HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo to City Council Molitor, Grisham & Hester, P.A.
Attorneys Not In Partnership
John R. Molitor i
Debra M. Grisham*
Judy G. Hester* lit RECEWED
*Also licensed in Illinois ., QUI 11 VP MEMORANDUM --\ U DOGS
TO Members, Carmel Common Council s.
FROM John R. Molitor jr?- \.tom
DATE October 4, 2000
RE Adjustment of Filing Fees by Department of Community Services (DOCS)
Steve Engelking, DOCS Director, asked me to re-examine the adjustment provision in the fee
update ordinance that is currently pending before you. There was a question whether the fee
schedule itself needs to be in the City Code, along with whether the Director can adjust the fees
from time to time without the review and approval of the Plan Commission and the Council
In my opinion, the best practice for a community is for the Plan Commission to establish the fee
schedule and to then have that schedule approved by ordinance of the legislative body. This
practice conforms with both the Planning and Zoning Law (Indiana Code §36-7-4-411 plan
commission may establish reasonable fees) as well as the Home Rule Law(Indiana Code §36-1-
3-8 license fees, service charges and user fees must be reasonably related to administrative
costs or reasonable and just rates) When the fee schedule is approved by ordinance, state law
requires that the ordinance be codified (Indiana Code §36-1-5-3) While it would be lawful for you
to incorporate material by reference into your City Code (Indiana Code §36-1-5-4), case law
indicates that you can incorporate only material that is in existence at the time of passage of the
ordinance It would not be lawful to attempt to incorporate future changes (those not yet published
or in existence) into your Code.
Based on the above, my recommendation has been that the Council approve an initial fee
schedule and include only that initial schedule in your City Code In my opinion, it will then be a
lawful delegation of authority under the Home Rule Law for you to authorize the Director to make
annual adjustments to the codified schedule, so long as the process for making the adjustments
(a) is clearly spelled out in the Code, (b) is strictly followed by the Director, and (c) results in a fee
schedule that is reasonably related to the administrative costs incurred in running DOCS, the Plan
Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals It will not be necessary for the Code to be updated
each year to include the adjusted schedule, so long as the adjusted schedule is reasonably
available to the public through DOCS or the City's web site
cc. .Steve Engelking, DOCS Director
Douglas Haney, City Attorney
11711 North Meridian Street ♦ Suite 200 p Carmel, IN 46032
(317) 843-5511 o Fax (317) 843-5514
johnrmohtor @prodigy.net♦ debragrisham 1 @prodigy.net e, hester4586 @aol corn