In September, county commissioners set a public hearing for Tuesday, October 28 at 10 a.m. to consider changes in fees charged by the county for various services. Reached after the meeting, Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said the list of possible fee changes was not available at that time. Powers said departments were asked to get the details to him by the Thursday before that meeting so the information can be included in the county board packet, however Powers said it is not mandated that they do so.
The state statute (MN 373.41) that requires the county to hold a hearing before increasing fees does not require that the county publish a list of those fees prior to the meeting. Auditor Powers said he asks department heads to get that information to him in advance of the meeting so the county board knows what it will be considering.
However, Powers said there have been rare occasions when a request to change a fee has been introduced— and adopted—at the public hearing.
Powers also said there are some items that the county charges for which no public hearing is necessary by statute, such as some services of the county highway department or Public Health and Human Services.
Examples of fees discussed in the past are an increase from $50 to $60 for the blue emergency signs for driveways in 2004, which was then increased to $75 in 2005.
Also instituted in 2005 was a fee for chemical dependency assessment at $125 and several fees for civil process administration at the Sheriff ’s Department.
In 2006, after purchasing its first large format printer, the county instituted a printing fee of $5 per page and enacted a charge for combining and/ or splitting tax parcels. The fees set were $30 and $60, respectively.
At press time, Auditor Powers said he had received a few requests for changes to the fee schedule, from Planning and Zoning, the Recorder’s Office, the Auditor’s Office and the MIS (Information Services) Department. The Recorder’s and Auditor’s offices are deleting fees—including the ones for combining and splitting tax parcels established in 2006. Powers explained these fees were found not to be necessary as the cost of combining and splitting tax parcels is included in other fees.
The Management Information Systems (MIS) Department is changing the cost of large format printing— the cost will now be $2 per square foot of printed material. MIS is also increasing the set up time for the GIS wide format printer which is currently $10 for the first hour and $40 per hour thereafter. The new fee will be $40 per hour after the first 15 minutes, subsequently charged in 15-minute increments.
The only new fee proposed at press time is from Planning and Zoning which is seeking to enact a new Land Use Permit-Change of Use fee of $100.
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