Council favors restricted special‑revenue fund for rental‑registration fees

Finance Director Crystal Feist briefed council on the residential rental registration program and a choice between accounting in the General Fund or creating a restricted Special Revenue Fund. She explained the amended ordinance and fee schedule: an annual long‑term registration fee of $35 and an annual short‑term registration fee of $350, plus a $50 late fee, and described expected program needs. "To effectively administer and enforce this expanded program, additional resources will be needed," Feist said, listing proposed staffing including two code enforcement officers, two police officers, a research specialist, and an administrative technician as well as vehicles, enhanced data‑gathering software, and outside services for monitoring and outreach.

Council members argued for restricting revenues to program needs to demonstrate transparency and to address criticism that the fee was a revenue grab. Council asked staff to calculate detailed cost baselines tied to hours of enforcement and to present metrics showing enforcement outputs (cases opened, compliance rates, fines collected) after staff proposal. Staff estimated possible revenue at scale (if full compliance) and discussed how the fund would be used only for program costs unless council later authorizes other uses.

Decision: Council indicated support for creating a Special Revenue Fund to hold registration revenues and directed staff to develop a program budget, performance metrics and a future budget amendment reflecting staffing and monitoring tools.