Office of the City Auditor

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Issued: June 2004

SUMMARY

In this project, we reviewed the City's process of setting and evaluating fee levels and structures, primarily for fees administered by general fund departments since 2002.

We found that the Budget Office has made significant improvements in setting and evaluating fees by guiding departments through a more comprehensive formal review of all fees. Management is in the process of formalizing these improvements in a written policy which establishes a full review on a two-year cycle.

We found that the process can be further improved by classifying fees based on their purpose, constituencies, cost basis, or other considerations. Further, the process can be improved by setting cost-recovery targets for each class of fees as a matter of policy, and evaluating all fees against a rigorous and consistent calculation of costs of service which starts with a full allocation of overhead costs to potential fee areas. The fee review process and the recommended improvements should be formalized in written policies and procedures that define roles for the entire process.

Click here to go to our audit request form to request a hard copy of this report (Report No. AU03319) or download the entire text of the Fee Structure Review audit report (Size: 228 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files.

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