Benicia staff projects nearly $600,000 annual cost to run industrial safety program; council asks for alternatives

City staff presented a preliminary cost and fee model for the newly adopted Industrial Health and Safety ordinance but did not ask council to adopt fees tonight.

Fire Chief Josh Chadwick said staff used Willdan Financial Services and existing fully burdened city labor rates to estimate annual implementation costs at $598,007 and proposed allocating fees across five risk groups based on hazardous material quantities at 13 facilities. Chadwick emphasized the ordinance limits fees to actual costs and excludes activities already charged by county programs; he also noted that the air‑quality monitoring program described in the ordinance would not be charged to facilities under the fee schedule.

Council members questioned whether a risk‑based model is fair when two facilities require the same tasks and urged staff to produce a task‑based, workload‑by‑facility breakdown. Several councilmembers and public commenters suggested alternative approaches: invoice‑recovery for incident investigations, a fixed administrative component plus incident add‑ons, or applying a fraction of full cost (an example discussed was 85% of maximum recoverable costs). Staff committed to returning with a consultant‑prepared fee study presenting multiple methodologies and greater transparency on how fees were calculated.

Industry and community voices at the meeting were split: the Industrial Association warned some smaller companies could pay from roughly $6,400 to $64,000 under the draft, while resident speakers and health professionals argued for full measures to protect public health. No final decision on fees was made; council directed staff to return with options for formal adoption before fees take effect.