Finance Committee Agenda and Packet 2025 04 17

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City Council Finance Committee Meeting Minutes March 20, 2025 Page 5of6 There was a discussion around what the review should entail and the committee chair asked staff to just look at the actuals for the period, take the list of personnel costs, consultant costs, etc. to get the actual costs for the rebuild period; then add up all the permit fees for the rebuild period, including non -fire permits, and see if the city collected what it cost to run the department or if we collected less or more than operating expenses to provide a rough sense for a starting place. The Interim City Manager commented that it is important for everyone to understand that this will be a rough estimate only. Councilmember Hoefner agreed that it will be a ballpark figure, noting that he doesn't think it's possible to do a review to a high degree of accuracy either in-house or by a consultant. Public Comments: Councilmember Kern commented that she brought up this conversation in November 2024. She commented on costs related to collected permit fees and asked the finance committee to follow the lead of Superior and Boulder County and consider between the 33 percent and 47 percent refund in permit fees to these residents as part of the last piece of recovery. Councilmember Kern commented that this originated through resident requests of councilmembers of the time, noting that Superior responded immediately to residents. Mayor Leh commented that the decision to use a consultant would be on staff. Councilmember Hoefner responded that approving a consultant contract would require council approval. Mayor Leh asked if the analysis could be done in-house because it's a lot of money to spend on a consultant. The Interim City Manager responded that this kind of analysis could theoretically be done in- house. As with the original fee study, staff is recommending that this be done by a third party with expertise because of the sensitive nature of this topic. She noted that, if the Finance Committee wants to pursue an in-house reconciliation, one of the considerations will be what items in Council's work plan should be reprioritized to give staff capacity for this activity or if this is something we want to consider in Council Work Planning. Mayor Leh commented that his recollection was that he thought it was worthwhile to do an analysis, which is entirely separate from what is to be done with an analysis. He does not agree that there was a decision to rebate those amounts. He added that if there is further work that needs to be done on this, a question is whether council will be asked to relitigate the whole thing because these were decisions that were made some time ago. He commented that the decision of the past council was clearly for an analysis that might or might not lead to some further action. Mayor Leh commented that what was discussed at the time was for an in-house analysis, not for an outside consultant. If that is the recommendation of staff, Council can discuss it. He asked the Director of Community Development for input. The Director of Community Development commented that during the time in question he recused himself from a lot of the discussions because he was personally affected by the Marshall Fire. Finance Director Updates: None. Closing Ouestions/Comments from the Committee: 7/69