains a reasonable reserve while allowing funds to cover next year's projected shortfall.
