Lake County supervisors approve automatic inflation for fire mitigation fees tied to construction-cost index

The Lake County Board of Supervisors on June 4 approved a resolution asking the county to implement fire mitigation fees with automatic annual inflation tied to the Engineering News-Record building cost index.

Supervisor Sabatier, who introduced the item, told the board the index — not the consumer price index — produced a 4.3376% increase over the past year and that fire districts add a 2% administrative surcharge when calculating fees. "This year it has gone up ... 4.3376%," Sabatier said, explaining how districts apply the percentage to their prior base year fee and then add the surcharge.

Sabatier flagged a small clerical issue in a previously uploaded resolution file and said the file was corrected; she emphasized the change involved differences of pennies and did not alter the resolution's title or substantive text. Using Kelseyville as an example, she said a prior base of $1.49 per square foot (for 2025/26) becomes about $1.55 after applying the index and roughly $1.58 after the 2% administrative surcharge (about 3 cents).

A board member asked how the automatic inflation rate is calculated; Sabatier said the county uses the Engineering News-Record building cost index (20-city average) and that the index data are publicly available online for verification. Sabatier also thanked staff member Carolyn Purdy for help preparing the numbers.

The chair opened the hearing to public comment; no members of the public spoke either in the room or online. Supervisor Sabatier moved to adopt the resolution. The board recorded votes from Supervisors Owen, Sabatier, Crandall and Rasmussen, each voting "Aye," and the motion carried unanimously (4-0). The resolution asks the county to implement the mitigation fees under the Lake County Fire Mitigation Fee Ordinance with the automatic inflation method described in the hearing.