Item 09 - Rental Registry Fee Study

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3 regulatory activity must not exceed the reasonable cost of providing the service. To ensure this requirement is satisfied, the City is conducting the fee study. The Fee Study will determine the Rental Registry Fee to be adopted by the City Council and paid by landlords to finance the Program's reasonable and necessary expenses. The Work Plan accounts for the best practices outlined above in jurisdictions with existing rent stabilization and just cause eviction programs across the State of California while adhering to the guiding principles approved by the City Council. Specifically: 1) The Rental Registry Fee will be as low and lean as possible as to avoid any unnecessary burdens on tenants; 2) Analyze the efficiency and provide a cost comparison of utilizing a hybrid of services between consultants and city staff; and 3) Identify and analyze ways to build upon other existing services across the City to administer the Ordinance. This Work Plan is considered a key component of the administrative framework needed to proceed with program implementation. The Work Plan will serve as the baseline of information needed by Revenue & Cost Specialists, LLC to establish a Rental Registry Fee to offset and ultimately fully recover the costs of Program administration and enforcement. Most cities that have adopted rent stabilization and just cause eviction programs have established annual rental registry fees to recover the cost of program administration and enforcement. Based on this precedence, user fees are established in circumstances such as this, where unique benefits are established for a subset of individuals. Under the law, such fees must bear a nexus to the actual costs incurred in administering the program. The following Work Plan is intended to serve as the primary nexus for the development of a fee to support the administration and enforcement of the Ordinance. Page 64 of 130