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Home My WebLink About2002 12 09 Regular H Pilot Project Licensing System 120902 Regular H Pilot Project Licensing System COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM H CONSENT INFORMATIONAL PUBLIC HEARING REGULAR X December 9,2002 Meeting MGR ~EPT Authorization REQUEST: City Manager requesting the City Commission to approve a Pilot Project with Seminole County to develop a seamless occupational license and tax system. PURPOSE: This agenda item is needed for the City Manager to get Commission authority to pursue this pilot project to determine the extent to which a seamless system is possible. CONSIDERATIONS: The County Tax Collector's Office desires to simplify the levying and administration of occupational licensing. In that regard they simplified their tax levy from numerous categories to two. Additionally, they desire the cities to collect their tax so that the users do not need to go to Sanford to apply and pay for the license. GOAL: The goal of the pilot project would be to determine two things. 1. The degree to which the City and County ordinance structure could be unified. 2. The degree to which the administration of the system can be made seamless to the user. PROJECT TEAM: The project team would be made up of City and County Staff and a Consultant. The role of the Consultant would be to analyze the two fee schedules to explore the degree to which the two tax structures could be unified while being revenue neutral to the City. The City has a proposal from G.S.G. to perform the revenue analysis of the City's occupational license structure for an amount not to exceed $10,000. The balance of the study will initially be performed by City and County staff. 120902 Regular H Pilot Project Licensing System Proiect Coordinator City Manager/Tax Collector I I City Staff Project Tax Collector Consultant Louise Frangoul Government Paul Warsicki Dennis Franklin Services Group - Bill Allan Max Epstein Skip Burnside Linda Hedrich Joanne Dalka PROJECT SCHEDULE: 1. Commission approval 2. Complete study with recommendations 3. Commission approval 4. Implementation December 2002 March 2003 March 2003 April 2003 FUNDING: Cost would be limited to a consultant contract in the amount of $10,000. The source of funds would be a supplemental appropriation from General Fund Reserves. RECOMMENDATIONS: It is recommended that the Commission authorize the City Manager to proceed with the study phase of the project, enter into a contract with G.S.G. to conduct the feasibility and revenue analysis of the City occupational license structure, and provide a supplemental appropriation from the General Fund Reserves in the amount of $1 0,000. ATTACHMENTS: a) G.S.G. Consultant Proposal b) Paul Warsicki, Assistant Tax Collector Memorandum of November 20,2002. c) Seminole County Mayors/Managers Agenda of November 21,2002. COMMISSION ACTION: GSG Government Services Group, Inc. Dedicated to soMng funding and setvice delivery issues In the pubHc sector (;'O\....rIlUll:nf !=:t:I'\.'i(Ocs f;~'()UII..llle. 1500 Mahan Drive, Suite 250, Tallahassee, FL 32308. Phone (850) 681-3717. Fax (850) 224- 7206 . E-mail: Qsq@Qovserv.com December 4, 2002 VIA FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION Mr. Ronald McLemore, City Manager 1126 E. S.R. 434 Winter Springs, Florida 32708 Re: Scope of Services for Performance of Business & Occupational Licensing Analysis for the City of Winter Springs (the "City'') Dear Mr. McLemore: This correspondence is written to present a proposal for Government Services Group, Inc. ("GSG'') to provide specialized assistance to the City of Winter Springs and its staff in the analysis of business and occupational license revenues. It is our understanding that the City is interested in identifying the effect that adopting the County's business and occupational licensing schedule would have on City revenues. Accordingly, we have provided a scope of services and fee that would allow GSG to perform such an analysis. Attached as Appendix A is a work plan that articulates the scope of services required to assist the City in performing the analysis. We have also attached in Appendix B an hours and fees matrix for the scope of services to assist the City in understanding the magnitude of the work effort required to perform such an analysis. Appendix C is a list of the project deliverables and a delivery schedule, as well as a payment schedule. For services provided by GSG, we will work under a fIXed fee professional fee arrangement described in the attached scope of services on a percent-completed basis. A fixed fee method of compensation eliminates any uncertainty in the total fee. GSG We look forward to working with the City of Winter Springs on this very important project. If you or any other C~y official have any questions, please feel free to telephone e~her Skip Burnside or me. Sincerely, Robert E. Sheets RES/sob Attachment APPENDIX A SCOPE OF SERVICES The following scope of services provides the major tasks required to prepare a central service cost allocation plan for the City of Winter Springs: Task 1. Data request and project initiation Prepare data request letter identifying business and occupational licensing data in an automated format needed to prepare the analysis. Conduct meeting with City staff to develop a consensus on project tasks to be performed, data to be provided, project time frames and cost plan documents to be provided. Deliver the data request letter to City staff at the meeting.. Task 2. Receive and review data and format for analysis City business and occupational licensing data will be downloaded for analysis along with corresponding actual revenue amounts and contrasted against County business and occupational licensing fee schedules. Task 3. Perform analysis The data will be analyzed and resulting revenue projections and fee schedule revisions required to maintain current revenue levels will be established. Task 4. Prepare comparative analysis memorandum/report A draft report documenting the process and providing the analysis and results of the analysis will be prepared and provided to the City for review and comment. Upon receipt of the City's comments, a memorandum/report will be prepared and transmitted to the City. Task 6. Prepare presentation & present results to City Officials A presentation of the report will be prepared and presented to the appropriate City Officials as determined by the City. Fees and Costs For professional consulting services provided and printing of the cost plan document pursuant to the proposed scope of services, a fixed fee professional services fee of $9,900 is proposed. A fixed fee method of compensation eliminates uncertainty in the total fee. The hours and fees matrix on the following pages describes the level of work effort for each task. Travel related expenses associated with Task 1, Project initiation, are included in the amount provided under the assumption that two visits to the City will be required. City of Winter Springs Business & Occupational License Analysis Any additional visits will be require a modification of this agreement and will be subject to additional payment by the City. City of Winter Springs Business & Occupational License Analysis APPENDIX B HOURS AND FEES MATRIX City of Winter Springs Business & Occupational License Analysis 12 $1,500 Task 2 - Receive and review data and format for anal sls 8 $1 ,000 Task 3 - Perform anal sis 32 $4 000 Task 4 - Pre is memorandum/re ort 8 $1,000 Task 5 - Pre are resentation & resent results to CI Officials 12 $1,500 1 Ex enses are calculated at 10% of rofessional service fees and Include two site visits to the C' 2 Professional service fees are calculated at $125 er hour. City of Winter Springs Business & Occupational License Analysis APPENDIX C DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE City of Winter Springs Business & Occupational License Analysis Deliverable Schedule Payment Schedule Notice to Proceed by the By December 16, 2002 City Project Initiation By December 30,2002 Draft Report By February 4, 2002 90% of Fixed Fee Presentation Upon date agreed 10% of Fixed Fee Upon by the City City of Winter Springs Business & Occupational License Analysis ... MEMORANDUM TO: Honorable Seminole County City Mayors and City Managers FROM: Paul Warsicki, Seminole County Assistant Tax Collector Cindy Hall, Seminole County Fiscal Services Director DATE: November 20, 2002 RE: Seminole County Occupational License tquity Study Seminole County Commissioners have conceptually approved moving to a much less complicated Occupational License methodology. The selection of an Equity Study Commission, comprised of business representative's within the county, has begun and will be submitted to the Commission for approval. The purpose ofthis committee is to provide input from a business perspective. The goals for the new ordinance are to simplify it, make it more equitable, and revenue neutral. We believe the aggregate of these goals will result in a large 'improvement in customer service. The plan being considered: (1) . Two types oflicenses: A. Not Regulated - $25.00 B. Regulated - $45.00 ("regulated" defined as state licensed, county certification, or state regulation required) (2) One license per business location (primary function) The current Seminole County Occupational License is issued by the Tax Collector. The fee paid by the County (to the Tax Collector) is approximately $2.50 per account. This process requires each business located in a municipality to make two separate transactions. A new business must make separate application and provide duplicate information. /~,l. Our suggestion is that each city enter an interlocal agreement with the county to add the county fee, as a line item to the city's occupational license. Monthly, each city would report and submit payment to the Tax Collector for the accounts collected. $2.50 per account is retained by the city as payment for administration. The primary benefit of this plan is to improve service to the business community. We do not envision additional burdens to city workers since: A. City staff are already well trained, B. No additional forms cost, C. No additional postage during renewal period. The additional income should offset a one-time cost to adjust any existing software or procedure. Based on the Occupational year-end 2001 data, we forecast the city administrative income to be: CITY Lake Mary Casselberry Sanford Oviedo Longwood Altamonte Springs Winter Springs COUNTY ACCOUNTS 987 1,633 2,398 1,592 2,374 3,617 1,162 REVENUE @ $2.50 $2,467 4,082 5,995 3,980 5,935 9,042 2,905 All cities will continue to receive the statutory population share distributed by the Tax Collector in addition to the administration fees. Since the Tax Collector's collection fee will be reduced, the distribution to the cities will gain another moderate revenue increase. The question - would your city be willing to further evaluate the possibility of this joint effort? Our plan is to implement at the beginning of the next Occupational License fiscal year (August, 2003). Seminole County Govemment and the Seminole County Tax Collector's staff would work with your staff to make this customer service improvement. Individual meetings with each city to discuss the partnership will be scheduled by Cindy Hall, Seminole County Fiscal Services Director, at 407-665-7172. DEPARTMENT OF FISCAL SERVICES Seminole County Mayors and Managers November 21, 2002 · Seminole County is restructuring its occupational license ordinance. The current Occupational License Ordinance was essentially passed in 1995 to comply with FS 205.0535 allowing a reclassification and restructure of fees charged for local occupational licenses. . The license classification structure, however, received few updates from the ordinance passed in 1980, and may in fact largely resemble the ordinance passed in 1972. . We are proposing several significant improvements to the ordinance, primarily: Simplification reducing our current number of classifications from 49 categories and 812 types of businesses to 2. One license per business. · An additional proposal by the Tax Collector is one-st9P shopping for city/county licenses. This idea would be a tremendous benefit to business owners, and is possible due to the simplicity of the proposed license structure. 1101 East First Street Sanford FL 32771-1468 Telephone (407) 665-7176 Fax (407) 665-7183