Primary Department: Management and Budget
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Daniel Ramos
Secondary Department: Choose an item.
Secondary Department Head/Elected Official:
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Policy
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
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Request for discussion of a draft countywide fee update policy that would ensure fees charged by the county are reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
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Background and Discussion:
Some fees charged by County departments are set by state statute while other fee amounts are discretionary and set by Commissioners Court. There is no countywide policy specifying the timing or frequency for reviewing and updating these discretionary fees. Many of the County’s fees were recently updated while others haven’t been revised for many years.
OMB is requesting discussion on a proposed fee update policy intended to provide more visibility into the fees charged by the County and to promote regular updates to ensure fee amounts stay up to date and support cost recovery objectives. Based on feedback from the Court, a final version may be presented for approval on a subsequent agenda.
Expected Impact:
The proposal calls for an online fees portal that will help county staff and citizens more easily locate County fee amounts and improve transparency. Fees are expected to be increased more frequently, resulting in additional revenue to the County. Because many of the County’s highest revenue-generating fees have been updated recently, however, this policy is not expected to result in large near-term revenue increases for the County or large cost increases for most users of County services. Specific increase recommendations and resulting impacts would be presented for Court approval at a later date.
Alternative Options:
Alternative # 1: Maintain the status quo under which individual departments largely determine when they will update fees and the methodology they use to determine fee amounts.
Alternative #2: Adopt a policy under which individual departments are required to present fee update recommendations to Court annually but eliminate OMB’s oversight role contemplated in the proposed countywide fee update policy.
County Strategic Plan Goal: N/A
County Strategic Plan Objective: N/A
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Economy Initiative (Goal 3): Choose an item.
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Housing Initiative (Goal 6): Choose an item.
Additional notes related to the Strategic Plan:
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Anticipated Court Date: 1/29/2026
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): Click or tap to enter a date.
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or ARPA related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Daniel Ramos, Executive Director, Office of Management & Budget
Attachments (if applicable): 1-29-2026 Agenda - Proposed Fee Update Policy (DRAFT).pdf