Council signals support to raise city credit‑card convenience fee to 3% in annual fee update

Cathedral City’s finance staff presented an annual update to the user and regulatory fee schedule on April 8 and recommended routine inflation indexing plus several technical corrections.

Finance Director Kevin Beersack reviewed the fee‑study history, explained the city uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI for the Riverside‑San Bernardino‑Ontario area, and recommended an inflationary adjustment of 3.28% effective July 1. He also presented several cleanup items and one substantive proposal: increase the city’s credit‑card transaction processing convenience fee from 2.75% to 3.0. Beersack noted the city’s current average processing cost is about 3.2% and said staff proposed 3.0% after surveying neighboring jurisdictions.

Council members debated whether to set the convenience fee equal to the actual processor cost (3.2%) or to adopt 3.0%. Mayor Pro Tem Tim Gutierrez and other members argued for charging the actual cost; some members favored 3.0% as consistent with peer cities and because the revenue difference was modest (staff estimated a 0.2% increase would yield only modest additional revenue — on the order of low tens of thousands of dollars). Council indicated a consensus to proceed with 3.0% and directed staff to hold a public hearing on April 22 for formal adoption and the 60‑day ratification period.

Beersack told the council staff estimates the overall CPI indexing and small fee adjustments could produce up to $250,000 in additional revenue in FY 2026‑27, depending on adoption and final rates. No public comments were received during the council discussion; the item will return for formal adoption following the public hearing.