Bloomington City Council to vote on user fee study

Posted on September 14, 2015
Bloomington City Council
The Bloomington City Council will vote on a $67,000 study into the city’s user fees Monday night. (Photo by Joe Ragusa/WJBC)

By Joe Ragusa

BLOOMINGTON – The city of Bloomington is looking into bringing in a consulting firm to examine the fees it charges for certain services.

The study would cost the city nearly $67,000 if approved. City Manager David Hales said there are a couple reasons why the proposed study can’t be done internally.

“One: We don’t have the personnel that has the time to do such a study,” Hales said. “But even more so, we don’t have the expertise on hand. We don’t have personnel that have performed such a detailed analysis.”

Hales said a study like this hasn’t been done since he started working here.

“In fact, (city staff) can’t find any record as to when the last time many of these fees were ever evaluated to make sure we’re achieving full cost recovery,” Hales said.

The study would be conducted by Fiscal Choice Consulting of Northfield, Illinois.

The city council will also discuss a proposed one-percent sales tax increase like the one Normal approved last week. Public comments will be taken at the meeting Monday night, but the council won’t take any action until a special city council meeting Sept. 21.

Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].

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