COUNTY OF SAN MATEO Inter-Departmental Correspondence
County Manager/Clerk of the Board
DATE:					June 12, 2003
BOARD MEETING DATE:					July 15, 2003
TO:		Honorable Board of Supervisors
FROM:		John L. Maltbie, County Manager
SUBJECT:		Revised Clerk of the Board Fee Schedule
Recommendation
Adopt a resolution revising the Clerk of the Board Fee Schedule.
Background
On July 14, 1987 the Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution authorizing the Clerk of the Board (COB) to collect fees for services including photocopying, duplication of tape recordings of Board of Supervisors proceedings and for copies of the County Charter, Boards and Commissions and Ordinance Code. Since that date, no revisions to the fee schedule have been made.
Discussion
To meet the reduced FY 2003-04 Net County Cost target, the COB is proposing updating its fee schedule to reflect actual costs to provide services to the public and County departments. The revised fee schedule includes several new fees including agenda subscriptions (Government Code §54954.1), certification of documents (Government Code § 26833), and comparison of papers (Government Code § 26837). Although not required by statute, the COB also provides the service of searching its records to compile documents. The COB proposes to charge a fee for this service. The fee schedule is revised as follows:
Description			Current Fee	Proposed Fee
Copies of Documents			$0.20/per page	$.10/per page
Duplicate tape records
	- tape provided by County		$5.00/per tape	$12.00/per tape
	- tape provided by requestor		$3.00/per tape	$8.00/per tape
County Charter			$2.00/per copy	$2.00/per copy
Boards and Commissions			$3.00/per copy	$3.00/per copy
Ordinance Code			$50.00/without binder (delete from COB fee schedule)
			$62.50/with binder (delete from COB fee schedule)
County Budget				$25.00/ per copy
Agenda Subscription				$100.00/annually
Certification of Documents				$1.75/per certification
Comparison of papers				$0.50/per page
(in addition to the fee for the certification)
Records Search (not a required service)				$8.00/per 15 minutes
By law, no fee charged by the COB may exceed the cost of providing a required service or the direct cost of required duplication. All proposed fees, including agenda subscriptions, historical records search requests and certification of documents, meet this legal requirement, and are based on the actual costs to provide the service. This includes the fee for searching for documents, which is not a required service.
The amount charged for copying has been decreased by $.10 cents to reflect the actual costs currently charged by the office as well as all other County departments (per Resolution 58719, 10/11/94). The Ordinance Code fee is not included in the COB's fee schedule since the office is no longer responsible for maintaining and printing the Ordinance Code; these duties are handled by the County Counsel's Office. The fees shown above are consistent with what other Bay Area Counties are charging. (Refer to Attachment A)
Many of the photocopying and historical records requests conducted by the COB can be downloaded from the County's web site, including Board of Supervisors agendas and supporting documents, County Charter and Boards and Commissions. The County Ordinance Code is also available on the County Counsel's web page. The COB will make every effort to notify the public and departments of these online services.
Vision Alignment
The revision to the COB fee schedule keeps the commitment of responsive, effective and collaborative government and goal number 20: Government decisions are based on careful consideration of future impact, rather than temporary relief or immediate gain.
Fiscal Impact
COB fees are anticipated to generate $10,000 in FY 2003-04. This amount has been included in the County Manager/Clerk of the Board's Recommended Budget.