Staff says city bases some permit fees on Bureau Veritas inspection charges

Staff explained that the city pays inspection fees to Bureau Veritas and therefore bases some permit fees on that contractor’s charges. "So we base it off of their fees because I'm not gonna go negative for somebody for doing the rest of it," the staff member said, noting the city does not want to subsidize the cost of inspections out of general revenues.

Council discussed the need to be transparent about those pass-through costs and to include the inspection-fee basis in the revised schedule. Staff indicated some cases are handled on a case-by-case basis and that fees charged by the contractor influence how the city sets the permit fee bands.