Board members reviewed short-term rental (STR) registration fees and how fee income is allocated.

Curtis Barnes thanked staff for comparative data showing fee disparities across towns and suggested the town add counts of registered STRs to future analyses. Brian Turbot, the towns finance director (on the phone), explained the $250 STR registration fee is deposited into a revolving fund used to pay the GovOS registration platform (about $84,000 annually) and to fund a recently filled STR compliance position; when salaries are paid from a revolving fund, associated employee benefits must also be charged to that fund (SEG 185-206, 196-206). Turbot said the tenth edition of the state building code requires building inspectors to inspect short-term rentals, and the town expects to allocate roughly 50% of one building-inspector position (and associated benefits) to STR inspections as that workload ramps up (SEG 215-227). He said the current fee "is appropriately set" to cover required services but recommended periodic review.

Board members discussed whether to require year-round rental registration (Barnstable, Yarmouth, and Falmouth were cited as examples that require year-round registration) because many complaints arise from year-round rentals, not summer-only listings. Members asked for supplemental data on numbers of registered STRs in comparable towns and for continued evaluation of whether fees should be adjusted.

Whats next: staff will consider adding registration-count comparisons and the board will continue to review the fee structure periodically.