08-10-11 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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>i /r/ ai ?74,e >�,r,��a�ra 515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada. MN 55117 -1600 (651) 766 -4029 / FAX: (651) 766 ..4048 www.ci.1111 ]e- Canada. nut. u s MEMORANDUM MAYOR 13111 131esener COUNCIL Rick Montour John i(cis Michael Mt.(1mw Shelly Boss ADMINISTRA'1'OI? Joel R. Hanson TO: Mayor Biesener & Members of the City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator DATE: August 4, 2011 RE: Fire Re- inspection Fee Schedule One of our Goals for 2011 was to develop a fee schedule for tire reinspections as a way to recover costs from properties that do not cooperate in resolving tire code violations in a timely manner. (2011 Action Plan Attached) The basis for this goal was our Pire Marshal was spending an inordinate amount of time following up on code violations where repeated reinspections were occurring. According to his estimate, each reinspection took about one hour of time. Based on contracted rates, this equates to a cost of $31.44 per hour. Our Fire Marshal, Jim Lee, also compiled some information about what other cities do for lire inspection fees (copy attached). To date, the City has resisted implementing a general business license fee due to concerns of additional burdens to businesses and the time to bill and collect the fees decreases the potential gain. We have also attached is Jim's analysis of fire inspections since 2009. You will note that the number of reinspections has dropped dramatically. While implementing a reinspection fee will not likely be a revenue factor from a budgetary standpoint, it will be a potential deterrent to inappropriate behavior. Therefore, staff recommends we implement a fee schedule for each fire reinspection over one for each business use inspected. This would mean that the initial inspection and one reinspection would occur at no charge. Our suggested fee is $100 per reinspection to cover the Fire Marshal's time as well as staff time to deal with billing and collecting the fee. In the event the fee is not paid, this can be assessed to the property owner. It is important to note that the violator may be a tenant versus the property owner. 111 that event, the property owner would still be responsible for a tenant's non - compliance. If the Council feels a "business license" fee should be implemented based on the information attached, you should provide staff with that direction. 1