Finance Committee to Study Fee Increases

Confronted with an outside consultant’s report recommending increases in fees levied in connection with municipal services, the City Council voted this week to consign the matter to its Finance Committee for further discussion and recommendations.

“Before we go off and start raising fees . . . we first of all need to decide whether or not we need to be [providing] these services,” Mayor John W. Hedges said.

Under consideration was a report, originally commissioned almost a year ago, by the national accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick, which reviewed the cost of operating 156 fee-supported municipal services.

In general, the report proposes adjusting fees so that the full cost of providing the service is recovered. Most services that are not wholly supported by the current city fees are subsidized with general taxes, city officials said.

The finance committee, which includes Hedges and council members Dennis D. O’Neil and Norma Glover, is scheduled to meet Oct. 4 to discuss the report.

They will report back to the council with their findings at the Oct. 28 council meeting.